Nicola Sum
Biographic Data
| ID | 1252770 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicola Sum |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicola |
| FAMILY NAME | Sum |
| SIGNATURE | SUM N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4855-7724 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Leadership for learning
Despite growing global emphasis on educational leadership for school and system improvement, a disconnect persists between aspirational policy frameworks promoted by international organisations and the lived realities of leadership at local levels. Given that the most recent Global Education Monitoring (GEM) 2024 report focuses on educational leadership, in this paper, we use interpretive policy analysis and a conceptual lens of leadership for le…
The leadership of innovation in education
Although innovation is widely promoted as essential to educational transformation, definitional ambiguity and a persistent disconnect between policy rhetoric and implementation realities leave educational leaders without the conceptual clarity or systemic support necessary to enact meaningful change. This article presents findings from a global environmental scan that explores how innovation in education is defined, enacted, and constrained throu…
Conceptualising innovation in education
School leadership is increasingly recognised as a critical lever for driving innovation in education, yet the concept of innovation itself remains conceptually ambiguous and inconsistently enacted across contexts. This scoping review examines how innovation is conceptualised in the school leadership literature and explores its relationship to leadership and change. Drawing on 63 peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2025, the review fo…
Conceptualizing innovation in education
Innovation is all around. Educational policy reform, leadership imperatives, technological advancement, school improvement priorities and equity-oriented work are frequently characterised as focal
Education, leadership and diaspora
This paper is a scoping review of literature exploring the range and nature of research activity regarding women leading education within marginalized communities in Australia and England. Such practice of women’s educational leadership regularly occurs beyond formal constructs of schooling, and is often immersed in the vulnerabilities of indigenous, diasporic and other marginalized populations, yet remains invisible in scholarship on leading edu…
School leadership, communities and crises
Purpose This article bridges research and practice spaces to consider diverse school leadership experiences and expertise, through a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) of a sextet of contributors, to explore humanist approaches as foundational to leaders’ professional capital and their engagement with community during crises. Design/methodology/approach We use CAE as a methodology to explore the relationship of school leaders and their communiti…
Hope theory as resistance
Purpose Identity, positioning and possibilities intersect differently for South Asian women in white academia. Within a broader migrant community that defines Australian life, these identities and positioning imply great possibility, but pursuing such pathways within academia is a walk on the last strand of resilience. This paper explores this tension of possibilities and constraints, using hope theory to highlight the cognitive resistance eviden…
Gendered Dimensions of Migration and Conviviality
Gendered Dimensions of Migration and Conviviality: A Virtual Space for Autoethnographic Explorations of 'Finding Home'
A balancing act
This paper presents the findings of a self-study exploring the experiences of women leaders, and the intersections of leadership work with roles as mothers. Drawing on narratives of women from across experiences of leading to support women in the workplace, to women who juggle leadership work and mothering, and women whose mothering involves caring for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, we address the dearth in scholarship …
Quiet in the mind
Empirical studies of crisis leadership have historically been limited to analyses of particular events, captured in themes of flexibility, care and the importance of communication as a response. Since 2020, the crisis has been global, demanding immediate and multiple pivots for school leaders. While care and communication are particularly incumbent on the leadership work of women, gendered perspectives of leadership during this crisis have been l…
Investigating the Victorian Government Schools’ Parent Opinion Survey validity
Transnational women in globalised times
This paper explores the experiences of transnational women educators, who lead in education institutions in globally imbricated home and host schooling contexts, focusing on how they negotiate glass ceilings and borders in their work and their life choices. The purpose is to extend scholarship on women in educational leadership, which is often framed as a binary of national and international scales, thereby omitting large numbers of educators who…
School leaders' perceptions of their roles during the pandemic
As COVID-19 unfurled around the world in early 2020, it triggered volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) for school leaders. This study explores the experiences of four school leaders, working in inner Melbourne, Australia, through a VUCA lens, and identifies their perceptions of such contextual disruption. Data were collected through focus group meetings over the initial phase of the pandemic in 2020. Findings illustrate the wa…
Creating spaces of learning in academia
This paper analyses the move by an Australian university faculty to a new building featuring open plan and alternative workspaces. Through the lens of the theory of practice architectures, the paper examines how the new built spaces both enabled and constrained the professional learning practices of academics. Drawing on a case study of the transition, the paper explores the ways in which the move to the new building disrupted existing ecologies …
How built spaces influence practices of educators’ work
In this era of the global pandemic of Covid 19, built spaces for educating have taken on a special significance. As this special issue was underway in 2021, much of our home country of Australia was living under conditions of hard lockdown as the Delta variant spread. Internationally, we saw similar conditions. Schools and universities operated virtually or at skeletal levels. Learning and teaching were undertaken in the home and the conditions t…
School leaders’ perceptions of religion and spirituality in Bangladesh
Concerns with how religion is placed in education has garnered considerable attention in the past fifteen years, due in large part to heightened politics and social agendas to strengthen community cohesion. This paper addresses the need to better understand how school leaders are internalising such discourses on religion and spirituality. A qualitative case study of school leaders situated in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh, involved observa…
Hope theory as resistance
Purpose Identity, positioning and possibilities intersect differently for South Asian women in white academia. Within a broader migrant community that defines Australian life, these identities and positioning imply great possibility, but pursuing such pathways within academia is a walk on the last strand of resilience. This paper explores this tension of possibilities and constraints, using hope theory to highlight the cognitive resistance eviden…
