Study Of School Leadership Research Articles

Child-Friendly School in Inclusive Education (A Study of School Leadership in SPNF SKB Medan)

This study aims to determine the principal's leadership in increasing the competence of teachers who are ready for inclusive education at SPNF SKB Medan, to find out the principal's leadership in increasing parental concern for the handling of children with special needs at SPNF SKB Medan and to find out the principal's leadership in forming inclusive classes at SPNF SKB Medan. This study used a qualitative descriptive approach with research subjects directed at collecting data from school principals. Data collection was carried out using observation, semi-structured interviews and document studies. The results of the study show that the leadership of the principal of inclusive education at SKB Medan is to provide the best service that is owned by the existing school's capabilities, move learning from ordinary classes to the computer lab, give teachers freedom to adjust learning methods and subject matter to students' abilities.

Retrospective of five years research of school leadership in Asia (2018–2022): A scientometric paradigm

<span lang="EN-US">This research scrutinized the scientometric objectivity of school leadership research in Asia. Publication records between 2018 and 2022 were extracted from Scopus and the Web of Science, after which the bibliographic data set was administered using ScientoPy and VOSviewer. A total of 958 publications were issued over the last five years, with 2020 having the highest number of published articles. The International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change was the most productive source (26 papers), Hallinger was the most published author, and “Examining school leadership effects on student achievement: the role of contextual challenges and constraints” had the most significant impact with 33 citations. The top 10 keywords were “leadership,” “higher education,” “transformational leadership,” “principal,” “education,” “school principals,” “school leadership,” “instructional leadership,” “educational leadership,” and “organizational commitment.” With 240 publications, Indonesia was Asia’s leading contributor in this research domain. The results indicated that school leadership research is important. It is recommended that future researchers extend this research to other regions, such as Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia, to gain a fuller picture of school leadership studies across the world.</span>

Trends Analysis of Research on Principal Leadership and Teacher Quality Application using Tag Crowd

Starting from the assumption that the study of school leadership has been done is the main reason the study was conducted. This simple study to be a part of pre-research to be able to position the focus of full-research studies are planned. Several software tools are required YagHarzing’s Publish or Perish and Tagcrowd, and metadata retrieved from the database CrossRef research. The result is a data visualization research with variable Principal Leadership and Teacher Quality. The phenomenon that appears in data visualization studies describes new trends and loopholes that can be done.

‘People miss people’: A study of school leadership and management in the four nations of the United Kingdom in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted school leaders across the four devolved nations of the United Kingdom (UK) with a period of exceptional crisis. This responsive, small-scale, but UK-wide study focuses on headteacher perspectives on leadership and management in the initial stages of this pandemic, contributing to our understanding of this crucial period. The headteacher respondents met the multiple predicaments and situational ambiguities of the pandemic with a resilience which drew heavily upon the strengths of pre-existing structures and teams. They were required to provide effective emotional and moral leadership in uncharted and rapidly shifting territory. They spoke most eloquently of how they developed pragmatic, versatile and personally reassuring approaches to communication with parents, staff, pupils, and a range of external agencies, all of which were also facing extraordinary circumstances with varying degrees of resilience. The paper concludes by conceptualising the key elements of headteachers’ leadership and management, both inside and outside of school, at in the early stages of societal crisis.

Combining Institutional and Distributed Frameworks in Studies of School Leadership

ABSTRACT The premise of this article is that studies of distributed leadership could benefit from further incorporation of institutional approaches to better understand complex reform demands facing school leaders working for instructional improvement. We begin by articulating the core components of a distributed perspective on leadership and of an institutional perspective on organizational change. We next describe our methods for reviewing a purposeful sample of 28 highly cited empirical articles on distributed school leadership in K-12 settings. We argue that studies that fully integrate institutional and distributed perspectives can contribute important insights on how school leaders manage the pressures of complex policy environments and the role of collective structuration in defining and legitimating distributed leadership practice.

School leadership, school inspection and the micropolitics of compliance and resistance: Examining the hyper-enactment of policy in an area of deprivation

This paper examines the influence of intense scrutiny from Ofsted on school leadership and policy enactment. Data was collected in a coastal area of deprivation, providing the setting for a detailed case study of school leadership in a state secondary school and a state primary school, both with recent or ongoing experience of intense scrutiny from Ofsted. Seventeen interviews were undertaken with staff involved in leadership roles. The analyses of data and discussion form an understanding of how policy is enacted in relation to the dual responsibility that school leaders negotiate between the local context at Seatown and Ofsted. This paper suggests that Ofsted forces a privileging of a compliant and consistent enactment of policy; a hyper-enactment of policy, that reduces the capacity of school leaders to address the significant social context of the school. Foucault’s work on self-disciplinary technologies provides insight into the micropolitical spaces which open up for some school leaders. The discussion on the micropolitics of compliance and resistance offers insight into the tensions pertinent to school leadership teams and explores issues relevant to those interested in policy and inspection activity, particularly those within areas of deprivation.

