Editorial: Journal of Educational Administration and History Vol 54, Issue 4

In our final editorial for the journal in 2021, we reflected on the new challenges that education systems would face in 2022, as institutions resumed face to face learning. These challenges continue apace: increased levels of stress and burnout for administrators and educators and record levels of mental health issues amongst children and young people across a number of nations. The war in Ukraine continues and at the latest count, 7,710,924 Ukrainians had registered for temporary protection or similar protection schemes in Europe alone (UNHCR 2022). This figure does not include the millions who have been internally displaced in Ukraine itself.

This general issue grapples with a range of issues and influences on education systems internationally – looking back over time as well as in current circumstances. Peter Ribbins and Brian Sherratt’s article provide a fascinating insight into a topic that is rarely examined but crucial to the direction of education systems – the role played by senior public servants steering education bureaucracies. Their interviews with English permanent secretaries of education spans the years 1975-2011. In this paper, the authors report on Michael Bichard, an atypical permanent secretary, who was an outsider in two ways – a non-career civil servant from a working-class background who had attended state schools and was red university educated. The authors conclude that Bichard was a ‘meta-centrist policy maker, sharer and shaper par excellence’ whose appointment from outside the civil service provides some support for opening up such appointments to those from ‘outside’.

Denise Mifsud’s paper adds to a growing body of research on schooling during the Covid 19 pandemic. Drawing on focus groups conducted with Maltese parents and educators who were also parents, the paper examines the tensions between family, school and work for these groups as they grappled with juggling home learning for their children as a result of school closures. Like many families around the world, she reports the issues facing parents and educators as they dealt with this novel situation, e.g, challenges with communication between educators and parents and the widening of the gap between students with learning difficulties or from disadvantaged homes. However, she concludes that there were also some positives: parents reporting a greater sense of engagement with their children and a dawning understanding that education was more than gaining basic skills such as literacy and numeracy.

The paper by Fiona Longmuir, Niranjan Casinader, Howard Prosser and Peter van Cuylenberg draws on a series of mixed methods international studies to explore connections between the education concept of transcultural dispositions and culturally responsive leadership behaviours of school leaders. Utilising two frameworks: Cultural dispositions of thinking and the Culturally responsive leadership framework, this exploratory study suggests there is evidence of links between the transcultural dispositions of school leaders and culturally responsive leadership practices. The study thus has important implications for whom we select as school leaders, their initial leadership preparation and beyond.

Building on the theme of cultural diversity, Gavin Murphy’s paper examines the experiences of principals leading Irish language immersion education in secondary schools. Noting the scare attention in the literature to this area, Murphy concludes that firstly, there is a need for specialised leadership development that is linguistically and culturally relevant and secondly, systems need to focus on capacity building of teachers to establish a leadership pipeline for this crucial role. The research fills an important gap in our understanding of leading bilingual and dual language schools.

Once again, we thank our journal’s reviewers, authors, readers and editorial team. The journal is not possible without all that you do. We would particularly like to thank our regional editors, Associate Professor Kay Fuller (UK region), Associate Professor Terri Watson (North American region) and Professor Khalid Arar (Middle Eastern region). We thank all of them for their dedication and commitment. A special thanks to Dr Christine Grice, our books review editor who is stepping down after three years of indefatigable service.