It is widely acknowledged that school leadership plays a major role in educational education reform. While the policy directions for schools are decided at the higher/central levels of the education system, their success often depends on understanding, motivation, and actions of leaders at the school level. In this context this paper outlines an initial exploration based on data which includes the results of a workshop designed to reveal the views and experiences of a number of school principals through structured discussion activities supplemented by a small number of interviews and focus group discussions with school principals. The main aim of the workshop, which took place in Astana in October 2012, was to explore school principals’ views about the current reforms in Kazakhstan and their roles in implementing and mediating reforms at the school level. The analysis supports a discussion about the role of school principals and how they are responding to the challenge of managing change within the context of the currently programme of education reform. The paper informs future research which aims to focus more intensively on the key role of school principals in ensuring that reform makes a difference to classroom practice in schools.