Providing all students with an opportunity to be successful is at the core of education. But is that motto truly carried out in the actions and practices of schools. This case study examines the practice of tracking as it relates to Gifted and Talented programs.

Districts and educators alike consistently speak about supporting equity and diversity causes for all of their students. Leaders tout that the bias toward any marginalized group cannot be tolerated and that all students need to be supported in their communities. This case study takes leaders into a scenario concerning a PRIDE parade and the ramifications of either supporting or not supporting the event and the LGBT+ community involved.

School safety is a focus throughout all of society. Districts and communities have numerous plans and policies in place regarding having to address threats that may occur. This case study looks at a scenario where privilege and racism confront policy and response.

Chapter 1 begins with a discussion regarding why an exploration of the concept of equity is so greatly needed in education. By developing a foundational understanding of equity, education leadership can move toward truly effective leadership. Case studies provide a relevant and relatable venue for this growth endeavor through the Case Study Analysis Protocol provided.

Words have powerful meaning. They can also be scary for some individual to address or confront. Oftentimes it is just “easier” to ignore or look the other way. This case study explores how inappropriate language and the response, or lack thereof, can say a great deal about the power structure of an environment and the importance of respect.

The final chapter takes the researched practitioner to some next steps along their leadership journey. Numerous topics concerning social justice leadership are introduced and explored at an entry level. The intersectionality of various theories and concepts are presented with the goal of personal and professional growth for each individual leader.

Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of childhoods and children, illustrating how the concept of childhood has developed over time. The discussion focusses on how adults working with children, including applied linguists, need to reflect on the implications of their belief systems and their conceptions of children and childhood. The chapter then elaborates on the most notable conceptions of childhood, including the universal view. It then introduces Childhood Studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying children from bottom up. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its proposal that children are rights-bearing citizens and their voices must be heard are introduced, and the discussion addresses how the proposed rights can be realised in practice by schools, communities and individual adult researchers. The main contributions of Childhood Studies over the last three and half decades are summarised to draw attention to some current issues and concerns. Finally, the chapter outlines the main components of the extended framework, which includes possibilities for conducting studies not just ‘on’ and ‘about’ but also ‘with’ and ‘by’ children.

Latvia, a country of almost two million people, is a high-income country. A substantial risk for economic development of the country is population decline. Prior to 2021, higher education sector in Latvia consisted of six universities, 21 non-university type of institutions offering Bachelor’s degrees, two branch institutions of foreign HEIs, and 25 colleges which offered first level or short cycle higher education higher. In 2021, amendments to the Law on Higher Education Establishments came into effects distinguishing between research universities, universities of arts and culture, universities of applied sciences and non-university type of institutions of applied sciences. In 2020, approximately 60 percent of enrolled students paid tuition fees. There is dual track tuition policy. The 2021 amendments introduced boards as the primary authoritative body at HEIs. For example, The Board of a research university consists of 11 members. Five of them are internal staff nominated by the Senate. The President of the country nominates one representative who is not linked to the university. The remaining five members of the board are external (not university employees).

Uzbekistan is a lower-middle-income country with a population of 33 million people. Uzbekistan’s economy was more resilient to external shocks than other post-Soviet countries in the 1990s. Although the transition produced many economic and political benefits, it also produced some disadvantages. In terms of the management of some sectors of the economy, Uzbekistan did not reject centralized planning.. Uzbekistan more recently has been dedicated to implanting market-oriented reforms but only in some sectors, such as retail. The HE system is comprised of universities, institutes, and academies. There are 32 universities (20 public universities and their 6 regional branches, and 6 branches of foreign universities), 6 academies, and 44 institutes (36 public institutes and their 7 regional branches, and one branch of foreign university. The approach to governance in the HE sector can be described as top-down and centralized. The Academic Board and the Board of Trustees are advisory bodies of the HEIs.

Governance is about execution, the ability of agents to carry out the wishes of principals. Therefore, the question explored here is how appropriately structured is the approach to governance suited for the principals’ aims given the realities of the context in which the universities operate? This chapter focuses on the nexus of two elements, bureaucratic or public sector capacity and autonomy, drawing on the framework of Fukuyama. It finds that the state-extended model appears most in low capacity and low autonomy contexts. But in other contexts with more autonomy and higher capacity different governance structures, such as the civic or internal/external models may be more appropriate. This exploration raises implications for policy makers and campus leaders. First, a group of countries have governance structures that seem out of alignment with their autonomy and bureaucratic capacity levels. It seems like some university systems have excess autonomy that may not be supported by their levels of bureaucratic capacity. Finally, those universities in countries with high capacity and high autonomy might be better served by considering a civic model of governace.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union created a unique laboratory to study university governance innovation. Fifteen countries at a single point in time were able to chart their own paths forward. The chapter introduces the structural perpective to understand univeristy-level governance. The chapter sets the stage for studying post-Soviet governance via an examination of structures. The primary mechanism for institutional-level governance are governing bodies that go by a series of different labels including academic councils or senates, boards of trustees and boards of overseers to mention common ones. These bodies, regardless of name, are the essential bridge that spans governmental and institutional boundaries. They are increasingly recognized as the key link in the governance framework that includes macro-, meso- and institutional- level structures

The Republic of Kazakhstan is a land-locked country approximately twice the size of Western Europe but with only 18.8 million inhabits. Since 2001, Kazakhstan has made significant economic gains in growing a middle class and reducing poverty. The recent economic challenging facing the country focused on the regions. The January 2022 social conflict focused on the imbalance between urban and rural areas and the economic disparity between them. With independence, the Republic inherited 55 universities from Soviet times. In 2018 the total number of students in Kazakhstan’s universities was 512,677 with 93% studying at undergraduate level. Enrollment peaked in 2005-06 with 775,762 students. As of 2020, there are 129 higher education institutions. The financing of Kazakhstani public universities is a mix of government support and student paid tuition fees. The Board of Directors, whose members are external to the university, act as the main governing body of the public universities.