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Education Sciences
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Educational Leadership Complexity: Theories, Methods, and Practices
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Educational Leadership Complexity: Theories, Methods, and Practices

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 May 2026) | Viewed by 3499

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nicolaas Blom

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
Interests: strategic leadership; creative leadership; followership; ethical leadership
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Patricia Mannix McNamara

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
Interests: leadership; workplace culture; workplace bullying and harassment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Educational leadership is often characterised by increasing complexity, both at systemic and local levels. Leaders increasingly recognise that they work in potentially unpredictable conditions (such as in relation to the changes in AI, pandemics, climate crises, and geopolitical instability). This Special Issue seeks papers that span both theoretical and practical leadership challenges, for example issues regarding role sustainability, leading people, equity, technology, policy, competing ideological positioning, etc. Papers that illuminate and problematise tensions in leadership are particularly welcome.

In seeking to mitigate the complexity and tensions with which education leaders contend, educational leadership researchers have leaned toward reductive or technocratic framings that underplay the lived tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes of leadership practice (Dolan, 2020; Niesche, 2018). This Special Issue invites contributors to consider a different lens—leadership paradoxes, as well as polarities and dilemmas—with the aim of illuminating practice in a meaningful way that enhances advocacy in role sustainability. Rather than seeking reductive or technocratic resolution, we invite researchers to engage with issues in educational leadership nuance, contradiction competing values, ideologies, priorities, and truths.

We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions, particularly those that emphasise applied value such as implications for policy, practice, and leader preparation. Themes may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Leadership dilemmas in complex or changing environments, for example how educational leaders make sense of and act within complex systems and contexts.
  • Strategic responses to competing demands, for example how complexity perspectives challenge and transcend deficit or overly rationalist views of leadership.
  • Value-based leadership and ethical decision-making, for example how do leaders exercise agency, courage, and discernment for ethical and equitable decision making.
  • Professional learning and leadership development for navigating complexity.
  • Leading through ambiguity, uncertainty, or contradiction, for example what forms and practices of leadership enable role sustainability and adaptability in uncertain contexts.
  • What methodological approaches are best suited to capture leadership complexity.
  • How relevant is leadership preparation in times of unprecedented change.

References:

Dolan, C. (2020). Paradox and the school leader. Springer.

Niesche, R. (2018). Critical perspectives in educational leadership: A new ‘theory turn’? Journal of Educational Administration and History, 50(3), 145–158.

Dr. Nicolaas Blom
Prof. Dr. Patricia Mannix McNamara
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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 dilemmas
  • strategic decision-making
  • complexity in schools
  • ethical leadership

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 330 KB  
Article
Transformational Leadership as a Contextual Enabler of Teachers’ AI Use
by Yehudit Chassida
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(4), 572; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16040572 - 3 Apr 2026
Viewed by 636
Abstract
Educational leadership increasingly operates under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and competing demands. The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in education intensifies these challenges, requiring school leaders to navigate tensions between innovation and ethics, autonomy and regulation, and professional judgment and accountability. This [...] Read more.
Educational leadership increasingly operates under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and competing demands. The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in education intensifies these challenges, requiring school leaders to navigate tensions between innovation and ethics, autonomy and regulation, and professional judgment and accountability. This study examines AI integration primarily through the lens of educational leadership, proposing that leadership not only shapes teachers’ perceptions of AI but also strengthens the translation of those perceptions into practice. Drawing on transformational leadership theory and technology acceptance models (TAM; UTAUT2), the study tests an integrative model in which teachers’ perceptions of AI function as proximal predictors of use, while transformational leadership serves as a contextual moderator. Data were collected from 141 teachers and analyzed using correlational and regression-based moderation analyses. Findings indicate that transformational leadership significantly predicts teachers’ perceptions of AI and strengthens the relationship between perceptions and AI use. While leadership does not directly predict AI use once perceptions are accounted for, it plays a critical role in enabling the enactment of professional beliefs in instructional practice. These findings position school leadership as a central factor in understanding AI integration, highlighting leadership’s role as a contextual enabler of educational innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Educational Leadership Complexity: Theories, Methods, and Practices)
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19 pages, 1297 KB  
Article
Gendered Perceptions of Diversity in Educational Leadership Promotions in Irish Schools: A Quantitative Study
by Robert Hannan, Niamh Lafferty and Patricia Mannix-McNamara
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(10), 1323; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101323 - 6 Oct 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1503
Abstract
This study examines educators’ perceptions of diversity in promotional practices within the Irish context through the lens of Gender Schema Theory (GST). Although women constitute the majority of the teaching workforce, they remain underrepresented at senior leadership levels, highlighting persistent gender disparities. Using [...] Read more.
This study examines educators’ perceptions of diversity in promotional practices within the Irish context through the lens of Gender Schema Theory (GST). Although women constitute the majority of the teaching workforce, they remain underrepresented at senior leadership levels, highlighting persistent gender disparities. Using survey data from 123 educators, this study investigates how gender shapes perceptions of the role of diversity in promotion processes. Findings indicate that women were more likely than men to perceive diversity across multiple dimensions as essential to fair and effective promotions and to enhancing leadership effectiveness. By contrast, men were more inclined to perceive current practices as already fair and inclusive and preferred to maintain the status quo. Importantly, tokenism was not strongly endorsed by either group, suggesting that diversity initiatives are broadly regarded as legitimate. The results underscore how gendered schemas influence perceptions of merit and fairness and highlight the importance of embedding transparent and inclusive structures in leadership promotion within Irish education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Educational Leadership Complexity: Theories, Methods, and Practices)
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Other

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19 pages, 3300 KB  
Brief Report
Artifact Construction Illuminating Wellbeing Amongst Saudi Arabian Women Academic Leaders: A Methodological Mapping in Four Artifacts
by Claire Alkouatli and Rasis Alanazi
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(5), 680; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16050680 - 24 Apr 2026
Viewed by 259
Abstract
This paper reports upon the visual research methodology of artifact construction employed in semi-structured interviews to explore how Saudi women in academic leadership positions cultivate and maintain wellbeing. Ten Saudi Arabian women academic leaders were invited to draw, diagram, or annotate how they [...] Read more.
This paper reports upon the visual research methodology of artifact construction employed in semi-structured interviews to explore how Saudi women in academic leadership positions cultivate and maintain wellbeing. Ten Saudi Arabian women academic leaders were invited to draw, diagram, or annotate how they cultivate, maintain, and express wellbeing in a rapidly changing cultural context. Four exemplary artifacts were selected for analysis. Findings include that while semi-structured interviewing made themes visible, artifact construction extended the themes and illuminated unique aspects of the research question. Specifically, the artifacts illustrate wellbeing as holistic, interwoven of hedonic and eudaimonic aspects, and positioning self and others in a lattice of being well. It is intentional, balanced, spiritually sourced and sustained. It is generous and generative, animating abundance as both a process and a product of wellbeing. The artifacts are more than just a visual complement to the research story; they methodologically tap into the research question differently than verbal methods alone. While not every research participant accepted the invitation to construct an artifact, and methodological drawbacks are considered, the ones who did accept the invitation demonstrated that artifact construction captures complexity at the conceptual intersection of wellbeing and female academic leadership. This paper contributes new knowledge on the efficacy of artifact construction; in this case, in research sites beyond culturally ‘western’ ones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Educational Leadership Complexity: Theories, Methods, and Practices)
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