Improving School Leadership Research Articles

Navigating the Shadows: Exploring the Impact of Self-Centered Leadership on Teacher Emotional Exhaustion

ABSTRACT Researchers studying educational leadership theory tend to examine positive leadership behaviors and their outcomes far more frequently than their opposite. Such a lopsided approach, while admirable in its intent, has undermined efforts to identify and excise the continuation of poor leadership attributes currently extant. This study aims to address the latter issue by investigating how, and under what conditions, a school principal’s self-centered leadership style contributes to the proliferation of teacher emotional exhaustion amongst school faculty. Data collected from 855 teachers in 72 Kuwaiti public schools were analyzed via regression analysis and bootstrapping tests to evaluate a moderated mediation model of self-centered leadership effects on teacher emotional exhaustion; teacher diffident silence acted as the mediator, while teacher ambivalent identification served as the moderator. The results showed that diffident silence partially mediates the relationship between self-centered leadership and teacher emotional exhaustion. Additionally, ambivalent identification mitigates the positive relationship between self-centered leadership and diffident silence as well as the indirect effects of self-centered leadership on teacher emotional exhaustion via diffident silence. Our discussion highlights the benefits of understanding the roles of diffident silence and ambivalent identification in the relationship between self-centered leadership and teacher emotional exhaustion, and offers recommendations for improving school leadership practices.

Experiences of Arab Women Leading School Reform Through a School-University Partnership

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study examines the experiences of 10 Arab women educational leaders leading, as part of a school-university partnership, a movement for school reform in the Arab world. An analysis of the findings, guided by the feminist perspective and using the intersection of literature on leadership of school improvement and women’s ways of leading, reveals that participants’ views and practices of leadership align both with best practices for leading school improvement and what the literature found about women’s leadership specially in the Arab World. The results also show that despite alignment between the participants’ experience and the experience of women leading in the Arab region, participants focused their effort on optimizing their assets, such as enabling work conditions, rather than on fighting against the structural constraints that typically hinder women from leading. We argue that the women’s refusal to reflect on their experience through a gendered lens obstructed them from identifying the gendered nature of the enablers and the structural nature of the obstacles they face. This study contributes to the knowledge base on women’s leadership of school-based transformational change in a non-western setting, an understanding necessary if broad-based leadership is to be achieved.

How to Improve School Leadership (in Beijing's High Schools)

Educational leadership plays a crucial role in the academic performance and direction of students' education. Currently, schools in Beijing are prioritizing the impact of educational leadership. This paper contributes to the author's scholarly research, synthesizing various factors that affect educational leadership in Beijing schools. The paper is structured into four parts. Firstly, it presents the background and current developments regarding the research topic. Secondly, the methodology section outlines the scope of literature search and the search method employed in this paper. The main part of the literature review provides a critical reflection and narrative analysis of the influencing factors on educational leadership in Beijing schools. The paper analyses five key topics related to educational leadership in Beijing's high school education system. These topics are Changes in the roles and responsibilities of educational leaders, Collaboration and Partnership in Educational Leadership, Distributed Leadership, Instructional and Transformational Leadership, Practical Training for school leaders, finally draws conclusions so that future research can further explore how to enhance and improve educational leadership in Beijing's high school education system.

Head teachers' perceptions about time spent on teaching and learning: A context from Nepal

Purpose: The study explores the perceptions of head teachers about time spent on teaching and learning in their schools. Specifically, the study investigates the headteachers' perceptions of teacher-spent time (TST) in teaching and its implementation status in school-level education in Nepal. 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: It is based on the qualitative descriptive survey research design. It was carried out with ten community school headteachers of the Ilam district as the sample. Six of them belonged to three rural municipal areas, and four were from two municipal areas. The sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data from the headteachers as the respondents, and the data was analyzed by applying the thematic analysis technique under five themes. 
 Findings: The result indicates that the disparity among the schools in terms of physical conditions and resources resulted in workload management problems, challenges with TST implementation, and weak supervision. 
 Conclusion: It was concluded that the promotion of teacher awareness about their profession was necessary for effective TST implementation and the overall development of quality education. 
 Limitations and Implications: The study uses only one variable-headteachers' perceptions of TST and a small sample that may affect the generalizability of the result. So, it is suggested that a further study be conducted covering various dimensions of TST. 
 Practical Implications: Despite these limitations, the study has a number of practical implications for the Nepalese education policy and practice as well as other contexts with a comparable set of circumstances. These include improving school leadership, enhancing teacher preparation, and addressing resource shortages to improve student learning outcomes.
 Contribution to Literature: The study can contribute to the literature on education by highlighting the perspectives of head teachers and providing insights into effective strategies for optimizing the amount of time spent on teaching and learning.