Diagnostic perspectives on the distribution of leadership in school organizations: an analysis on two key dimensions

The study of school leadership has evolved as a relevant, meaningful and consistent area, when it comes to explaining improvements in school effectiveness. Instructional and transformational leadership, as well as leadership for learning approaches, have characterized key areas of a school director’s practice. However, given the nature of school organizations, whereby interaction rather than individual action plays a major role in building influential capacities, the perspective of distributed leadership has emerged as a distinctive feature. Hence, this work, of a descriptive-analytical nature, provides theoretical and operational foundations on how to approach distributed leadership for its diagnosis in schools. Two dimensions of a questionnaire from a larger study, administered to 1.518 directors and teachers of two incidental samples of one hundred elementary and high schools in Chile, are analyzed separately by exploratory factor analysis. As the main results of the study, the existence of a single factor that would narrow the gap between the current and desired perception of the leadership distribution is verified. Regarding distribution patterns, only three of the six scales that comprise it, would be unifactorial. As a conclusion, the first dimension is robust and constitutes a viable strategy for an initial diagnosis, considering the limitations of social desirability that both the construct and the instrument may have.

School Leadership: Evidence From A Post-Conflict Post-Earthquake Country In South Asia

ABSTRACT School leadership plays a significant role in the success of a school through its effects on teachers’ efficacy.Empirical studies of school leadership in South Asia are limited. This study seeks to address this gap. The author examines teachers’ perceptions about how school principals play their role in high-achieving and low-achieving community high schools in Nepal through the lenses of a multidimensional model. Based on interviews with 18 teachers teaching in multiple disciplines, it was found that teachers in the high-achieving schools perceived their principals’ behavior positively compared to their counterparts from low-achieving schools. Dedicated, devoted principals with positive and collaborative leadership styles have greater influence on most teachers.

Mapping four leadership styles in Japan: how has the role of the principal been shaped by policies?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how internationally recognized styles of transactional, instructional, transformational and distributed leadership have emerged in the Japanese education system.Design/methodology/approachNational legislation and policy documents in Japan since 1945 were collected by searching for the word “principal” or “head of school.” Then, four types are excluded: those that are unique only to one school type, do not explicitly deal with the role of the principal, are in subordinate laws prescribing contents that essentially overlap with those in superordinate statutes and define procedural roles of the principal. As a result, 17 legal provisions and 35 policy documents remained, each of which was analyzed by using four leadership styles.FindingsDespite an increasing focus on instructional, transformational and distributed styles, Japan has not comprehensively articulated attributes and abilities expected of the principal. Additionally, a movement away from instructional leadership in the 2000s contrasts with the recent emphasis on “educational leadership.” Moreover, transformational leadership has centered on the school–family–community collaboration and the expansion of principal autonomy, and distributed leadership has taken the forms of new positions that support the principal, both of which were influenced by the decentralization movement.Research limitations/implicationsIt points to the susceptibility of the role of the principal in Japan and western countries alike to broader structural reforms but with different implications and distinct timing of the advent of leadership styles among them. Additionally, Japan has adopted a modified approach to distributed leadership style, which is somewhat similar to delegation, to make a compromise between the emergent theory and the centrality of the principal in the school hierarchy. Furthermore, instructional leadership seems to be a “late bloomer” in Japan because of its practice-based nature and unsuitability to daily realities of the principal.Originality/valueAs an arguably unprecedented attempt to apply leadership styles to legislation and policy documents, this study builds a foundation for understanding how school leadership is shaped by education policies. Moreover, while making connections to the western view, it creates a paradigm for future studies of school leadership in Japan and in the field of comparative educational administration.

Leadership practices of principals of high-performing community high schools: Evidence from Nepal

Empirical studies of school leadership in South Asia are limited. This qualitative study examines the ways in which principals in three award-winning community high schools enact leadership practices in their specific contexts in Nepal. The results reveal that the principals used multiple frames of leadership and were proactive towards reforms. High levels of interest, collaboration, prohibition of political activities inside the school, approachability for parents, recruitment of high-quality teachers and innovative programmes proved to be critical for success. This study has implications for how principals enact their role to transform low-performing schools into high-performing schools within a short period.

