International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership

Between Headlines and Hallways: The Cost of Ideological Policy on 2SLGBTQIA+ Youth

2026-02-13T08:41:10+00:00

The purpose of this study was to explore the impacts of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ sentiments in mainstream media on 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. Using the Minority Stress Framework and a case study format, qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 youth. While participants described the impact of media-driven stigma and negativity, many directly referenced Saskatchewan’s “pronoun policy,” viewing it as an institutional reinforcement of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ sentiment. The policy made discrimination feel targeted, immediate, and personal for these participants. Discussions of social exclusion, safety concerns, and institutionalized discrimination reflect the harmful influence of restrictive governance policies. These findings build on existing research on the compounding impacts of minority stress and institutional stigma in education and underscore the need for responsible and inclusive education policy and governance.

Being a Principal for Extended Educational Services at School: Perspectives on What Matters—Structure, Culture, and Leadership

2026-03-26T12:48:12+00:00

Extended education includes a variety of activities outside regular school hours for children of all ages, supervised by the school principal. Despite varying experiences, the principal’s role has hardly been investigated. As principals play a crucial role in driving school development and educational change, it is important to understand how they view their leadership performance in relation to extended education. This study surveyed principals in Sweden and Switzerland using a problem-based semistructured questionnaire. Deductive qualitative content analysis showed that principals in both countries faced leadership difficulties related to extended education, including translating policy papers and unclear extended education goals into guidelines for staff. Staff diversity and group sizes were also hindering factors, in a context where the principal’s services were seen as setting the tone for the school climate.

Collective Leader Efficacy: Developing a Systems Construct to Strengthen Instructional Leadership Teams

2026-03-20T06:25:03+00:00

Collective efficacy is a well-established explanatory construct in education, yet research has focused primarily on teachers, leaving the collective efficacy of leadership teams less well-defined and empirically specified. Drawing on social cognitive theory and leadership scholarship, this article conceptualizes collective leader efficacy (CLE)—defined as leadership teams’ shared belief in their collective capability to influence adult and student learning—through three interdependent dimensions: shared understanding (coherence around purpose and priorities), joint work (cross-role inquiry and collaborative problem-solving), and evidence of progress (routines for interpreting whether leadership work is improving system conditions). Findings clarify CLE as a bounded leadership-team construct and foreground testable propositions regarding consistency routines, inquiry structures, and evidence cadence that can guide future measurement development and outcome-linked research.