Education Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 885

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre for Educational Leadership, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London WC1H 0AL, UK
Interests: educational leadership; school leaders; research-engaged cultures; collaborative networks for resilience and innovation; educational systems

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Guest Editor
Department of Educational Leadership, Gaziantep University, 27310 Gaziantep, Türkiye
Interests: educational administration; educational leadership; school development; educational systems

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Guest Editor
Department of Public Management, FGV EAESP, São Paulo, Brazil
Interests: educational leadership; networked leadership practices; school leadership development; school improvement; educational systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue titled “Education Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities”, we seek to explore the broad spectrum of challenges and innovations in educational leadership, reflecting the diverse and dynamic nature of this field. As educational environments grow increasingly complex, the role of leadership becomes more crucial in navigating these intricacies, fostering effective collaborations, and leveraging technological advancements like artificial intelligence. Societies face multiple challenges to do with anthropocentric environmental changes, global education reforms and shifts in employment patterns.

The aim of this Special Issue is to examine the challenges and opportunities for scholarship in the educational leadership terrain.

Suggested, but by no means an exhaustive list of themes, includes:

  • Evolving roles in educational leadership;
  • Enacting traditional leadership model, such as distributed leadership in less-explored contexts;
  • The impact of school networks and partnerships on leadership or understanding the leadership of networks and partnerships;
  • Strategic use of AI and technology in leadership processes, or leadership of digital technology implementation;
  • Comparative leadership practices across different educational systems;
  • Leadership in the context of human-induced environmental changes;
  • Leading schools to prepare students for future, shifting employment challenges;
  • New ways of collaboration that enable school leaders to develop and flourish;
  • New theoretical or methodological approaches to studying educational leadership.

This Special Issue seeks to provide a broad array of perspectives from different educational settings and to provide readers insights into how educational leaders can effectively address current challenges while preparing for future opportunities.

Dr. David Godfrey
Prof. Dr. Metin Özkan
Dr. Lara Simielli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • educational leadership
  • leadership development
  • collaborative partnerships
  • distributed leadership
  • technology in leadership
  • global education reforms
  • networked leadership practices

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 1333 KB  
Article
Enhancing Teacher Educators’ Leadership Through Distributed Pedagogical Practice in Kenyan Preservice Education
by Peter Ochieng Okiri, Tun Zaw Oo and Krisztián Józsa
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 1176; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15091176 - 8 Sep 2025
Viewed by 328
Abstract
Existing educational leadership research consistently emphasizes the importance of empowering and supporting classroom teachers to develop essential teaching experiences and leadership skills, enabling them to become autonomous curriculum developers and thinkers. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and understanding of distributed pedagogical [...] Read more.
Existing educational leadership research consistently emphasizes the importance of empowering and supporting classroom teachers to develop essential teaching experiences and leadership skills, enabling them to become autonomous curriculum developers and thinkers. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and understanding of distributed pedagogical leadership among Kenyan preservice professional actors in their respective contexts. It also examined the significance and impact of this practice on enhancing and strengthening the teaching and leadership abilities of teacher educators, thereby empowering them as effective pedagogical leaders in the classroom. The study employed a mixed methods design with a convergent parallel approach, using purposive sampling to select 83 participants, including administrative leaders, formal teacher leaders, and teacher educators from five public and private preservice teacher training colleges. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions for qualitative insights, and an online survey for quantitative data. Results show that principals and formal teacher leaders play a key role in empowering teacher educators by distributing pedagogical leadership responsibilities among all professional actors. However, teacher educators felt that the distribution of tasks and responsibilities was uneven, which hindered effective implementation. This study also highlights how employer policies, through principals, influence the distribution of pedagogical leadership responsibilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities)
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