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.     

Characteristics of effective leadership networks: a replication and extension

Purpose: Replicating and extending earlier research, this mixed-methods study inquired about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual and collective leaders’ professional capacities.

Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by 283 school and district leaders to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Interview data were provided by 23 school leaders. Variables in the model included Network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, and outcomes.

Findings: Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data and, as a whole, explained 51% of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes, followed closely by the effects of Network Health and Network Connectivity. Interview data confirmed the nature of variables measured by the survey and added additional features for future research. Most results replicated the previous study.

Research Limitation: The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organised within districts, not networks organised by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalised to other types of networks.

Practical implication: In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Originality: Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.     

Assessing impact: the role of leadership competency models in developing effective school leaders

The purpose of this case study is to examine the impact of the development and design of a district leadership competency model on leadership development outcomes in one Georgia school district. Specifically, we seek to illuminate the importance of Leadership Competency Models for (1) increasing clarity among aspiring leaders about the expectations for leadership within their system; (2) increasing shared understanding among school leaders and district administrators about the core elements of leadership required for success within their system; (3) increasing uniformity of practice in the identification and selection of candidates into the Aspiring Leader Program; and (4) improvements in the development and support provided for aspiring school leaders. As districts continue to work towards systemic improvement in leadership development nationwide, our findings have real-world implications for districts interested in identifying and developing aspiring leaders within their own systems.     

A review on leadership and leadership development in educational settings

Leadership gained a lot of attention during the past decades because of school principals' growing responsibilities and the accountability-driven context they work in. However, reviews providing a general overview of effective school leadership theories and effective professional development are rare. The present review was conducted to summarise the existing literature and discover lacunae in school leadership research in preschools, primary and secondary schools. 75 studies focusing on leadership theories, characteristics of effective school leadership and school leaders’ professional development were included and analysed. The present article provides an overview of main leadership theories such as instructional leadership, situational leadership, transformational leadership, distributed leadership and Leadership for Learning. Second, the article focuses on the characteristics of effective school leadership and lastly, the review offers features of effective professional development activities for school principals.     

Middle leadership in international schools: evidence from Malaysia

This paper examines middle leadership of the heads of English, maths and science departments in four international secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on their roles, responsibilities, role relationships, instructional engagement and leadership involvement within the theoretical framework of instructional, distributed and teacher leadership. The study is a qualitative multi-method case study, involving observation, documentary analysis, and semi-structured interviews with 12 heads of department, 36 teachers, and four principals. With respect to the middle leaders’ roles and responsibilities, the findings illustrate cross-school and in-school differential developments, with contextual factors contributing to uneasy role relationships. The results also show that, while broad-based leadership opportunities are limited for the middle leaders and teachers, the most powerful and common feature of all these international schools is the centrality of teaching and learning.     

Distributed leadership of school curriculum change: an integrative approach

Since its inception in 1999, the distributed leadership framework of Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond [2004. “Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 36 (1): 3–34. doi:10.1080/0022027032000106726] has supported research into leadership and change in schools. Whilst the conceptual integrity of the framework is sound, research based upon its premises has attracted some criticism. The research has had a narrowed focus which has not generally reflected the inseparability of the elements of the framework and the situation within which leadership is enacted. In addition, it often fails to account for the complexity of critical elements of the environment such as micropolitics. This position paper proposes a reconfiguration of the distributed leadership framework as a research framework in response to this critique. The paper asserts that this new perspective that is presented is able to respond to the critique through an integrated approach that encompasses situation, social distribution and task enactment and which supports an integrated approach to research methodology. This adapted framework has the potential to more fully support research design that is actuality holistic and embedded in the context.     

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.     

Distributed leadership: challenging five generally held assumptions

This article reports on a study exploring a distributed perspective on school leadership through three head teacher case studies conducted in Scottish primary schools. Drawing from a sequence of in-depth, semi-structured and narrative style interviews conducted with each head teacher, as well as from a semi-structured questionnaire and sociometric analysis conducted with staff, the article analyses the experiences and the perceptions of head teachers. The paper finds that in practice, distributed leadership is more complex and challenging than often represented, challenging five generally held assumptions in the theoretical, policy and practice frames. Implications are drawn for educational leadership at both school and system levels.     

Resistant leadership: countering dominant paradigms in school improvement

ABSTRACT

In Australia, school leadership is influenced by neoliberal discourses of accountability and performativity. Many schools seek to balance systemic pressures that narrow outcome expectations with a desire to deliver schooling in the broad interests of the students and communities that they serve. In this case, the principal was appointed to a school under threat of closure. To re-establish he purposefully disrupted traditional arrangements using approaches that disregarded many standard school improvement paradigms. The school improved in enrolments, reputation and student learning. This paper examines how this principal found and created spaces for disruptive change within the local context and the broader policy environment. While the value or ethics of the leadership are not the focus of the paper, it is noted that the autocratic position he assumed was problematic. Despite this, the case provides insight into leadership that resisted the confines of normative pressures to support radical school improvement.     

Continuous improvement in schools: Understanding the practice

This article investigates conceptually and practically what it means for schools to engage in the practice of continuous improvement. The analysis draws upon prior research and discussion to predict core elements of the practice of continuous improvement in schools. The predictions are then applied to a case study of continuous improvement efforts in a Pakistani secondary school that was involved in a 10-year school–university school improvement partnership. The article concludes with a set of eight empirically based propositions about the practice of continuous improvement schools.     

