Examining school leadership effects on student achievement: the role of contextual challenges and constraints

The present study examined indirect effects of principal leadership on the mathematics achievement of 254,475 15-year-old students from 10,313 schools in 32 OECD economies. Results showed that the students could be divided into three categories (Disadvantaged, Average, and Privileged) differing in levels of student SES and prior achievement, parental academic expectations, and access to school resources. Results also showed that principal leadership effects accounted for a greater proportion of between-school achievement variance for Disadvantaged vis-à-vis Privileged or Average students. In particular, instructional leadership had the largest positive effect on Disadvantaged vis-à-vis other students’ achievement via the mediating variables of teacher autonomy and morale. Distributed leadership negatively affected the achievement of Disadvantaged but not other students. The negative effects of principal goal-setting were the largest while those of principal problem-solving were the smallest for Disadvantaged students. The study contributes to the literature by examining contextual influences on the leadership–achievement relationship.     

Waiting for Superleader: leadership as anti-resource discourse

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the constructs of school leadership that have gained primacy over the past 20 years. In doing so, I discuss how structures limit the role of the leader in school organisations has been overlooked, particularly ignoring the resource dependency of schools and the external control of resources they do acquire. What I argue is that leadership is an anti-resource discourse. That is, the focus on leadership allows the neoliberal discourse to ignore and obscure the inequitable funding of schools in the USA.     

How local market pressures shape leadership practices: evidence from Chile

Chile is well known worldwide for its extensive use of market-driven mechanisms in education. Using a case study strategy in three schools, this paper shows that ‘universal’ voucher system and mixed provision (co-existence of subsidised private and state-funded schools) policies are reshaping school management practices. The paper draws evidence from ethnographic data in disadvantaged Chilean public schools and uses Bourdieu’s notion of field as an analytical tool in order to conceptualise the schools’ practices within their local markets as a symbolic and strategic ‘game’ of competition. One of the main findings is that, in response to market pressures and their specific positions within local markets, school leaders built a market-competitive agenda, preparing detailed strategies and undertaking decision-making practices accordingly. These practices were distinctive in relation to different school market positions, impacting the schools’ priorities, value disputes, and management goals.     

Contemporary challenges and changes: principals' leadership practices in Malaysia

This article outlines the findings from a contemporary study of principals' leadership practices in Malaysia as part of the 7 System Leadership Study. Recent policy developments within Malaysia have increased principals' accountability and have underlined the importance of the role of the principals in transforming school performance and student learning outcomes. This article draws upon emerging empirical evidence about principals' leadership practices and highlights some of the challenges associated with the new accountability expectations and demands placed upon principals in Malaysia. It provides a contemporary insight into the way in which principals in Malaysia view their leadership practice. The article proposes that despite the pressure on them to secure better school and student outcomes, principals in Malaysia increasingly view their leadership practices as transformational and distributed.     

Teaching data use and school leadership

This case study uses evidence collected for accreditation and programme improvement at a small university Master's and certification programme in Educational Leadership Development to describe efforts to help leadership candidates use data during the programme's final internship experience. Programme features supporting the growth of candidates' instructional leadership skills are discussed as are the challenges faculty encountered supporting leadership candidates' efforts to use data to lead change projects. Suggestions for evaluating programmes' ability to teach evidence-based leadership practice are offered at the paper's conclusion.     

Instructional leadership practices in Singapore

This paper presents a review of the literature on principal instructional leadership in Singapore. The authors investigated the dimensions of instructional leadership in the practices of Singapore principals and highlighted the strategies these leaders adopt to enact their instructional roles. Singapore principals were found to play an active role in defining the school vision and promoting the school climate. However, in the areas of curriculum implementation and classroom instruction, the middle management team in the school played more active roles as compared to principals. Five broad conclusions were discussed to provide perspectives on instructional leadership practices in Singapore. This paper also highlighted limitations on current instructional leadership research in Singapore and pointed to areas of future research.     

Educational leadership and the Capabilities Approach: evidence from Ghana

School leaders play a central role in affecting the educational development of the young people for whom they have responsibility. This is especially the case where school leaders are operating in challenging low-income environments. This paper argues that a focus on Sen’s notions of individual agency and freedom are a necessary but not a sufficient factor in the conversion of capabilities into functionings for these school leaders. This is done through using the Capabilities Approach as a lens through which to carry out a retrospective analysis and evaluation of the activities of a group of primary school headteachers in Ghana involved in a UK Government-funded project focused on education quality. The paper argues that headteachers with the capability of initiating change in the education process in their schools are unlikely to act in this way unless they feel that they have permission to do so. It is also important that headteachers feel that they are working within a context and an environment where acting in ways which aim to improve pupil learning is seen as central to their role. This kind of supportive context for school leaders (and for other educational practitioners) cannot be divorced from a policy environment which sanctions such activities, and, hence, it is argued that such a context is crucial to policy developments which seek to establish and sustain the core capabilities which are at the heart of Nussbaum’s essentialist approach. The paper also brings to the foreground the tensions that exist between the notion of individuals being free to make choices about what they have reason to value, on the one hand, and the implications that these choices have for the freedoms of other individuals with whom they are connected to make such choices. Finally, it is argued in the paper that the action research approach used in the Leadership & Management Project in Ghana, allied to a positive policy context, provides both the sensitivity to context and a practice-oriented focus which can enable school leaders to bring about the conversion of their individual capabilities into functionings.     

