School leadership

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally. The research highlights the central influence of advantaged socioeconomic contexts on day‐to‐day school processes and on the related perspectives and beliefs of head teachers as well as variations on this theme related to other external and internal contextual variables. It illustrates that England’s most socially advantaged primary schools are likely to have much in common including a high level of parent involvement, a strong focus on student learning and progress, considerable ability to raise funds, very good reputations and only a handful of students with serious learning or behavioural problems. They also have in common middle class forms of transience and profiles of special needs. The article concludes that while contextual variations amongst socially advantaged schools do exist and are talked up by head teachers, they usually have an impact that can be managed.     

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.     

School leadership and capacity building in Kazakhstan

The article examines the scope for initiative and independent action that lies with school principals in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on capacity-building approaches. The study is situated within a large collaborative project between three institutions: the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS). A mixed-methods research design was used to collect data in 20 schools and 11 other educational organizations in six different geographical locations in Kazakhstan. The findings suggest that capacity-building strategies are necessary if innovations are to be implemented across all schools. The article outlines the challenges involved in making school reform effective and draws on the ‘capital framework’. The conclusion considers the implications for practitioners and policy-makers, and outlines an agenda for further research.     

School leadership and educational change: Tools and practices in shared school leadership development

This study examines the features of school leadership as it evolved in an upper secondary school attempting to enhance school improvement through a dedicated team of developmental leaders. We study the team leadership’s tools and design over one school year and report on the evolution of a collective approach to leadership for school improvement. Researchers in a formative intervention research project supported the change process. Cultural-historical activity theory and a set of new technologies inspired the intervention design. The study describes how conceptions and practices of leadership gradually emerged as a collective and distributed approach to leading educational change and school improvement. In particular, new tools and designs for school team leadership were explored and implemented. The study addresses the need to develop shared and collaborative conceptions of leadership in schools. The study concludes that careful planning and skilful orchestration of human, cultural and technological resources are needed in order to make sustainable improvements in schools.     

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.     

School leadership for equity: lessons from the literature

Responding to Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 169] call for writers on school leadership to offer ‘analyses which provide more critical messages about social inequality and neoliberal and managerialist policies’ we use Foucault's [2000. “The Subject and Power.” In Michel Foucault: Power, edited by J. D. Faubion, 326–348. London: Penguin Books] theory of power to ask what lessons we might learn from the literature on school leadership for equity. We begin by offering a definition of neoliberalism; new managerialism; leadership and equity, with the aim of revealing the relationship between the macropolitical discourse of neoliberalism and the actions of school leaders in the micropolitical arena of schools. In so doing, we examine some of the literature on school leadership for equity that post-dates Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 149–172] analysis, seeking evidence of critical engagement with/resistance to neoliberal policy. We identify three approaches to leadership for equity that have been used to enhance equity in schools internationally: (i) critical reflection; (ii) the cultivation of a ‘common vision’ of equity and (iii) ‘transforming dialogue’. We consider if such initiatives avoid the hegemonic trap of neoliberalism, which captures and disarms would be opponents of new managerial policy. We conclude by arguing that, in spite of the dominance of neoliberalism, head teachers have the power to speak up, and speak out, against social injustice.     

School leadership in the Caribbean: perceptions,practices, paradigms

This paper will focus on the shifts in discourses about teacher education and teacher voice within the South African research and policy environment over the last four decades. The alignment of the political and educational agenda in providing resistance to the apartheid system culminated in 1994, the start of the new democracy. The preceding 20 years (1974–1994) were characterised by defiance of the subjugation of teachers’ voices, and the need to find agency amongst teachers. The shifting agenda of the strong teacher union movement during these resistance years and within the post-apartheid 20 years (1994–2014) is the subject of this paper. The attempt to generate a focus on teacher professional quality agendas is presently becoming increasingly challenging. Has the teacher agency agenda produced a disregard for teacher professional development? Are teachers protective of their own inadequacies to enact the transformation for which they campaigned? Are the new educational authorities reverting to yet another form of earlier accountability and performativity regimes to regulate teachers? The paper traces a critical account of these shifting historical trends in activating teacher voice. It argues for ‘deliberative action’ to reassert teacher voice.     

Analysis of leadership dynamics in educational settings during times of external and internal change

Background: The article concerns the tensions that can arise during demanding external, and consequential internal changes and considers how educational leadership is able to respond to them. Leadership is here understood as a collaborative endeavour, producing shared sense-making in situations of tension.

Purpose: The main research question was: what kinds of leadership dynamics underlie situations of tension brought about by external and internal change? The sub-question was: what kind of micro-level sense-making processes, argued to be the true source of change, assist in revealing these dynamics?

Programme: Educational organisations increasingly face demanding external changes, such as the two mergers described in this article. Tensions can easily be brought about during such external changes and the consequential internal changes, such as two pedagogical innovation projects in this article.

Sample: The study was conducted with three leadership teams within two organisations. The first organisation was a vocational education organisation with around 4000–5000 students and 500 staff members. The leadership team that was studied was followed for almost two years. The other organisation was a business school which comprised of around 7000 students, 150–200 professors and 500 staff members. There, two leadership teams were investigated and followed for almost three years.

