Abstract
Background and Purpose: This systematic review article focuses on leadership challenges encountered by school principals in the 21st century. International evidence indicates principal leadership affects school and student performance. However, little systematic review has been carried out on the issue. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the existing literature on leadership challenges faced by school principals in the 21st century.
 
 Methodology: Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, a systematic review was done on two main databases, Web of Science and Scopus. There were three main stages in the process: identification of keywords, screening of articles, and determination of the articles. This resulted in a final database of 16 eligible documents. 
 
 Findings: The review of these documents resulted in three main themes – personal challenges, school context, and stakeholders, and 11 sub-themes. There were three subthemes for personal challenges such as lack of knowledge and skills, while school context challenges can be divided into six sub-themes such as lack of trained staff and inadequate facilities and resources. The two subthemes for stakeholders challenges are negative attitudes of parents and interventions from the Ministry.
 
 Contributions: This systematic review expands the literature of principalship in the 21st Century by highlighting the challenges faced in the context of North American, African, European, and Australian schools. Further work on the challenges faced by school principals in other continents should be carried out to achieve a better understanding on the issue.
 
 Keywords: 21st century, challenges, principal leadership, school leadership, systematic review.
 
 Cite as: Adams, D., & Muthiah, V. (2020). School principals and 21st century leadership challenges: A systematic review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 189-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp189-210
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