School-Based Management with or without Instructional Leadership: Experience from Sweden

Abstract

This study sets out to examine schools principals' perception of the importance of school-based management (SBM) and instructional leadership tasks and their assessment of the performance of those tasks in Swedish upper secondary schools. A review of the literature on SBM and instructional leadership results in a list of twenty one tasks grouped into administrative, firefighting, and instructional leadership. Analysis of the survey responses from 234 principals shows that 80% of administrative and 75% of firefighting tasks were seen as highly important and performed well, while 68% of instructional leadership tasks were perceived as of having lower importance and performance. Implications for school principals and policy-makers are discussed and venues for future research are outlined.

Assessing Instructional Leadership with the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale

“…This changing policy discourse was also evident in growing global interest among scholars in understanding the ways in which school leaders contribute to school improvement and student learning . This broadening scholarly interest in instructional leadership can be traced in the chronology of research publications that emerged from the UK (e.g., Bell et al 2003;Hunter Foundation 2005;Southworth 2000, continental Europe (Hall and Southworth 1997;Krüger et al 2007;Lindberg and Vanyushyn 2013;, East Asia Walker andKo 2011) andAustralia/New Zealand (Caldwell 2003;Mulford andSilins 2003, 2009;.…”

“…These models proposed that school principals achieved their impact on student learning by motivating and influencing teacher practice. This proposition influenced research conducted during the succeeding decade (e.g., see Bryk et al 2009;Heck 2010, 2011a, b;Lee 2013, 2014;Krüger et al 2007;Knapp et al 2009;Lindberg and Vanyushyn 2013;Opdenakker and Van Damme 2007;Printy et al 2009;Wahlstrom and Louis 2008;Wiley 2001).…”

The Principal Leadership in Strengthening Elementary School Education Character

“…Management of character education should be carried out in accordance with the management process as stated by several experts. Management is the process of carrying out various activities within the framework of the application of objectives and as the ability or skill of people who hold managerial positions to obtain an outcome in order to achieve goals through other people's activities [22], [23]. Management is a different process consisting of planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling that is done to achieve the goals determined by using humans and other resources [24].…”

The Evolution of Instructional Leadership

“…This changing policy discourse was also evident in growing global interest among scholars in understanding the ways in which school leaders contribute to school improvement and student learning (Hallinger and Heck 2011a). This broadening scholarly interest in instructional leadership can be traced in the chronology of research publications that emerged from the UK (e.g., Bell et al 2003;Day et al 2010;Hunter Foundation 2005;MacBeath and Cheng 2008;Southworth 2000Southworth , 2002, continental Europe (Hall and Southworth 1997;Krüger et al 2007;Lindberg and Vanyushyn 2013;Scheerens 2012;van de Grift and Houteen 1999;Witziers et al 2003), East Asia (Hallinger and Lee 2013;Walker and Ko 2011) and Australia/New Zealand (Caldwell 2003;Silins 2003, 2009;Robinson et al 2008).…”

“…These models proposed that school principals achieved their impact on student learning by motivating and influencing teacher practice. This proposition influenced research conducted during the succeeding decade (e.g., see Bryk et al 2009;Heck 2010, 2011a, b;Lee 2013, 2014;Heck and Hallinger 2009Krüger et al 2007;Knapp et al 2009;Lindberg and Vanyushyn 2013;Marks and Printy 2003;Mulford and Silins 2009;Nettles and Herrington 2007;Neumerski 2012;Opdenakker and Van Damme 2007;Printy et al 2009;Silva et al 2011;Spillane 2006;Wahlstrom and Louis 2008;Wiley 2001).…”