School Leadership Enhances Secondary Students' Achievement in Rural China Through Teacher Commitment and Collaborative Culture.

The effect of school leadership (SL) on student achievement (SA) has been extensively examined, whereas the influences of teacher commitment (TC) and collaborative culture (CC) have not been thoroughly explored. This study conducted a moderated mediation analysis by investigating (a) TC as a mediator in the relationship between SL and SA and (b) CC as a moderator of the relationship between SL and SA. Altogether, 3,134 (female =1,673, 53.4%; male =1,461, 46.4%) students and their 841 teachers from 80 middle schools in rural China were recruited and surveyed. SA was evaluated using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2008 tests, including reading, math, and science, and SL, TC, and CC were evaluated using the Teaching and Leading in Schools Survey Scale. In addition, the “many to many” step was employed to match teachers’ data with the students’ data by STATA analysis. The results indicated that: (1) there were direct and indirect effects of SL on SA in the mediation model; (2) TC was confirmed as a full mediator between SL and SA; and (3) CC acted as a significant moderator of SL effects on SA through TC. Implications for improving school leadership and student achievement are discussed.

Leadership for educational equity for principals in New York State: policy challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT This paper explores ideas about the role of the school principal embedded in New York State education policy. Many public schools across the state fail to deliver equitable opportunities and outcomes for an increasingly diverse student population and improving school leadership offers the potential for substantial returns. Drawing on concepts of role identity, organisational coherence, and leadership for equity, I use an interpretive approach to examine how conflicting and ambiguous expectations for principal behaviour in New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act Plan, its Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework, and its approach to principal evaluations might endanger realisation of a principal’s moral commitment to educational and social justice. I conclude with recommendations for state policy and future research with the aim of supporting principals to navigate the complexity of their role and lead to organisational coherence around equity.

Contextual coaching: levering and leading school improvement through collaborative professionalism

PurposeThe research examines how contextual coaching (Gorrell and Hoover, 2009; Valentine, 2019) can act as a lever to build collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves and O'Connor, 2018) and lead to school improvement.Design/methodology/approachThe multi-case study (Stake, 2013) draws on two bespoke examples of contextual coaching in education and uses the ten tenets of collaborative professionalism as a conceptual framework for its abductive analysis. Data from both cases were collected through interviews, focus groups and documentation.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that effective contextual coaching leads to conditions underpinning school improvement. Specifically, there are patterns of alignment with the ten tenets of collaborative professionalism. Whereas contextual coaching is found on four of these tenets (mutual dialogue, joint work, collective responsibility and collaborative inquiry), in more mature coaching programmes, three others (collective autonomy, initiative and efficacy) emerge. There is also evidence that opportunities exist for contextual coaching to be further aligned with the remaining three tenets. The study offers insight into how school improvement can be realized by the development of staff capacity for teacher leadership through contextual coaching.Research limitations/implicationsThe impact of coaching in education is enhanced by recognizing the importance of context and the value of iterative design and co-construction.Practical implicationsThe principles of contextual coaching are generalizable, but models must be developed to be bespoke and to align with each setting. Collaborative professionalism offers a useful framework to better design and implement contextual coaching programmes.Originality/valueThe research introduces contextual coaching in education, and how coaching can enhance collaborative professionalism in schools.