Towards a theory of school leadership practice: a Bourdieusian perspective

Despite the ‘practice’ turn in the broader management literature, very little work in educational administration has engaged in a theoretical discussion about what constitutes leadership practice. Theoretically informed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper contributes to the long-established critical tradition in the educational administration literature, to argue that: (i) ‘leadership’ is a label of the managerialist project of the state; (ii) leadership should be thought of as a disruptive practice; and (iii) Bourdieusian theory can enable this thinking, but not as it is frequently mobilised in the educational administration literature. The alternative put forth in this paper is not merely replacing one external narrative (managerialism) with another (Bourdieusian), but rather advancing a theoretical position on what is leadership that paves a way forward for a research programme.     

Leading with intent: cultivating community conversation to create shared understanding

School improvement is a central focus for school leaders. Whilst measures such as high-stakes testing and other government accountability agendas have at times marred the discourse of school improvement, how schools develop their capacity to ultimately improve the core business of student learning remains important. As an extensive area of scholarship, much has been written to support leaders in improving learning and teaching in their school. Indeed, studies demonstrate the value of establishing schoolwide goals and expectations and the importance of using evidence to improve teaching practice. This article presents qualitative data from 4 independent schools in the state of New South Wales (NSW) Australia which suggest that whilst the concept of school improvement is not new, the capacity of schools to embrace some key concepts found in this area of study is limited. The article proposes that through cultivating conversations within their communities, schools can foster shared understanding and enhance their capacity for improvement.     

School leadership and special education: challenges,dilemmas and opportunities from an Australian context

This article examines the personal and professional attributes of school leaders in relation to special educational needs and disability (SEND) and assesses the extent to which these might be sufficient to give such professionals the confidence necessary to be role models for their staff. Data were collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of Australian school leaders, in both special and mainstream schools. This included principals from all sectors of the Australian school system. The study was based on the premise that school principals place as much importance on the need to be instructional leaders as they do on being managers. The study was informed by an assumption that in order to be successful as a school leader in respect of SEND, a school principal requires a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children's developmental milestones. The study found that school leaders expressed a need to develop further understanding of how to differentiate the taught curriculum in order to identify and support school‐wide quality teaching and learning processes for students with SEND.     

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.     

Classroom teacher leadership: service-learning for teacher sense of efficacy and servant leadership development

Improved student achievement requires the distribution of leadership beyond one individual. Given their daily connection to students, leadership opportunities distributed to classroom teachers are key to school improvement. Complicating the development of classroom teacher leaders are attrition rates and low teacher efficacy among novice educators. Service-learning and servant leadership offer complementary pedagogical and philosophical approaches to shift the role of classroom teachers and address efficacy concerns. This study utilised a pre-/post-test, quasi-experimental research design to determine to what extent changes would occur over time in pre-service educators’ teacher sense of efficacy and sense of servant leadership from participating in service-learning.     

System leaders using assessment for learning as both the change and the change process: developing theory from practice

Many schools and school systems have been deliberately working towards full implementation of Assessment for Learning for more than a decade, yet success has been elusive. Using a leader's implementation of Assessment for Learning in one school as an illustration, this article examines eight positional leaders’ experiences as they implemented both the ‘spirit and the letter’ of Assessment for Learning at all levels. This longitudinal qualitative research study draws on the experiences of leaders from Alberta, British Columbia, Germany, Georgia, Hawai`i, Manitoba, New Zealand and Ontario. The authors identify five findings that show how positional leaders use Assessment for Learning as the focus for system-wide change, as well as the change process itself.     

Teacher leadership enactment in professional learning community contexts: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the importance of teacher leaders. In this article, we report on an ethnographic case study involving three PLCs investigating how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework provided by the research team. The findings showed that teacher leadership has potential in supporting PLC conversations along three dimensions of its construct.     

Distributed leadership for personalized learning

Abstract

Personalized learning refers to a collection of practices designed to place student interests and needs at the heart of schooling. Schools that implement personalized learning need leaders that support educators and students in redesigning the core practices of teaching and learning in K-12 schools. To answer the question of how leaders support this redesign, we use distributed leadership theory to focus on the macrotasks and microtasks that leaders enact to create the conditions for personalized learning practices. Drawing on a five-year, qualitative study of 11 personalized learning programs in the Midwest, we identify three macrotasks supporting personalized learning: reorganizing learning environments to support student voice and choice, assembling idiosyncratic technology ecosystems to distribute teaching and learning tasks, and redesigning instructional time to prioritize student’s interests, agency, and learning relationships. After we describe a number of microtasks associated with each macrotask, we discuss how a consideration of these kinds of leadership tasks can open the contemporary discussion of personalized learning from a narrow focus on learning technologies to an expansive vision of student-centered school reform.     

Schoolteachers' constructions of desirable educational leadership: a career-stage perspective

The current study aimed at exploring desirable constructions of educational leadership among Israeli schoolteachers at three different career stages, as well as tracing the origins of these constructions. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers at early-career stage, 10 at mid-career stage and 10 at late-career stage, the study first found major commonalities among the interviewees with regard to emotional, moral, participative and structural constructions of educational leadership. But, ‘a second reading’ of the data unearthed subtle distinctions among the interviewees, deriving from the teacher's position in the career cycle. The early-career teachers hold an egocentric view of educational leadership while their late-career counterparts present a more multi-focal outlook. Empirical and practical implications are suggested.