Design and methods: The data for the sense-making process was selected by way of qualitative content analysis and an experimented model called TenKeys®. This data were analysed using a grounded theory approach to uncover the underlying leadership dynamics.

Results: Ten micro-procedural leadership dynamics were identified. Actions related to the pedagogical projects were then interpreted by means of these dynamics.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that understanding underlying leadership dynamics might help educational organisations respond to possible tensions brought about by external and internal change and, consequently, support learners’ learning processes, albeit indirectly.     

对英国NCSL学院的学校领导教育模式的研究

简要介绍了英国NCSL学院的学校领导教育模式，并分析其特点和存在的问题，进而提出其教学模式对我国的学校领导教育体系的构建和大学治理的启示。     

Stimulating resources to cope with challenging times and new realities: effectiveness of a career intervention

A career intervention based on life design approach was devised for a group of young adults at risk for the process of career construction. It was aimed at fostering a series of resources useful to cope with career transitions, to encourage reflection on the future, to identify one’s own strengths, and to plan future projects. Results of the study provided evidence for effectiveness of the career intervention across at several methods of change assessment (statistical significance, clinical significance, and social validity) and highlighted the potential of the career intervention.     

Mission,faith and management: Co-constructing leadership in a Beacon Lower School

The Beacon scheme was devised by the Department for Education and Employment as a project ‘specifically designed to help raise standards in schools through the sharing and spread of good practice’ (DfEE, 1999a). The article outlines the nature of the Beacon Schools Scheme and examines and delineates some of the management processes in one such school, a Church Aided Lower School, in one of the largest towns in the UK. As a central contention the article argues that the ubiquitous management paradigm of ‘collegiality’ is neither a sufficient nor an accurate representation of effective models of school leadership. An alternative conception of ‘co-constructed leadership’ is suggested which may provide equal benefits in legitimating leadership decisions, whilst at the same time enabling the exercise of appropriate ‘authority’ by school leaders.     

School leadership and social justice: Evidence from Ghana and Tanzania

Headteachers working under conditions of severe hardship in Africa face tremendous challenges, often exacerbated by a sense of hopelessness and lack of agency to effect improvements within their school. This paper focuses on notions of leadership agency and ‘social justice’ within an African educational context, with a specific focus on the school level, and reports on a small-scale research project involving primary headteachers in Ghana and Tanzania engaging with action research in order to bring about changes which they feel will benefit the quality of pupil learning. The study presents some positive impacts generated by the headteachers’ actions and indicates ways in which these actions illustrate developments in areas of ‘social justice’ related to fairness, equity, recognition, and redistribution. The findings suggest that empowering headteachers through the use of action research can enable them to act creatively and positively to benefit the quality of education offered to the pupils within their schools.     

School teachers' perception about distributed leadership practices for inclusive education in primary schools in Bangladesh

This article reports on the third phase of a larger study that explored the perceptions of teachers about distributed leadership practices for inclusive education (IE) in primary schools involved in IE reform in Bangladesh. The Distributed Leadership Practice for Inclusive Education scale was developed specifically for this study to collect data. Participants for the present study were head teachers and teachers from 308 public primary schools. The results of this study indicate that teachers perceived that distributed leadership practices for IE were present in primary schools in Bangladesh. The findings indicate that teachers' perceptions about distributed leadership practices for IE have a significant positive correlation with their satisfaction about the implementation of IE policy.     

School leadership during violent conflict: rethinking education for peace in Nepal and beyond

This paper outlines the impact and professional tensions created by the decade-long armed conflict (1996–2006) on school leadership in Nepal. Drawing on qualitative interviews and discussions with school heads and teachers (n?=?92), the study reveals that the onerous pressure of pupils’ safety during crisis ultimately fell upon teachers and school leaders who faced direct violence on school grounds and communities they lived in. It was found that school heads were traumatised by consistent pressures, as manifested in the form of financial extortion, physical threats and abductions by the Maoists while the security forces frequently harassed them as Maoist sympathisers or confederates. Maintaining relational equilibrium with warring parties in order to ensure their personal and school survival was a traumatic experience. Despite the enormity of effects on education during conflict, the post-conflict educational debates largely undermine the voice of those who were at the frontlines during crisis. These findings provide useful insights into the ‘experiential dimension’ of civil conflict at schools in conflict zones and implications for educational programming.     

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.     

School reforms,principal leadership,and teacher resistance: evidence from Korea

Many countries design and implement school change with a focus on the fundamental reconfiguration in the structures of schooling. In this article, we examined the relationship between principal leadership and teacher resistance to school reforms driven by external interveners. For an empirical analysis, we took advantage of extensive data derived from 967 teachers and 32 principals in Korean vocational high schools that are now experiencing school reforms launched by the government. Our results revealed the importance of human aspects of school changes and reforms, in particular, driven by the external intervener. We first showed that a principal's initiative leadership is significantly related to the reduction of teacher resistance to change, in particular on the emotional and behavioural dimensions. Not surprisingly, teachers showed a higher level of resistance when their schools participate in the government-driven reform. Finally, teacher resistance depended upon characteristics of teachers as well as principals. These findings provide some useful policy implications for facilitating successful school reform efforts. Foremost, school reformers are advised to rethink the school change model design in a way of fully capturing human aspects in the reform process.