Commentary – Let’s switch cognitive gears: leading school improvement through learning from failures and successes

Commentary – Let’s switch cognitive gears: leading school improvement through learning from failures and successes

Leadershipstile im Kontext von Schulentwicklungsprozessen

ZusammenfassungDurch den verstärkten Fokus auf die Ebene von Einzelschulen in der Qualitätssicherung und Weiterentwicklung des Bildungsangebotes wird ein besonderes Augenmerk auch auf die Führungsqualität von Schulleitungen gerichtet, für die das Leitungshandeln in Schulen bisher nur unzureichend valide operationalisiert wurde. So konfundieren derzeit vorliegende Modelle Domänen und Aufgabenbereiche mit dem Stil des Führungshandelns oder formulieren kontextgelöst Leadershipstile, die auf einer teils inkonsistenten motivationspsychologischen Grundlage basieren. In diesem Beitrag wird unter Einbezug der Funktionsanalyse im Sinne der PSI-Theorie ein Leadershipmodell für den spezifischen Kontext der Leitung von Schulentwicklungsprozessen entworfen und an einer Stichprobe von n = 901 Lehrpersonen und k = 75 Schulleitungen validiert. Aus einer funktionsanalytischen Perspektive werden dabei vier Leitungsstile modelliert: der (1) visionär-begeisternde, der (2) (latent) ängstlich-zielfixierte, der (3) passiv-vermeidende und der (4) selbstgesteuerte Leadershipstil. In der Diskussion wird die Aufmerksamkeit insbesondere auf den selbstgesteuerten Stil gerichtet, für den günstige Effekte sowohl im Change-Management von Schulentwicklungsprozessen postuliert und auch in der vorliegenden Konstruktvalidierung in Bezug auf das motivationale Erleben von Lehrpersonen nachgewiesen werden können.

Middle leaders translating knowledge about improvement: Making change in the school and preschool organisation

This article deepens the knowledge of middle leaders’ impact on school improvement and organisation development. More precisely, it focuses on how middle leaders from comprehensive schools and preschools translated improvement strategies and tools from a municipal course on leading school improvement into their own organisations. It is based on interviews with middle leaders, teachers, and principals at two schools and two preschools. Translation theory is used as a theoretical frame. The findings show that the middle leaders translated improvement strategies based on local needs, and for several reasons: for clarification and reduction of roles and improvement areas; structuring improvement work; engaging and involving colleagues in school improvement; and developing a professional culture. When taking the role of translators, the middle leaders became central to progressing the developmental elements of local school organisations. The study recommends investing to provide middle leaders with improvement strategies and an understanding of translation theory to enable translations that aid the development of school organisations.

The Role of Teacher Leaders in School Improvement Program: The case of Atse Naod primary school.

The purpose of this study was to understand teacher leaders’ role in school improvement program. More specifically, examined how teacher leaders formally or informally lead school improvement; what potential challenges they face when attempting to lead school improvement; and what strategies /mechanisms they employ to improve teacher leadership role in school improvement process were the basic questions of the study. In-depth interviews with five teacher leaders and field notes were used to collect data. The data were tape recorded and then transcribed. Categories themes and patterns from data i.e. inductive analysis were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that, teacher leaders lead school improvement by different methods like collaboration, effective planning, and experience sharing, influencing others by their hardworking habit and, communicating with school community. Besides, teacher leaders face different challenges in leading school improvement such as lack of leadership and management skill, time constraints and absence of recognition and incentive. In sum, the school improvement process is not being led by teacher leaders due to different challenges. Therefore, education leaders should enhance teacher leadership by promoting and supporting teacher leadership role and Policy makers should develop a platform for teacher leadership to enhance teacher leaders’ role in school improvement program.

Leading school improvement through goal-setting: Evidence from New Zealand schools

Many studies claim the importance of goal-setting for school improvement but few outline specific practices. This study highlights specific goal-setting practices associated with successful school improvement efforts. It reports on a 2-year collaborative research project, which closely examined three principals’ goal-setting practices in the context of their schools. It documents principals’ and staffs’ efforts to improve equity in outcomes through detailed case studies. Case studies drew on principal and teacher interview data, workshop artifacts and discussion recordings, observations, school reports and school achievement data. The in-depth case and cross-case analyses focused on micro-level leadership practices and their impact on school-wide practices. This study highlights four key leadership drivers for improvement. These include: justifying goals in ways that challenge teachers’ beliefs about current achievement to raise commitment; embedding tight and rigourous monitoring practices with a focus on problem-solving and improvement; distributing responsibility and leadership; and developing the capability and collective responsibility of middle leaders. Our discussion highlights how leaders’ belief systems can enable or constrain their ability to influence their schools’ cultures.