Exploring leadership-as-practice in the study of rural school leadership

ABSTRACT This paper explores the value of using a practice lens to explore how leadership happens in a rural school. I contend that examining leadership-as-practice provides an alternate means of understanding the phenomenon of rural school leadership, which transitions the focus of study away from the traits and behaviors of individual school leaders, by providing insight into how leadership unfolds, as school actors work together. To advance this argument, I provide an overview of traditional approaches to studying leadership, and identify some of the drawbacks of these approaches. Drawing on the turn to practice in social theory as a reference point, I then draw attention to the study of leadership as a socially constructed phenomenon and use an illustrative case to demonstrate the value of a leadership-as practice lens. An overview of the methodological implications of studying leadership-as-practice is provided, with attention being paid to its potential to expand the focus of rural school leadership studies.

Addressing the ‘leadership conundrum’ through a mixed methods study of school leadership for literacy

This paper explores methodological insights from a mixed methods study that aims to understand how school leaders promote literacy development in their schools. The study findings consider both the complementarities and the challenges of the qualitative and quantitative approaches to measuring leadership practices and their linkages with learning across schools. We begin by identifying a conundrum in school leadership and management (SLM) research – strong effects found in qualitative studies and weaker effects in quantitative studies. From the literature we identify some of the central challenges that account for these differences. We then show how these challenges were and were not addressed in the mixed method research we conducted in an SLM study of South African primary schools in challenging contexts. We consider why the central aim of the study – to develop a scalable instrument for measuring SLM – remains elusive.

Assessing and strengthening instructional leadership among primary school principals in Vietnam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to add to an emerging literature on educational leadership and management in Vietnam by addressing several goals. First, the study sought to translate, adapt, and validate an existing measurement instrument, the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) Teacher Form, for use in Vietnam. Next, it aimed to describe patterns of instructional leadership evidenced among a sample of urban and rural primary school principals. Then, the researchers examined if these patterns of principal instructional leadership could be linked to one or more “antecedent variables”: school size, school location (urban/rural), principal’s gender and prior teaching experience. Finally, the paper sought insights from principals and teachers on how instructional leadership could be strengthened in the Vietnamese education context.Design/methodology/approachBoth quantitative survey and qualitative methods were used in this study. The sample consisted of 569 teachers and 117 principals working in 117 primary schools located in Ho Chi Minh province of Vietnam. Data collection employed a translated and adapted Vietnamese language form of the PIMRS Teacher Form. An open-ended question posed to both teachers and principals was included in the survey instrument to gather recommendations for strengthening instructional leadership in Vietnam. The research used Rasch analysis, Cronbach’s test of internal consistency, confirmatory factor analysis, t-tests, and analysis of variance in data analysis.FindingsThe research achieved a preliminary validation of a Vietnamese language Teacher Form of the PIMRS. The analysis of PIMRS data gathered from teachers found that the primary school principals were perceived to be exercising instructional leadership at a surprisingly high level. Consistent with international research findings, selected evidence indicated stronger instructional leadership from the female principals, though the pattern was not strong. None of the other antecedents evidenced a significant relationship with patterns of principal instructional leadership. A number of overlapping recommendations were made by teachers and principals for strengthening instructional leadership in Vietnam.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough a Teacher Form of the PIMRS Vietnam was successfully validated, follow-up studies should be conducted with both the Teacher Form and Principal Form of this instrument. More broadly, the high scores on the PIMRS accorded to the principals in this study were deemed “surprising” in light of the lack of prior policy focus and training on this role of the principal in Vietnam. Thus, the authors recommend that this research be extended to a larger cross-level study of schools from different parts of Vietnam in order to provide additional confirmation of these preliminary findings.Practical implicationsFeedback from principals and teachers indicated a need for system leaders to articulate instructional leadership more explicitly as part of the principal’s role set in Vietnam. Only then will it become part of the formal expectations that shape principals’ practice and the preparation and professional development programs in which they participate. The principals also suggested that instructional leadership could be strengthened by enabling model principals to share instructional leadership practices with colleagues. Finally, teachers and principals highlighted the need to broaden, legitimate, and strengthen sources of instructional leadership within the school beyond the principal. These suggestions are not only consistent with policy actions taken in other societies, but are also grounded in the context of education in Vietnam.Originality/valueThe first internationally published study of educational leadership and management in Vietnam only appeared in 2012. In the succeeding years, several qualitative studies have emerged describing principal leadership practices in a handful of schools. The current study represents the first published quantitative study of school leadership from Vietnam. Although the results are preliminary in nature, the study provides both baseline data on principal instructional leadership and a validated instrument that can be used in future research.

