Leadership for school success: lessons from effective principals

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine four case studies from the International Successful School Principalship Project to explore and highlight how the role of the principal is critically important to sustaining school success. Implications for improving the preparation of aspiring and practicing school leaders are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using multiple sources, including documents and interviews with a variety of people including the principal, other school leaders, teachers, school council/board members, parents and students. Each case study was analyzed to understand how the principal and other leadership contributed to school success. Findings – There were several core dimensions of the principals’ leadership that led to sustained school success. Principals clearly articulated views on education and helped their schools set appropriate directions. They were all concerned with the professional development of teachers to build capacity and teacher leadership. All principals were instructional leaders who influenced teaching and learning and were committed to making a difference. They exhibited other qualities such as resilience and their motivation to sustain their efforts over time. Another important dimension was building community. These principals reached out to their communities. They clearly understood that they could not succeed in isolation. Originality/value – The notion of sustainability in education remains ambiguous and this paper provides some empirical evidence of how successful school principals maintain school success over an extended period. Importantly, it considers how aspirant and practicing principals can be developed and supported in their efforts to lead and sustain successful schools.

Hacia la Implantación de Comunidades Profesionales de Aprendizaje Mediante un Liderazgo Distribuido. Una Revisión Sistemática

“…(p. 209) Otro factor que se reitera a lo largo de los trabajos que componen esta revisión es el desarrollo profesional docente. Existe una gran coincidencia en considerar al desarrollo profesional del profesorado como un garante en la construcción de la capacidad de mejora interna de la escuela, asociándolo con la capacidad de liderazgo docente (Garza et al, 2014) y con la existencia de prácticas colaborativas que culminan en un aprendizaje profesional (Piyaman, Hallinger y Viseshsiri, 2017;Wang, 2016;Wieczorek, 2017). No obstante, para acentuar la capacidad de liderazgo del profesorado se necesita a un equipo directivo que delegue en el personal responsabilidades, lo involucre en el proceso de toma de decisiones y en el diseño de un proyecto común, empoderándolo (Javadi, Bush y Ng, 2017;Misfud, 2017;Wang, 2016).…”

“…Respecto a las investigaciones que se han llevado a cabo en el seno de una comunidad profesional de aprendizaje (Barnes et al, 2010;Garza et al, 2014;Hauge, Norenes y Vedøy, 2014;López-Yáñez y Sánchez-Moreno, 2013;Stevenson et al, 2016), destaca la consideración que todas ellas hacen al contexto (Hallinger y Liu, 2016). Todas ellas reconocen las dificultades y limitaciones que comportan la viración de un centro escolar a una comunidad profesional, siendo necesario la movilización de un elevado número de cambios para hacerlo factible.…”

Liderança como Fator de Sucesso na Gestão Escolar: Estudo de Caso numa Escola Privada na Região Norte de Portugal

“…Sendo assim, buscou-se em sua ampla representatividade a ratificação dos estudos que defendem a importância da liderança para o sucesso da gestão escolar (CAIXEIRO, 2013;GARZA et al, 2014;LEITHWOOD;HOPKINS, 2008;YANG, 2014), reforçando o entendimento de que a utilização de uma metodologia mista foi relevante para esta investigação. Nesta investigação, privilegiou--se a abordagem qualitativa a partir do inquérito por entrevista à diretora da instituição de ensino escolhida para o estudo de caso, complementada por dois questionamentos subjetivos e opcionais aplicados aos docentes.…”

Educational Leadership Relationally

“…The origin and methodology of the ISSPP is found in an earlier study by one of the co-founders and current co-ordinator Christopher Day (see Day et al, 2000). The ISSPP has, according to its investigators, provided evidence of the now common view that successful school leadership comprises at least four core dimensions of: setting direction; developing people; developing the school; and managing the instructional programme (Leithwood & Day, 2007;Garza et al, 2014). More than 100 case studies have been generated throughout the project.…”

“…In the most recent paper, it explicitly argues that Jan Shrimpton had a reputation for improving schools in challenging contexts and was appointed in 1999 to address the very poor performance of the school (Garza et al, 2014). This is why there is little, if any, problem with using the real names of the principals in the published work -usually frowned upon by human research ethics committees.…”