School Heads’ Practices Defined

This study is part of a project investigating school heads’ practices and factors influencing them. The dearth of empirical research on school heads’ practices, their perceived stressfulness and how enjoyable practices performed are necessitated this study. School heads’ practices were examined using a convenient sample of senior high school heads and assistants in Ghana with appropriate statistical tools (exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and multinomial logistics regression). The findings revealed 22 activities that defined school heads’ practices. Regarding those activities, ‘organising information sessions with parents’ and ‘cooperating with organisations’ were least performed while activities related to counselling and administration, which were perceived as stressful, were performed equally. In total, practices perceived as stressful and enjoyable were performed more, while practices enjoyed significantly influenced the performance of practices in general. In practice, the knowledge of stressful and enjoyable practices guarantees the initiation of a suitable coping strategy than being ignorant, thereby improving school leadership and the health of school heads.

Factors influencing instructional leadership capacity in Baku, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has introduced significant reforms to improve school leadership in public schools. Responsibilities were redefined to prioritize teacher supervision and engagement with school governance structures to ensure school improvement and accountability measures. The purpose of this study was to provide insight into contextual factors predicting the extent of principals’ sense of self-efficacy, or capacity, for instructional leadership in public schools in the capital city of Baku. Findings suggest that any increment in outcome expectancy for teacher supervision, mentorship, and training is likely to increase Baku principals’ intentions to perform those instructional leadership practices. However, time on instructional leadership is the key contextual factor influencing outcome expectancy. Findings also point to the importance of time spent on stakeholder engagement and school management tasks such as providing classroom resources, which are interrelated to instructional leadership tasks. Policy reforms for instructional leadership in Azerbaijan need to consider the interrelations between school leadership functions.

Innovations in Program Evaluation to Improve School Leadership: How Can We Perform One?

This paper describes a number of innovative approaches in conducting a program evaluation for school leadership. It also discusses the factors driving program evaluation innovations and the factors enabling innovations to occur in program evaluation. Furthermore, the paper defines what qualifies as innovations in program evaluation and the criteria that should be met to be considered innovative. The article ends with a detailed discussion on some of the program evaluation innovations and how to apply program evaluation innovations.

Leadership for school improvement – linking learning to leading over time

ABSTRACTFurnishing novice school leaders with the knowledge and skills they require to be successful in practice has proved difficult. This paper describes and analyses an attempt to link learning and school leading practices in their education: a three-year learning activity within the Swedish National School Leadership Training Programme intended to develop novice school leaders’ ability to analyse, critically examine, formulate and implement school improvement strategies. The theoretical point of departure is a social constructionist and situated perspective on learning. Drawing on data from 120 reports submitted by school leaders at the end of years two (n = 60) and three (n = 60) of the programme, and nine audio-recorded conversations between groups of the leaders, we identify critical aspects of the learning process. The findings indicate that the novice school leaders initially perceived the learning activity to be challenging, but it gradually became a mediational mean and boundary object in and between their practices. Critical elements for this were the activity’s design and length, systematic approach, supportive tools and ‘forcing moments’. We argue that linking training practice to school leading practice may have positive effects on novice school leaders’ professional development.

Perspectives of teachers’ on the selection and the development of the school leaders in the United Arab Emirates

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine teachers’ perspectives on school leaders’ selection and development strategies in order to propose/recommend strategies that are relevant to the context of the United Arab Emirates.Design/methodology/approachThe study gathered data through group discussion of school teachers who attended the module “leadership for school improvement” taught by the researchers. The teachers who participated in this study include local and expat teachers who are currently working in both public and private schools in the UAE. The reports of the group discussion were used as transcripts and thematic analysis was used to analyse the results.FindingsThe results indicate that there is a strong aspiration for setting better standards for the selection of the school leaders. There is great interest in engaging experts and instrumenting accredited continued professional development training on developing school leaders. The respondents emphasised on the required qualifications, experiences and knowledge, and the need for mentorship approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe key limitation of the study is the smaller sample size.Practical implicationsThe outcome of the study offers necessary insight to the decision makers on the selection and development of school leaders in the UAE.Social implicationsThe study insists that the social and cultural values of the UAE to be considered in the selection and development of school leaders in the UAE.Originality/valueThe study offers potential gap and scope for further research on school leadership in the UAE that could be further explored with many samples and cases for broader understanding.