Transnational women in globalised times
This paper explores the experiences of transnational women educators, who lead in education institutions in globally imbricated home and host schooling contexts, focusing on how they negotiate glass ceilings and borders in their work and their life choices. The purpose is to extend scholarship on women in educational leadership, which is often framed as a binary of national and international scales, thereby omitting large numbers of educators who…
School leaders’ perceptions of religion and spirituality in Bangladesh
Concerns with how religion is placed in education has garnered considerable attention in the past fifteen years, due in large part to heightened politics and social agendas to strengthen community cohesion. This paper addresses the need to better understand how school leaders are internalising such discourses on religion and spirituality. A qualitative case study of school leaders situated in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh, involved observa…
School leaders' perceptions of their roles during the pandemic
As COVID-19 unfurled around the world in early 2020, it triggered volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) for school leaders. This study explores the experiences of four school leaders, working in inner Melbourne, Australia, through a VUCA lens, and identifies their perceptions of such contextual disruption. Data were collected through focus group meetings over the initial phase of the pandemic in 2020. Findings illustrate the wa…
Creating spaces of learning in academia
This paper analyses the move by an Australian university faculty to a new building featuring open plan and alternative workspaces. Through the lens of the theory of practice architectures, the paper examines how the new built spaces both enabled and constrained the professional learning practices of academics. Drawing on a case study of the transition, the paper explores the ways in which the move to the new building disrupted existing ecologies …
How built spaces influence practices of educators’ work
In this era of the global pandemic of Covid 19, built spaces for educating have taken on a special significance. As this special issue was underway in 2021, much of our home country of Australia was living under conditions of hard lockdown as the Delta variant spread. Internationally, we saw similar conditions. Schools and universities operated virtually or at skeletal levels. Learning and teaching were undertaken in the home and the conditions t…
Transnational women in globalised times
This paper explores the experiences of transnational women educators, who lead in education institutions in globally imbricated home and host schooling contexts, focusing on how they negotiate glass ceilings and borders in their work and their life choices. The purpose is to extend scholarship on women in educational leadership, which is often framed as a binary of national and international scales, thereby omitting large numbers of educators who…
A balancing act
This paper presents the findings of a self-study exploring the experiences of women leaders, and the intersections of leadership work with roles as mothers. Drawing on narratives of women from across experiences of leading to support women in the workplace, to women who juggle leadership work and mothering, and women whose mothering involves caring for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, we address the dearth in scholarship …
Quiet in the mind
Empirical studies of crisis leadership have historically been limited to analyses of particular events, captured in themes of flexibility, care and the importance of communication as a response. Since 2020, the crisis has been global, demanding immediate and multiple pivots for school leaders. While care and communication are particularly incumbent on the leadership work of women, gendered perspectives of leadership during this crisis have been l…
Investigating the Victorian Government Schools’ Parent Opinion Survey validity
Education, leadership and diaspora
This paper is a scoping review of literature exploring the range and nature of research activity regarding women leading education within marginalized communities in Australia and England. Such practice of women’s educational leadership regularly occurs beyond formal constructs of schooling, and is often immersed in the vulnerabilities of indigenous, diasporic and other marginalized populations, yet remains invisible in scholarship on leading edu…
School leadership, communities and crises
Purpose This article bridges research and practice spaces to consider diverse school leadership experiences and expertise, through a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) of a sextet of contributors, to explore humanist approaches as foundational to leaders’ professional capital and their engagement with community during crises. Design/methodology/approach We use CAE as a methodology to explore the relationship of school leaders and their communiti…
Hope theory as resistance
Purpose Identity, positioning and possibilities intersect differently for South Asian women in white academia. Within a broader migrant community that defines Australian life, these identities and positioning imply great possibility, but pursuing such pathways within academia is a walk on the last strand of resilience. This paper explores this tension of possibilities and constraints, using hope theory to highlight the cognitive resistance eviden…
Gendered Dimensions of Migration and Conviviality
Gendered Dimensions of Migration and Conviviality: A Virtual Space for Autoethnographic Explorations of 'Finding Home'
Leadership for learning
Despite growing global emphasis on educational leadership for school and system improvement, a disconnect persists between aspirational policy frameworks promoted by international organisations and the lived realities of leadership at local levels. Given that the most recent Global Education Monitoring (GEM) 2024 report focuses on educational leadership, in this paper, we use interpretive policy analysis and a conceptual lens of leadership for le…
The leadership of innovation in education
Although innovation is widely promoted as essential to educational transformation, definitional ambiguity and a persistent disconnect between policy rhetoric and implementation realities leave educational leaders without the conceptual clarity or systemic support necessary to enact meaningful change. This article presents findings from a global environmental scan that explores how innovation in education is defined, enacted, and constrained throu…
Conceptualising innovation in education
School leadership is increasingly recognised as a critical lever for driving innovation in education, yet the concept of innovation itself remains conceptually ambiguous and inconsistently enacted across contexts. This scoping review examines how innovation is conceptualised in the school leadership literature and explores its relationship to leadership and change. Drawing on 63 peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2025, the review fo…
Conceptualizing innovation in education
Innovation is all around. Educational policy reform, leadership imperatives, technological advancement, school improvement priorities and equity-oriented work are frequently characterised as focal
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Educational leadership (5 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works)