Educational leadership is different in the country; What support does the rural school principal need?

Investigating the role of school principal continues to be important, for research continues to show that school leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on student learning. Within the study of school leadership, the differentiated experiences of those leading ‘small’ schools can be overlooked. In Australia, the majority of small schools are situated in non-urban locations and the more distant a community is from a city, the more likely it is to have a small school. This literature review seeks to identify the nature of the professional development (PD) the rural school principal requires, to ensure the PD meets their needs. Results from a review of literature suggest that the role of the rural school principal is different from the metropolitan school principal across a range of areas. This paper recommends that future research focus on ways the rural school principals and training providers can work together to co-create andragogy and co-create content of PD, thereby differentiating the PD for the rural contexts in which rural school principals work.

Relationships among Teachers’ Formal and Informal Positions and Their Incoming Student Composition

Background/Context While some commentators view education as a social mobility mechanism, many scholars argue that schools reproduce rather than challenge social inequality. A vast literature on the role of family background and educational stratification identifies various factors that help account for how schools contribute to reproducing social inequality. Over the past quarter century local, state, and federal policymakers, motivated at least partially by widening race- and class-based achievement gaps, have used standards and high stakes accountability to hold schools accountable for student performance. But the available evidence on the efficacy of these policy instruments in reducing the role of schools in social stratification is mixed. Purpose/Objective This study examines how student assignment to elementary school classrooms is conditioned by teachers’ formal positions and intra-school social networks. We focus on the allocation of teachers to students; teachers are the major resource a school can allocate to influence educational opportunities. Population/Participants Data for this analysis are drawn from a larger study of school leadership and management in one public school district in the southeastern United States. In the 2006–2007 school year, the Cloverville district served 33,156 students, including 16,214 students at its 30 elementary schools. The final sample for our study included 309 teachers with at least 10 students, not including kindergarten and first grade students, in self-contained classrooms across 29 elementary schools in 2007 (one school was removed from the sample due to low response rates). Research Design This study is a longitudinal observational study that includes social network data and multiple regression analysis. We surveyed faculty two times in waves conducted in 2007 and 2008. Data Collection and Analysis The primary source of data was a survey that asked teachers to identify colleagues who provided them with advice and information about reading and mathematics instruction. The dependent variables in our analyses were class average language arts achievement in the spring of 2006, class average mathematics achievement in the spring of 2006, and class average free or reduced price lunch in the spring of 2006. We fit multiple regressions to estimate the extent to which non-random assignment of students to teachers was a function of teachers’ formal leadership positions and their collegial networks. Findings/Results We found teachers who provided more advice and information to their colleagues and who occupied formal leadership positions were assigned higher achieving students. Further, teachers who occupied formal leadership positions were less likely to be assigned students who received free or reduced price lunch. Conclusions/Recommendations Our study findings provide strong evidence that teachers who have more prominent positions in the formal organization of the school and in informal networks are assigned stronger students. Such non-random assignment of students to teachers can contribute to educational stratification.

Nové organizační struktury pro školní vzdělávání: nové způsoby vedení školy v Anglii?

This article draws on !ndings from a study of school leadership and management practice in England to argue traditional forms of leadership and management practice are outmoded and an urgent reconceptualisation of different models of leadership is required. The research design adopted a case study approach, collecting documentary evidence and interview data from a range of actors in 20 sites exhibiting a diverse range of structural arrangements. Within and between case analysis identi!ed changes in local arrangements are helping schools to cope with an increasingly complex educational agenda. Local context plays an important role in the adoption and development of new leadership practice. In conclusion this article re"ects on the !ndings to present a conceptual framework to strengthen our understanding of this emerging and complex terrain.

