How educational leadership promotes equity in student learning outcomes: international evidence

Introduction

We invite authors whose research examines school leadership and equity in student learning to contribute to this special issue in the International Journal of Educational Management (IJEM). The aim of this special issue is to provide a forum where researchers, policymakers, and school practitioners can engage with compelling issues implicating educational leadership and equity in students’ learning outcomes.

The imperative for this special issue emanates from the policy aims of many education systems and international organizations that highlight the importance of ensuring that high-performing schools should pursue quality and equity in student learning. This policy trajectory reflects a growing global consensus among policymakers, educational leaders and teachers, and researchers that schools can and should cater to the learning needs of different groups of marginalized students who may be compromised in their learning. This consensus is precipitated by socioeconomic development which has eventuated in greater access to schooling but not equal outcomes for all students.

The argument is not that students should enjoy equal learning outcomes but that all students should receive commensurate or compensatory resources from schools to overcome their different sources of disadvantage and at least learn on a level playing field. Indeed, research has illuminated how educational leadership can mobilize school resources to improve student learning experiences and outcomes. This scholarship is characterized by a proliferation of novel theoretical and methodological perspectives that are used to understand the agency and creativity of educational leadership in addressing the complex challenges that confront and compromise the learning experiences and outcomes of marginalized student populations.

The special issue welcomes contributors to submit research articles that examine the influence of any aspects of educational leadership on equity in K-12 students’ learning outcomes from different perspectives. Specifically, we welcome articles that;

• adopt different conceptualizations of educational leadership (e.g., involving any levels of leaders in the school hierarchy, or even district and systems-level leaders);
• employ different conceptualizations of student learning outcomes (e.g., including academic and nonacademic outcomes such as well-being, socioemotional learning, motivation);
• engage with any type of equity issues in student learning (e.g., related to social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and special educational needs) or multiple sources of inequity (from an intersectionality perspective);
• apply any theoretical perspective that can meaningfully inform inquiry;
• apply any valid and robust research methodology that is appropriate for the purposes of the study (including, but are not limited to qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and reviews); and
• are conducted in any parts of the world (including studies that involve two or more countries or regions).

Articles are to be submitted via the IJEM online submission system by 31 December 23. All articles submitted will be professionally reviewed as per other articles submitted to IJEM. Authors are reminded to conform to the journal’s editorial guidelines when they are preparing their articles for submission.

List of topic areas

• Educational leadership
• Student learning
• Equity
• Social contexts

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see the journal’s author guidelines. Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to".

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Click here to submit!

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1st September, 2023

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31st December, 2023

Email for submission information: [email protected]; [email protected]