This series is dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis. Scholars, both young and established, are invited to publish original analyses, but we especially encourage young scholars to contribute to Theory and Research in Educational Administration. This first issue provides a mix of beginning and established scholars and a range of theoretical perspectives. Eight separate but related studies were selected for this first issue. Three of the research pieces deal with the intended and unintended consequences of policy and political initiatives in schools. Do high-stakes accountability environments threaten the potential of learning organizations? Marks and Printy grapple with that question. Not surprisingly, they anticipate the latent dysfunctional consequences of high-stakes accountability as they provide a careful analysis of urban school district responses to state policies. Well-intended initiatives produced unintended consequences that threatened the capacity for organizational learning in these schools. In a similar fashion, Jones and Malen’s findings suggest that political strategies that use insider dynamics can foster successful enactment of reforms but often at a cost of undermining efforts to implement the policy. Song and Miskel focus their analysis on national reading policy. An examination of national interests groups and policymakers suggests that an assessment of various groups’ influence is necessary if policy actors are to make sensible judgments in choosing allies and building coalitions for effective actions. Two of the papers are informed by contingency theory. Ogawa and Studer are concerned with the relationship between the school and its community. They propose that both buffering and bridging strategies enable schools to deal with parents effectively. Because schools depend on parents for resources, they bridge to parents in cooperative fashion, but because parents often pose uncertainty, schools also buffer parent influence by limiting their access. Yet, there is divergence from contingency theory because schools depend primarily on parents to provide socio-cultural rather than material resources; hence, schools often use strategies that shape rather than diminish dependence on parents. Rowan, also draws ideas from contingency theory to examine the extent to which the nature of teachers’ instructional work affects patterns of instructional management in schools. His data support the explanation that teachers who face increased task variety actively work to construct "organic" patterns of instructional management to reduce task uncertainty and to increase workplace motivation and commitment. Three papers examine teachers in schools. Rowan is intrigued by the variation in the nature of teachers’ work both in terms of task variety and task uncertainty. He finds that teachers do not see their work as many organizational theorists do, that is, as a non-routine form of work; in fact, teachers view teaching as either as a routine task or "expert task." In spite of the fact that many teachers endorsed a constructivist view of teaching, few concluded it was a non-routine task. Moreover, teachers in different disciplines have different views about both the nature of academic knowledge and desirable teaching practices. Both Goddard and Hoy and his colleagues use social cognitive theory to develop an argument of the importance of collective efficacy in positively influencing student achievement. Hoy, Smith, and Sweetland build on their earlier work to demonstrate that collective efficacy of schools is pivotal in explaining student achievement in a sample of rural schools. Goddard shows that that collective efficacy is also an important predictor of the practice of involving teachers in important school decisions. He concludes that the more we learn how school practices are related to collective efficacy, the more we will know about what school leaders

Both the theory and practice of educational administration have undergone major changes in recent years. There is now more theoretical diversity in the field than at any other time, with influences from traditional and post-positivist science, subjectivism, ethics, critical theory and cultural studies. Similarly, social, political and economic factors have brought about new approaches to practice. Schools administration in particular is increasingly being dominated by decentralization and pressures for accountability on curriculum and educational outcomes. Educational Administration is the first Australian text to offer a comprehensive survey of theory, context and practice. It includes chapters from leading Australian scholars such as Richard Bates, Hedley Beare, Brian Caldwell, Gabriele Lakomski and Fazal Rizvi.

Leading Research in Educational Administration: A Festschrift for Wayne K. Hoy is the tenth in a series on research and theory dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis that was initiated by Wayne and Cecil G. Miskel. This tenth anniversary edition honors and celebrates the research leadership Wayne has provided in the field of educational administration through his distinguished career. The festschrift is organized around the analysis of school contexts and includes constructs Wayne and his protégés have studied and researched: climate, trust, efficacy, academic optimism, organizational citizenship, and mindfulness. It concludes with the work of colleagues on the salient contemporary issues of innovation, power, leadership succession, and several others focused on improving schools. Chapter authors all have close connections to Wayne - former students and their students, as well as colleagues and friends.

Over the last quarter century, educational leadership as a field has developed a broad strand of research that engages issues of social justice, equity and diversity. This effort includes the work of many scholars who advocate for a variety of equity-oriented leadership preparation approaches. Critical scholarship in Education Administration and Educational Politics is concerned with questions of power and in various ways asks questions around who gets to decide. In this volume, we ask who decides how to organize schools around criteria of ability and/or disability and what these decisions imply for leadership in schools. In line with this broader critical tradition of inquiry, this volume seeks to interrogate policies, research and personnel preparation practices which constitute interactions, discourses, and institutions that construct and enact ability and disability within the disciplinary field of education leadership. To do so, we present contributions from multidisciplinary perspectives. The volume is organized around four themes: 1. Leadership and Dis/Ability: Ontology, Epistemology, and Intersectionalities; 2. Educational Leaders and Dis/ability: Policies in Practice; 3. Experience and Power in Schools; 4. Advocacy, Leverage, and the Preparation of School Leaders. Intertwined within each theme are chapters, which explore theoretical and conceptual themes along with chapters that focus on empirical data and narratives that bring personal experiences to the discussion of disabilities and to the multiple ways in which disability shapes experiences in schools. Taken as a whole, the volume covers new territory in the study of educational leadership and dis/abilities at home, school, and work.

This volume provides diverse perspectives and paradigms in educational administration and leadership. Focusing on particular philosophical and theoretical schools of thought, it traces the contemporary history of debates in the field while also exploring emerging, non-traditional schools for insight and potential contributions to educational administration in multi-cultural contexts. It critically examines trends and issues in society and their impact on educational theory, and gives an overview of the scholarly study of organizations, administration, and leadership to develop introductory understandings of significant concepts and theories.