This book deals with effective school leadership and its essential role in improving the efficiency and equity of schooling. It provides school leaders with instruments and processes to examine the big picture of leadership as the key intermediary between the classroom, the individual school and its community, and the educational system as a whole. By doing so, it increases school leaders’ level of awareness with regards to systemic leadership. Furthermore, the book shows how organizational arrangements for schools have changed significantly over time and how school leaders have become involved in matters within and beyond their school’s borders.  The book’s comparison of countries makes clear that, while school context and system-level differences have varying implications for the exercise of school leadership across countries, a number of global trends have impacted on schools across many countries around the world. In line with these changes, the roles and responsibilities of school leaders have expanded and intensified. Moreover, through the examination of school leaders’ epistemological beliefs, the book  investigates the relationship between these beliefs and the exercise of school leadership.