Educational Leadership Preparation and Development: An international and future focused perspective

As a Professor in Educational Leadership within the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Dr. David Gurr's responsibilities include preparing and teaching in pre-service and post-graduate programs, supervision of Masters and Doctoral research and representation on appropriate committees. He is the leader of the educational leadership academic group of the faculty. He teaches in the areas of educational leadership, strategic leadership, and school effectiveness and improvement. He is a founding member of the International Successful School Principalship Project, and co-led an Australian team that was awarded a national grant for this project in 2005. He is also a founding member of the International School Leadership Development Network, which is a joint partnership between UCEA and BELMAS. He has more than 200 publications and has presented more than 200 times at international and local conferences. David is editor of the CCEAM journal International Studies in Educational Administration, senior associate editor of the Journal of Educational Administration and co-editor of the IAP book series International Research on School Leadership. He has received several honours from ACEL including being awarded the National Presidential Citation in 2004, a national fellowship in 2006, the Hedley Beare Educator of the Year award in 2012, and the Gold Medal in 2014.

Dr. Peng Liu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Canada. His research interests include Indigenous leadership cross cultures, effective leadership, higher education leadership, educational change, educational policy, principal/teacher professional development, and international and comparative education. Dr. Liu earned his doctorate degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Dr. Liu has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Education Management, Administration and Leadership, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, the Journal of Educational Administration, and the International Journal of Leadership in Education. His most recent books include “Transforming Turnaround Schools in China: Approaches, Challenges and Achievements” (Springer, 2021), “Educational leadership and Asian culture: Culturally sensitive leadership practices” (Routledge, 2024), and “ Understanding teacher leadership in educational change: An International Perspective” (Routledge, 2025).