Enacting instructional leadership: perspectives and actions of public K-12 principals

This article’s purpose is to highlight the perspectives and actions of urban, public school K-12 principals who are noted for prioritising instructional leadership. Grounded in the conceptual framework of agency, I examined the work experiences of 18 New York City public school principals nominated by supervisors, colleagues, trained educational consultants, parents, and students through a four-phase qualitative study consisting of interviews, time surveys, document review, and observations with participants. In order to uphold instructional leadership, analysis highlighted that participants assumed agency by engendering perspectives and actions that viewed instructional leadership as: grounded in learning, influenced by teachers/staff, requiring time and planning for principals and teachers/staff, and calls for teacher/staff empowerment.     

Perceptions of elementary teachers on the instructional leadership role of school principals

In this research, elementary school principals＇ instructional leadership behavior was evaluated based on the perceptions of elementary school teachers. The research is believed to contribute to the development of instructional leadership behavior of elementary school principals for the development of school organization. A ＂semi-structured interview technique＂, one of the qualitative research methods in the literature was used in the research. The study group was made up of elementary school teachers working in Nigde, Turkey, during the 2008-2009 academic year. For the study sample, one teacher from each school was selected at random, resulting in group of twenty elementary school teachers. Based on the content analysis, five themes of instructional leadership behavior were found. These themes are： （1） determination of the school＇s purpose; （2） management of instruction; （3） evaluation of students; （4） support to teachers; and （5） creation of a regular learning-teaching environment.     

Distributed leadership in practice in Finnish schools

The aim of this study is to explore what aspects the principals and the members of the management teams in the primary and upper secondary education schools in Vantaa support distributed leadership in their school and how necessary they see that distributed leadership is extended to the students in matters concerning the curriculum and the development of teaching practices. The research method was a survey based on a questionnaire of 48 questions, where the respondents evaluated the preconditions of distributed leadership in their school. The principals and members of the management teams in the primary and upper secondary schools in Vantaa see distributed leadership mostly as delegation of predetermined tasks than the interaction among leaders, followers and situations. The results strengthen the view of distributed leadership as a phenomenon which in its primitive form can be seen in the official structures of the school and as delegation based on a formal position in the more advanced view distributed leadership can be seen as interaction among the management team and in the situations in the official and unofficial structures of the school.     

Teacher supervision and evaluation challenges: Canadian perspectives on overall instructional leadership

This inquiry focuses on the overall instructional leadership approaches used by exemplary principals in three high performing Canadian provinces to overcome three persistent obstacles to effective teacher supervision and evaluation: (a) the management challenge, (b) the complexity challenge, and (c) the learning challenge. Analysis of data collected from interviews, focus groups, observations, field notes, documents, artifacts, and reflective research journals yielded the following four assertions: (a) Shared, distributed, and collective approaches to overall instructional leadership deepen and widen impact. (b) Effective supervision and evaluation are part of a career-long continuum of practice that fosters teacher growth while ensuring quality teaching. (c) There are multiple learning pathways to effective overall instructional leadership. (d) Policy contexts that place teacher supervision and evaluation practice within a broader conception of overall instructional leadership are beneficial.     

Meta-analysis of transformational school leadership effects on school outcomes in Taiwan and the USA

Researchers have suggested that transformational leadership is an important aspect of effective schools; however, whether the effects vary across related studies and the robustness of the overall effect size remain unclear. A meta-analysis technique was used to synthesize the results of 28 independent studies and to investigate the overall relationship between transformational school leadership and three measures of school outcomes. The study found that, in terms of the mean effect sizes, transformational school leadership does have positive effects on teacher job satisfaction, school effectiveness perceived by teachers, and student achievement. Support for this paper was funded in part by the Taiwan’s National Science Council. The author is especially grateful to the two reviewers for their valuable comments and Dr. Jin-Fu Wu for his helps of statistical analysis.     

Bridging the chasm between two worlds: identifying perceived challenges in a sample of graduate educational-leadership students

Eighty-three educators attending a Masters’ programme in school leadership discussed their responses as they compared models learned in class with the organisational reality they experience at work. Content analysis, conducted by two independent coders revealed a sense of crisis. The majority reported experiencing frustration and anger both with the school system that is perceived as anachronistic and unsupportive of change and the study programme seemingly teaching models and ideas that are irrelevant in the reality they experience. A considerable minority reported being positively challenged to promote change. A smaller minority reported feeling the system is already going in the direction pointed out by modern models and theories. The results are discussed in light of global evidence on the issue and recommendations for future policy and educational design are offered.     

