Contributing to the ongoing narrative on Australian school effectiveness and school improvement in 21st century Australian schools

This article is an autoethnographic piece that provides insight into my focus on educational management, administration and leadership studies. Most of my work is situated in looking at schools and educational systems through the lens of school effectiveness and school improvement. I reflect on how this has translated into my investigations on schools as organisations where vision, values, cultural processes, continuous improvements, and accountability systems are found critically important. Along with those factors, the importance of nurturing and sustaining human relationships and connections are considered to be paramount. I use complexity thinking to assist me in looking at the multiple intricacies faced by schools today. I also use a systems approach in understanding how schools operate within nested social systems in which they are situated and the involvement of stakeholders within these nested social systems. I find that my work helps me to situate my research interests within my teaching and engagement activities helping me to interrogate, explore, disseminate and connect with my field of interest. Through the exercise of personal reflexivity, the article further unwraps these ways of thinking, ways of believing and ways of doing that I find myself building into my own praxis of understanding. I find that through the self-account given in this article I have in effect permitted myself to appreciate this through the verbalisation of my thoughts, beliefs and actions.