How can principal leadership practices promote teacher collaboration and organizational change? A longitudinal multiple case study of three school improvement initiatives

Abstract

Schools must regularly examine and adapt established practices to address students' and teachers' changing needs (academic, social, emotional, and occupational;Askell-Williams & Koh, 2020). Yet many of the innovations developed to meet these needs fail due to a lack of strategies for implementation (e.g., consistent goal setting), structural prerequisites (e.g., time for planning and implementing innovations), and motivation of school staff (e.g., innovativeness; Cheng & Walker, 2008;Palumbo & Manna, 2019). Theories of organizational change in the school context posit that principals and teachers act as change agents, innovating organizational practices, building collective knowledge around change, and supporting a positive climate for innovations. For this reason, we first assume that teacher collaboration is a key element for organizational change. When teachers collaborate to improve their schools, they can collectively identify the school's needs, develop targeted and effective innovations, and, ultimately, implement innovations. Second, we assume principal leadership is a key supporting factor in teacher collaboration, as principals can ensure that teachers have sufficient time and resources, support in the creation of teacher teams, guide these teams on the process level (e.g., goal-setting), and motivate teachers to achieve the desired organizational changes. Empirical evidence supports this assumption and suggests that principals can involve teachers in decision making relating to the planning and implementation of innovations and can create a caring environment for teachers to change their practices (Fix et al., 2020;Seashore Louis & Murphy, 2017). However, there has been little in-depth research to date on the mechanisms that foster teachers' and principals' collaboration to achieve organizational change. In particular, previous empirical research has not fully investigated the process from planning to implementation of improvement initiatives (Palumbo

Schools’ improvement capacity and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from schools serving disadvantaged communities

“…This is in line with school improvement research stressing the importance of both shared goals among staff (e.g., Muijs et al, 2004;Hemmings, 2012) and leadership enabling collective routines for improvement (e.g., Hemmings, 2012;Herman, 2012) at SSDCs. In a recent study, Meyer et al (2022) developed four assumptions of how principals can support teacher collaboration and, hence, processes of organizational change: through creating a clear, long-term vision for the school and developing a strategy for implementing innovations, through involving other school staff in this decision-making process, through fostering structural prerequisites for collaboration, and through fostering the overall motivation of school staff to participate in implementing these innovations. Furthermore, Rikkerink et al, 2016 stressed distributed leadership and collective sense-making as important prerequisites for the incorporation of digital learning materials in teaching practice.…”

Teacher Collaboration and Professional Learning

“…Collaboration is a cornerstone in school and instructional development (Meyer et al, 2022;Vangrieken et al, 2015). Teachers who collaborate in teams can collectively identify their school's needs for improvement and adapt their professional practices appropriately (Meyer et al, 2022). One way for teachers to collaborate is to jointly participate in professional development (PD) activities.…”

“…Collaboration of teachers can be defined "as joint interaction in the group in all activities that are needed to perform a shared task" (Vangrieken et al, 2015, p. 23) and is crucial for continuous school improvement as it contributes to teachers' professional learning (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017;Meyer et al, 2022). In this way, collaboration helps to improve teachers' beliefs and motivation (Lee et al, 2011;Voelkel & Chrispeels, 2017).…”

A study on the effect of school culture on teachers’ commitment to curriculum implementation: The mediating role of self-efficacy and job satisfaction

“…School culture consists of the relationship between agents, i.e., the relationship between school principal and teacher, teacher and teacher, and teacher and students. That is to say, what teachers should do specifically to manage the rapport with school principals, colleagues, and students is necessary to ensure successful instruction [ 12 , 13 ]. Without this sociological sympathy, teachers may not be able to understand how to approach the curriculum implementation process.…”