The paper will present findings from an international study of the deliberative challenges, transformation of roles and relationships, and innovative responses of senior educational leaders in the context of new economy, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The goal of this study was to bring to description the philosophy-in-action, the reflection-on-action, the entrepreneurial dispositions, the strategic competencies and the pragmatic insight expressed by senior educational leaders in the post-secondary sector as they effectively encounter, make sense of, and engage new environmental realities. What and how do key educational leaders think about the challenges in the context of the new economy, and what strategic orientations and practices they engage in to adapt their work and sustain their core mandate effectiveness? This paper will give particular attention to the background leadership journeys of these leaders and how they conceive of their shifting roles in the academy and larger community. The insights from interviews with 30 Vice Chancellors (Presidents) from universities in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States will be presented.

This investigation builds upon previous investigations conducted by Farquhar (1981) and Beck and Murphy (1997) by describing the content and delivery features of ethics education provided by graduate programs for educational leaders in six English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and USA. When Farquhar (1981) and Beck and Murphy (1997) conducted their investigations on the state of ethics education in programs that prepare leaders in education, the curriculum for educational administration programs was still grounded in a scientific-technocratic framework. In the past decade, researchers have begun to re-examine the moral dimension of leadership (Willower, 1988; Shapiro & Smith-Rosenberg, 1989; Hodgkinson, 1991; Slater, 1991; and Sergiovanni, 1992) and educational leadership faculty are re-examining their approach to ethics education. This investigation provides an update of research by reporting what has happened in program development during the past decade. A survey of directors of educational leadership programs was conducted during the summer and fall, 2005, and course syllabi were collected and analyzed. Research questions focused on the extent of formal academic study of professional ethics in educational leadership programs and the prevailing instructional methodologies and materials used to teach professional ethics in educational leadership programs. The survey yielded descriptive data on the nature and extent of ethics education from international perspectives, and content analysis provided further information on the theoretical frameworks used in design and delivery of the courses. Analysis of data indicates growing interest in ethics education within educational administration programs, with divergent approaches to content and implementation.

There are a number of reasons why the improvement of educational management and the effective implementation of educational policy in any country should be given high priority. For instance, educational policy provides guidelines for decision-making, while the decision-making process itself influences the determination of policy. Also, educational management has an impact on the teaching and learning process, the organisational practices of school units, the utlilisation of both human and material resources, and the use of efficiency criteria and control systems. Furthermore, the decision makers, in conjunction with the various facets/chracteristics of the decision-making process (such as the nature of the collaboration among members, the analysis of environmental conditions, etc.), can significantly enhance performance. Ultimately, education is a social service that makes a substantial contribution to the social and economic development of a country. The purpose of this paper is, through case studies, to investigate the decision-making process in the Greek education system, as an indicator of the design and implementation of educational policy. This paper will attempt to show that a carefully planned decision-making process has a direct and positive impact on the function of the school system and consequently on the overall quality of education.