School leadership and school improvement: an examination of school readiness factors

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an investigation into the influence stemming from school leadership as an important consideration in relation to school improvement. School readiness, based on [Schiemann, W. A. 2014. “From Talent Management to Talent Optimization.” Journal of World Business 49 (2): 281–288. doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.012]. Accountability, Capability and Engagement (ACE) leadership model, was assessed through self-reported school leader behaviours, attitudes, perceptions, and school improvement attributes. To clarify, school readiness refers to how a school principal optimises staff and other school resources to best achieve school improvement agendas. School readiness survey results and student achievement outcomes for one entire school district were analysed, indicating that school readiness did indeed impact student achievement. Findings reveal a need for school leaders to focus more clearly on overall school alignment and optimisation behaviours, and these are discussed in relation to specific leadership recommendations and how leadership can better support and encourage school improvement in terms of educational accountability.     

Instructional leadership in Malaysia: a review of the contemporary literature*

This article provides a review of the contemporary instructional leadership research base in Malaysia. The core aim of this review is to assess the recent knowledge base on instructional leadership in Malaysia and to evaluate its current contribution to the existing international literature. The article explores a range of published material that has focused explicitly on instructional leadership and instructional leadership practices in Malaysia, including that written in Bahasa Malaysia. The article outlines the findings from the review and highlights certain strengths and limitations. The article concludes by identifying areas for further enquiry and investigation.     

论课程领导与学校角色转变

课程领导是一种不同于课程管理的新的管理观，在课程领导的背景下，传统学校的工具型组织角色已经不能满足其要求，由工具型组织走向学习型组织是课程领导下学校角色转换的必然要求。     

Developing and validating an instrument measuring school leadership

In this study, we developed and validated an instrument that researchers can use to measure the collective effort of principals and teachers who excise their own unique leadership to generate (integrated) school leadership. Based on 644 teachers, we found sound psychometric properties of the scales of the instrument and the instrument as a whole. We also explored the predictive properties of the instrument in predicting student achievement at the school level. Based on 53 schools, we found that the instrument can indeed measure the kind of school leadership that really matters to student achievement. When predicting student achievement (at the school level), the instrument tends to be more sensitive to more difficult school subjects (e.g. mathematics), implying that improvement in school leadership would lead to larger improvement in student achievement (at the school level) in more difficult school subjects.     

School leadership and intercultural understanding: school foyers as situated spaces for doing diversity

Internationally, Intercultural Understanding (ICU) is increasingly prevalent in the field of education. The recent evidence base includes a growing academic literature and examples of specified education policy and curricula. In regards to leveraging ICU, research suggests a multi-level and longitudinal approach is needed to ensure effective and sustainable school change. Significant gaps exist in the literature about the contextual factors across all school levels that facilitate or impede the development of ICU. These gaps include research and action pertaining to school leadership. This paper draws from interviews and visual data generated in a large Australian study and focuses on the centrality of a single architectural feature of the school, the school foyer, and how principals grapple with the (re)design of these spaces to assert themselves as interculturally capable schools. Discourses of educational leadership have historically relied on well-worn leadership models of operational practices rather than explicitly framing an understanding of diversity to support intercultural capabilities. During a period of mandated Australian curriculum reform and assessment, this paper offers another way of ‘Doing Diversity’ of interest to policy makers and school leadership keen to embed ICU in their schools while highlighting the significant role school leaders have in progressing ICU.     

Meanings of success and successful leadership in Ontario,Canada, in neo-liberal times

The provincial government of Ontario, Canada, has committed itself to raising student achievement, closing achievement gaps, and increasing the public's confidence in public education. It has introduced many policies, including the Ontario Leadership Strategy (OLS), to support these goals. Our study examined how teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents in three elementary schools in Ontario understand and enact school success and successful school leadership within this (neo-liberal) context. Findings of a comparative analysis of Ontario policy texts and data from interviews with administrators, teachers, support staff, and parents in the schools demonstrate that the school-based participants defined success as academic learning, a positive school climate, and students' well-being. This definition differs from the definition prioritised by Ontario's government: high scores on standardised provincial and international tests. However, principals in the schools enacted leadership practices advocated by OLS to support locally defined notions of success.     

Countering plutocracies: increasing autonomy and accountability through culturally relevant leadership

In urban school districts across the USA there are mandates to implement zero tolerance policies. As this occurs, there is an increasing number of students, specifically students of colour, who are being jettisoned out of the educative process. When school principals have little autonomy regarding how they handle disciplinary infractions within their schools, it becomes relatively easy for them to opt out of making tough decision. The authors assert that Culturally Relevant Leadership is a framework that, if applied correctly, can help school leaders reduce the multiple school suspensions and expulsions that are occurring among students of colour.