Leadership for Social Justice and Sustainability: A Historical Case Study of a High-Performing Dual Language School along the U.S.-Mexico Border

This qualitative case study is focused on one high-performing urban elementary school that worked to address inequities within the school and community for two decades partly through dual language education. This neighborhood public school has been one of the district’s highest-performers for the prior 15 years, was one of the first schools in the nation to develop a dual language program for students classified as English learner (EL) students, and more recently merged with one of the district’s lowest performing and under-enrolled schools to expand access to a high-quality and culturally sustaining education. Key findings from this case highlight intersections between social justice leadership and leadership for school improvement that promote organizational innovation, learning, and sustainability.

Leadership as agency in the context of structure

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how principals, deputy principals, heads of departments (HoDs) and teachers as leaders exercise their agency within and through the organisational structure of their schools to improve academic quality.Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted in the wider context of school-based leadership. Principals, deputy principals, HoDs and teachers selected by means of purposive sampling from six primary and secondary schools in Harare Province of Zimbabwe participated in the study.FindingsLeaders in schools in Harare Province were found to have the capacity to use their agency within and through the organisational structure to improve pass rates. They were able to use their agency to work within the supposed rigid bureaucratic organisational structures to enable bureaucratic organisational structures, or, in participants’ views, democratic structures.Research limitations/implicationsSome limitations of the research ought to be considered. The research scope and site had its limitations. The research site was limited to a few primary and secondary schools in Harare Province (one out of ten provinces) of Zimbabwe. Although the sampling procedures were implemented to ensure good representation of participants’ views, the sampling was limited to a few schools. Owing to time and financial constraints, a larger sample could not be selected to conduct the interviews. These limitations are acknowledged, but they do not undervalue the significance of the study, as they can provide potential avenues for further research. For example, the study may be replicated in rural provinces of Zimbabwe. Such further research could help improve school leadership in Zimbabwe.Practical implicationsPrincipals, deputy principals, HoDs and teachers as leaders can exercise their agency in the structure of their schools to improve academic quality, expressed as and measured by pass rates. School leaders who have a positive attitude and requisite experience are able to change the rigid bureaucratic structures of their schools to enable bureaucratic structures, which are similar to democratic structures.Originality/valueThis paper provides a critical perspective on how leaders exercise their agency in the context of the organisational structure of their schools to improve academic quality.

The Relationship between Public Secondary School Principals’ Leadership Styles and Students’ Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education KCSE Examination in Guchasub-County, Kenya

The overall education goal of the Government of Kenya his to achieve education for all (EFA) by giving every Kenyan access to Quality education and training irrespective of one's socio-economic status. InGucha Sub County however, the quality of education in secondary schools, as measured by students’ performances in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations has continued to be poor over the years. This poor performance has been attributed to several factors such as; learners’ entry behaviour or ability, parents’ influence on learners, motivation of learners and teachers, learners’ environment, Government education policy and school principal’s leadership Styles among others. This study investigated the relationship between school principals’ leadership styles and students’ performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination in public secondary schools in GuchaSub-County. The study used a correlational research design to collect and analyze data from 294 respondents from 14 public Sub-County secondary schools in GuchaSub-County. The target population consisted of all public sub County secondary schools’ teachers and students in the Sub-County period two instruments were used to collect data after ascertaining their validity and reliability. These instruments included; two questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students. The questionnaires used Likert scale in rating the responses. Both instruments had a reliability coefficient of 0.8 at an alpha level set priori at 0.05. The data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0 for Windows. The Pearson product moment correlation was used to test the null hypothesis of no relationship at 0.05 alpha level of significance based on the guidelines given by Ruth Ravid. The results of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between school principals’ leadership Styles and students’ performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (KCSE). The study was significant because its reasons might help in the process of working out strategies for improving school leadership qualities in the Sub-County and hence performance of students in KCSE. In view of the above findings the following recommendation were made; school principals to be in- serviced on leadership Styles that may motivate the learners and teachers towards better students’ performance.