Don Carter is an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and has worked in a range of positions including teaching English (government and nongovernment schools), head of department, ESL consultant, inspector of schools and teacher education academic. He has published widely on education issues including literacy, curriculum history and teacher workload.Adrian Piccoli was the New South Wales Minister for Education (2011–2017) and a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for 19 years. As the former director of University of New South Wales’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian led a team of researchers to address inequality in Australian education and improve access to high-quality education for school students. In 2017, Adrian was made a fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.

• Introduction 1. Case study as a research methodology 2. Why getting schools right matters 3. Some observations on power and authority 4. The role of Parliament and politics in education 5. Schools, power and books 6. Being an education leader and acting like a dictator doesn’t work 7. The power that comes with experience 8. Accumulating, keeping and renewing power 9. Having clear guiding principles generates its own power 10. The two faces of education

Don Carter is an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and has worked in a range of positions including teaching English (government and nongovernment schools), head of department, ESL consultant, inspector of schools and teacher education academic. He has published widely on education issues including literacy, curriculum history and teacher workload.Adrian Piccoli was the New South Wales Minister for Education (2011–2017) and a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for 19 years. As the former director of University of New South Wales’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian led a team of researchers to address inequality in Australian education and improve access to high-quality education for school students. In 2017, Adrian was made a fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.

• Introduction 1. Case study as a research methodology 2. Why getting schools right matters 3. Some observations on power and authority 4. The role of Parliament and politics in education 5. Schools, power and books 6. Being an education leader and acting like a dictator doesn’t work 7. The power that comes with experience 8. Accumulating, keeping and renewing power 9. Having clear guiding principles generates its own power 10. The two faces of education

Don Carter is an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and has worked in a range of positions including teaching English (government and nongovernment schools), head of department, ESL consultant, inspector of schools and teacher education academic. He has published widely on education issues including literacy, curriculum history and teacher workload.Adrian Piccoli was the New South Wales Minister for Education (2011–2017) and a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for 19 years. As the former director of University of New South Wales’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian led a team of researchers to address inequality in Australian education and improve access to high-quality education for school students. In 2017, Adrian was made a fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.

• Introduction 1. Case study as a research methodology 2. Why getting schools right matters 3. Some observations on power and authority 4. The role of Parliament and politics in education 5. Schools, power and books 6. Being an education leader and acting like a dictator doesn’t work 7. The power that comes with experience 8. Accumulating, keeping and renewing power 9. Having clear guiding principles generates its own power 10. The two faces of education