Publications

In The Principal’s Journey: Navigating the Path to School Leadership, Rachel Edoho-Eket offers a practical roadmap for educators stepping into school leadership, complete with reflective prompts and actionable strategies to help clarify goals and accelerate professional growth.

Complementing this, Relational Intelligence: The Key Factor to Exceptional School Leadership by Brad Johnson and Rachel Edoho-Eket explores how trust, communication and authentic connection are the true foundations of exceptional leadership. Together, these titles provide both a clear pathway into leadership and a powerful framework for building thriving, relationship-centred school cultures.

We’re proud to share the upcoming release of Kind Leadership: Leading Schools with Empathy, Honesty and Impact by Joanna Povall, to be published in March 2026. In this timely and thought-provoking book, Joanna draws on more than 30 years of global education experience to position kindness as a powerful and strategic force in school leadership.

Through her award-winning CHASE model — Communication, Honesty, Accountability, growing Self-Esteem and managing Ego — she provides practical tools and reflective insights grounded in psychology and neuroscience. Kind Leadership is an inspiring and actionable guide for current and aspiring school leaders committed to building strong, inclusive and high-performing school communities. Pre-orders are now available.

From Burnout to Breakthrough is a practical and deeply human guide for leaders who want to thrive, not just survive, in an increasingly complex education landscape. Drawing on contemporary research, neuroscience and two decades of system and school leadership, the book explores what burnout really is, how it shows up, and why it is becoming more common among leaders.

At the heart of the book is the Leadership Reset, a clear and hopeful pathway that helps leaders understand their limits, rebuild their energy, and lead with clarity and purpose again. It blends honest insight with practical tools, reflection questions and strategies that can be used immediately, as well as longer term approaches to create sustainable leadership.

It is a book written for leaders who care deeply about their work and want a realistic, evidence informed way forward.

After extensive collaboration, testing ideas with school leaders, and refining what truly matters, Simon Matthews and Paul Matthews have released a timely new book on AI and schooling: Flourishing in an AI World.

Every school’s response to AI should reflect its own context, culture, and readiness. Rather than offering a generic plan, this book supports leaders to pause and assess where they are, explore seven key areas of AI adaptation, move forward in clear staged ways, and build shared understanding across their community. If your school is navigating the complexities of AI, this is a resource worth exploring.

The Art of Skimming Stones: Leading Sustained Improvement in Schools is Steven Trotter’s comprehensive guide to educational leadership, presenting the innovative SKIM Model for school leadership and leading improvement. The book provides practical leadership models and strategies for building effective school partnerships and driving meaningful change in educational settings. Drawing from his award-winning experience as an educational leader, Steven shares practical strategies for leading improvement and building effective school partnerships.

What you’ll learn: the SKIM model for effective school leadership; leadership models that drive school improvement; strategies for leading improvement in educational settings; building successful school partnerships; and educational leadership principles that last.

Dr Paul Rijken is a retired school principal and currently a part-time lecturer at the School of Education at the University of Adelaide. He has lectured in the Master of Education program on Educational Leadership in Diverse Contexts, Leading Positive Change, Leading Wellbeing, Contemporary Issues in Wellbeing and Mentoring for Teachers, and has supervised students in the Education Major Project.

Dr Rijken is a member of the American Educational Research Association and Chair of the Special Interest Group – Learning Environments. He is on the editorial board of Learning Environments Research – An International Journal by Springer. He continues to contribute to educational research drawing on his 17 years as principal and 42 years in schools.

Selected work

Aldridge, J. M., Rijken, P. E., & Fraser, B. J. (2024). A teacher school climate questionnaire for facilitating and monitoring system-wide school reform. In Future of Learning Environments, 53–73.

Rijken, P. E., & Fraser, B. J. (2024). Effectiveness of project-based mathematics in first-year high school in terms of learning environment and student outcomes. Learning Environments Research, 27, 241–263.

Aldridge, J. M., Rijken, P. E., & Fraser, B. J. (2021). Improving learning environments through whole-school collaborative action research. Learning Environments Research, 24, 183–205.

How do we motivate, engage and retain educational leaders?

Authors: Dr Lynne Cruickshank (PBC), Dr Xander van Lill (PBC), Rebecca Edgley (ialign), and Tara Staritski (ialign). A white paper collaboration with PBC and ialign.

This white paper explores the pressing question of how schools and systems can motivate, engage, and retain principals in an era where leadership demands are more complex than ever. Drawing on two robust datasets — Hogan Assessment data and ialign data covering almost 1,000 Australian school leaders — it highlights the human side of leadership, examining motivators, personality traits, and risks of burnout, and offers evidence-based strategies to support principals in sustaining their roles.

Key themes: the growing scope and complexity of the principalship; human factors that impact leadership effectiveness; stressors including workload, role isolation, and lack of support; and evidence-based recommendations for sustaining leaders through self-awareness, coaching, delegation, and healthier work environments.

Education leader Matt Pittman champions the power of authentic relationships in schools.

The Connection Curriculum offers a roadmap for collective leadership and community engagement, giving educators practical strategies to foster belonging and integrate sustainable connection practices into everyday school life.

The Connection Conundrum explores the growing challenge of disconnection, providing tools to re-engage students, energise staff, and lead a culture of connection from any role within the system.

Together, these books inspire educators to place connection at the heart of wellbeing, learning, and school culture.

“The role of independent school principal is a complex and demanding one … it is one of the most noble and fulfilling roles that anyone could attain.”

Dr Paul Teys shares insights gleaned over four decades of teaching, and two decades of principalship in P–12 independent schools, in this engaging book. Knitting together his doctoral research and extensive lived experience in the world of Australia’s independent schools, Dr Teys lays down a path for aspiring and early-to-mid career principals to take the next exciting steps in their careers.

Providing the latest information and guidance on what it is really like to be a principal these days, Teys offers a glimpse into a world not often understood by those not in the hot seat. Real examples illustrate the complex layers associated with leading a school and becoming its CEO. With an earnest combination of strategic focus and personal anecdote, So You Want to Be a Principal is a must-read for the next generation of independent school principals.

Dr Andrew Fuller has kindly shared a couple of his publications, available for download:

Cognitive Velocity is a practical guide to transforming learning — from reducing load to building ease, and ultimately accelerating learners toward mastery.

Nine Predisposing Factors for Violence in Young People is a powerful breakdown of the nine factors that predispose young people to violence, paired with practical, research-backed interventions that create real change.