The Effect of Principal’s Distributed Leadership Practice on Students’ Academic Achievement: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Distributed leadership as a new scenario of educational leadership has become a popular topic in the contemporary world. Many notable researchers and members of the discourse community have contributed significantly to its development. However, little attention has paid to its effectiveness. Hence, the main purpose of this article is to analyze the existing evidence for the effect of principal’s leadership practice on students’ academic achievement from a distributed perspective. To do so, a systematic search of academic databases was conducted and 68 references spanning from the year 2001 to 2018 were selected and systematically reviewed. Due consideration was given to their concepts of distributed leadership practice, principal’s role, and students’ academic achievement. The findings of this article show that distributed leadership has positive and indirect effect on students’ academic achievement and the role of principal is indispensable. Nevertheless, there is little emperical evidence, a lack of universal accepted patterns and best practices of distributed leadership which strains further investigation. On the basis of evidence currently available, it seems reasonable to recommend scholars, policy developers, and practitioners to recognize the role of principal on distributed leadership and its best practices.

Exploring Distributed Leadership Practice in Nigerian Secondary Schools

“…The findings showed that school administrators are satisfied with the performances of teachers who are not formal leaders but are assigned leadership responsibilities implying that spreading over leadership positively impacts school effectiveness. This is similar to the findings of a systematic review of the literature on the effect of principals' distributed leadership practice on students' academic achievement by Daniel and Lei (2019). They concluded that distributed leadership becomes effective when school administrators encourage "shared vision, shared power, enable others to act, focus on capacity building and involve others in decision-making" (Daniel & Lei, 2019, p.195).…”

Toward agenda 2030 in education: policies and practices for effective school leadership

“…According to Spillane ( 2005 ), it is used interchangeably with ‘shared leadership,’ ‘collaborative leadership,’ ‘delegated leadership,’ and ‘dispersed leadership.’ In all cases, this leadership model is not restricted in one figure in the school, but rather dispersed to include staff at all levels (Harris, 2013 ; Thien & Chan, 2022 ). It has to do with power sharing (Hatcher, 2005 ; Özdemir et al, 2022 ), empowering staff (Jambo & Hongde, 2020 ), and building the capacity for improvement (Carrington et al, 2022 ; Harris, 2013 ).…”

Leading collaborative innovation in schools

“…A growing body of literature acknowledges a crucial role of distributed leadership for successful innovations in schools (Brown et al, 2020;Daniëls et al, 2019;Fullan, 2016;Hulpia et al, 2009;Jambo & Hongde, 2020;Law et al, 2010;Meijer, 2014;Ricard et al, 2017;Sullivan et al, 2012;Tian et al, 2016;Tummers & Knies, 2013;Vogel & Masal, 2015). This is in line with the international call for a more social, collaborative, and networked approach to school innovations .…”

“…Lastly, several review studies indicate that the leadership role of school principals and their background characteristics are key to creating conditions for distributed leadership practices (Drewes et al, 2019;Jambo & Hongde, 2020;Liu et al, 2018;März et al, 2018;Tian et al, 2016). However, the ways in which school principals' leadership foster distributed leadership practices is relatively understudied (Drewes et al, 2019;Mentink et al, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, a selection criterion was including primary, secondary, and vocational schools. Previous studies on distributed leadership practices were mostly conducted within primary or secondary education (Bryk & Schneider, 2002;Daly, 2012;Jambo & Hongde, 2020;Liou & Daly, 2014;McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001). We invited the schools to randomly select one of their teacher teams to complete a social network questionnaire, which formed the starting point of our study.…”