Exploring the effects of authentic leadership on academic optimism and teacher engagement in Thailand

PurposeIn the context of Thailand’s progress towards education reform, scholars have identified a lack of effective school-level leadership as an impeding factor. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a theoretical model of authentic leadership effects on teacher academic optimism and work engagement. Authentic leadership was considered a suitable model of school leadership in light of Thailand’s explicit recognition of the importance of developing the moral capacity of students and emphasis on ethical leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Survey data were obtained from 605 teachers in a nationally representative sample of 182 primary schools. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicated that the model of authentic leadership effects on teachers’ academic optimism and work engagement was validated. A moderate relationship was observed between authentic leadership and the dependent measures of teacher attitudes.Practical implicationsThe study identified a potentially important lack of alignment between the espoused values and actions/decisions of school principals in Thailand. When combined with prior research conducted on leadership for educational reform in Thailand, our findings highlight the systemic nature of the problem faced in changing traditional patterns of behavior in Thai schools. More specifically, despite change in the nation’s educational goals, human resource management of the nation’s school leaders continues to produce administrators and managers rather than leaders, either instructional or moral.Originality/valueThe study extends prior studies of school leadership in the context of Thailand’s education reform that focused more specifically on principal instructional leadership in Thailand. In addition, this study of authentic school leadership is one of only a few conducted outside of Western societies.

Studies on School Leadership in Zambia: A Review

This review paper set out to map trends in the theoretical/conceptual framework, study design, assessment instrument, and findings by researchers in the study of school leadership for over 50 years in a systematic manner in Zambia. The review examined dissertations/thesis and published journal articles from 1964 to 2015 and shows a slow uptake of school/educational leadership research from 1964 to 2000 with a marked increase in the year 2001 onwards. The review also shows a conceptual/theoretical framework and findings by researchers do not project any particular strong pattern or trend. Key Words: School/Educational leadership, systematic research review, knowledge production.

The Role of Collective Efficacy in Closing Student Achievement Gaps: A Mixed Methods Study of School Leadership for Excellence and Equity

ABSTRACTPrevious research demonstrates that collective efficacy positively predicts students' academic achievement (e.g., Bandura, 1993; Goddard et al., 2000). However, unaddressed by the current literature is whether collective efficacy also works to reduce inequity by closing achievement gaps. To learn about the operation of collective efficacy, we designed a mixed-methods study, situated in the elementary and middle schools of one large urban district in Texas. Hierarchal linear modeling was employed to model the degree to which collective efficacy explained differences among schools in student mathematics achievement and the Black-White achievement gap. We also drew upon focus group data collected at 6 schools. We found that collective efficacy was associated with an increase in mathematics achievement as well a 50% reduction in the academic disadvantage experienced by Black students. Focus groups revealed the importance of school principals in supporting teacher collaboration and peer observation as well as a sustained focus on instructional improvement.

Learning-centered leadership and teacher learning in China: does trust matter?

Purpose In this era of global education reform, teacher professional learning (TPL) has emerged as a key factor in efforts to create sustainable school improvement. The same holds in Mainland China where ambitious curriculum reforms have been undertaken since 2000. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of learning-centered leadership (LCL) and teacher trust (TT) in fostering TPL in Chinese schools. More specifically, the authors examined two research questions: (1) What is the nature of the relationship of LCL to TT and professional learning?; and (2) How LCL practices influence TT and professional learning. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,259 teachers in 41 primary and secondary schools in three different Chinese provinces. The research employed confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the measurement model and structural equation modeling to examine interactions among the three main variables. Findings The results affirmed a positive association between LCL and TPL, and highlighted TT as a significant mediator in this relationship. Additional analyses distinguished between the effects of different dimensions of LCL on TT and TPL. Although the results of these analyses were broadly consistent with prior findings reported in the literature, divergent findings also emerged. More specifically, there was a limited use and no significant impact of “leadership modeling” on either TT or professional learning. Research limitations/implications The authors suggest that this pattern of leadership practice is linked with features of China’s institutional cum socio-cultural context. The authors recommend the use of qualitative and mixed methods studies capable of gaining further insight into relationships. Practical implications These findings in Mainland China reaffirm the efficacy of school-level leadership that builds a safe, trusting but focussed environment for teacher learning in the workplace. This is a potentially significant finding in a society where the use of top-down directives and reliance on legitimate authority by leaders can rob teachers of the motivation and initiative that undergirds sustainable professional learning. The findings, in concert with those of other scholars, suggest that “building trust” represents a useful strategy for principals who seek to establish productive learning environments for their teachers. Originality/value The value of this study lies in two areas. First, this is one of a growing but still limited set of quantitative empirical studies of school leadership in Mainland China. Second, the study tests the nature of mediation in the relationship between leadership, trust and TPL, a topic of relatively recent vintage in the educational leadership literature.