Abstract
Schools and policy makers face common challenges driven by external affairs such as economic uncertainty, globalisation, and advances in technology. Rapidly changing educational, societal, and political systems require school leaders to adopt creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn) as an integral feature of their leadership. To understand what Cr&Inn means to those in primary sector headteacher positions, this conceptual paper explores the following questions: How is Cr&Inn defined regarding headteachers within the primary sector? What are the key characteristics of Cr&Inn regarding primary sector headteachers? We incorporate a systematic literature review along with definitions from primary sector headteachers drawn from interview data. Whilst Cr&Inn remain conceptually complex, we provide clarity by proposing a succinct definition and recognising the key characteristics involved which in turn, has the potential to strengthen effective leadership to improve learner outcomes through overcoming unusual challenges. We conclude with a discussion of how misconceptions may negatively influence creative and innovative practices, yet we recognise that Cr&Inn have much to offer those in such dynamic and accountable roles, globally, particularly in times of uncertainty. Through our identification of the characteristics, we provide school leaders and policy makers with a framework to understand what Cr&Inn entails.
Highlights
School leadership has become a crucial component of policy agendas, which is arguably due to the competitive nature between different national education systems, for example, league tables and shifting global socio-political landscapes [1]
Without a clear understanding of what creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn) entails in school leadership, we may be at risk of overlooking essential features
To enable us to provide a more robust definition and identify the key characteristics of the two highly related concepts, we decided to question the meaning of the first stage through 11 semi-structured interviews with headteachers located in public sector primary schools across Scotland
Summary
School leadership has become a crucial component of policy agendas, which is arguably due to the competitive nature between different national education systems, for example, league tables and shifting global socio-political landscapes [1]. Schools across the globe face many challenges brought about by factors including rapid technological advances, globalisation, economic uncertainty, marketisation of educational systems [2,3,4], and more recently, a global pandemic, all of which strengthen the need for creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn). Without a clear understanding of what Cr&Inn entails in school leadership, we may be at risk of overlooking essential features. The need for a greater understanding will benefit headteachers in their knowledge and leadership enactment, when facing ‘unprecedented problems’ (ibid.), but it will aid policy makers to clarify expectations in relation to their requests for creative and innovative headteachers. It has become clear that there is a gap in the literature that raises the need for this study to conceptualise Cr&Inn in the role of primary sector headteachers
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