The leadership challenge: improving learning in schools

Building communities of professional learners is the key to meeting Australia’s school leadership challenge, according to this review of research. This report argues that the task of leading a school is now too complex and demanding a job for one person, and that improving schooling over time requires the enhanced capacity, not just of one person, but of many. Advances in science and technology, changes in demography, increased globalisation and pressures on the environment are causing education organisations to broaden and personalise curriculum and to rethink school structures and the role of the principal within them. The report calls for more research and policy attention to be given to the career paths of school principals in order to meet the challenge of identifying and developing the next generation of school leaders