There is growing interest in the role that principals play as school leaders. Exploring how principals build their professional leadership identity is crucial to understanding their influence on school performance. A systematic review was conducted to examine how educational leaders develop their professional identity. Our objectives were: (a) to identify the factors that determine how educational leaders develop their professional identity; (b) to identify shared traits of educational leadership identity; and (c) to describe the implications that the results obtained may have for research and professional practice. A literature search on Web of Science (WOS), SCOPUS and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) yielded a total of 38 articles published in international journals. Thematic analysis was conducted using the Nvivo software package. Emerging topics include: leadership identity of school principals as the key to educational success; influence of politics and context on the construction of principals’ professional identity; race- and gender-based barriers to the development of leadership identity; and the influence of experience, training and transition on the construction of a professional leadership identity.

In recent decades, higher education has witnessed the development of a series of policies aimed at improving its quality. To this end, accountability measures have been promoted, which are having a major impact on academics. In addition, the precariousness of work in this professional sector is contributing to emphasise its consequences. In this context, early career researchers have become a highly vulnerable group, as the pretence of wanting to be part of the academic world is becoming an increasingly challenging purpose. This systematic review of the literature aims to collect and systematise the most relevant contributions on the impact that this situation has on the professional identity of young academics. To this end, a bibliographic search was carried out in four different databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Education Resources Information Center, Google Scholar), which yielded a total of 24 articles published in international journals. The results show how the political‐economic measures that currently surround higher education are contributing to the development of a new neoliberal academic subject characterised by a professional identity unconsciously subjected to the system's requirements. This identity is characterised by a prioritisation of research over teaching, by the development of unethical research practices and by their impact on health and social and family relations. Finally, the need for more studies in this line with other approaches (longitudinal) and with more general and varied samples is emphasised.

At the present time, it is of interest to promote reflection on educational and social inclusion within a framework of social justice, in order to promote the quality of education. A scoping review approach is adopted from a critical perspective of inclusion, to deconstruct the predominant judgment of educational inclusion and reveal the processes of exclusion and duality that underlie the school environment. A review of the WOS, SCOPUS and ERIC databases was conducted. Seventy-nine articles published in international journals addressing this topic were obtained. Thematic analysis was conducted using the Nvivo software package. The emerging themes include arguments for: rethink to inclusion within the framework of diversity and social justice; arguing the possibilities of inclusion/exclusion depend on various factors and the sociocultural and professional context; calling for greater commitment, ethics and professionalism to meet the challenges of inclusion; denouncing persistent barriers to be overcome; and, finally, calling for new roles and scenarios for support services.

Background: In the last decade, much research attention has been paid to notions of leadership and the professional identity of school. It is widely agreed that school principals play a very important role in school improvement; international reports point to ‘school leadership’ as a key factor in education quality, and recent studies suggest that the leadership identity of principals is critical for achieving effective leadership in schools worldwide. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a thematic exploration of the literature relating to school principals and leadership identity. Design and methods: A scoping review was carried out. Two major databases were searched for papers published on this topic in the last decade. Once we had established an overview of research on this subject, we conducted a thematic analysis to identify the topical focus of research. Results: We found that the literature reflected an increasing and intensified interest in the topic of school leadership as the decade progressed. Furthermore, a range of emerging subtopics was identified. These included the relationship between school culture and professional identity in school principals; the influence of ethical and personal factors on the professional development of principals; the dilemmas of balancing education policies and personal experiences; and the relationships between gender identity, racial identity, professional experience/career, training and leadership identity. Conclusions: Several key issues emerged from the studies included in this review, such as the importance of external and internal influences in the construction of the professional identity of school principals. Some of the research suggested that school leaders felt the need to develop a new professional identity. Overall, the study indicates that school leadership and its relationship with school improvement should remain an important focus for educational research investigation.

While the teachers’ identity crisis is a recurring dilemma, it has acquired its own set of characteristics at the end of modernity. In addition, there are characteristics specific to secondary school teachers in Spain. Therefore, this topic must be placed within the broader framework of the modernity crisis and the academic community. From a narrative-biographical perspective, identities are constructed within a socialization process, like a story. This article describes the design of a study on the professional identity crisis of secondary school teachers in Spain. The study sequentially combines different individual interviews and focus groups. The research can be considered a collective case study, a multiple case study (individual interviews), and a greater collective study (focus groups). Finally, this article presents some of the study’s main conclusions. Identity is crucial to how teachers construct the nature of their work on a daily basis (motivation, satisfaction and competence). Therefore, and given the current crisis, it is necessary to evaluate alternative discourses that can lead to better school systems and a reconstruction of teachers’ identity in the academic community.