Strategic Leadership Reconsidered

Abstract

This paper will address the challenge of how strategic leadership can be defined and articulated to provide a framework for developing a strategically focused school drawing on a NCSL research project. The paper is structured into three main parts. Part one outlines the elements that comprise a strategically focused school, develops an understanding of strategy, and the concepts associated with strategic leadership. Part two explains the qualitative research methodology used and reports the main findings from the research in terms of (i) what strategic leaders do, and (ii) what characteristics strategic leaders possess. Finally, the paper proposes a new model of strategic leadership to analyze practice and to assist in leadership development. This paper was developed as a result of the National College for School Leadership (England) funded research project (Davies, Davies, & Ellison, 2005) on developing strategy and strategic leadership in schools. This project aims at exploring in primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools and special schools the strategic sustainability and leadership aspects of educational organisations.