SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

School Leadership

School Leadership

Introduction

School leadership is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, pupils, and parents toward achieving common educational aims. This term is often used synonymously with educational leadership in the United States and has supplanted educational management in the United Kingdom.

Although it is recognised that headteachers play a crucial role in school-wide efforts to raise standards of teaching and pupil learning and achievement, evidence-based knowledge of what makes successful leaders remains elusive. The most popular theories are located in the transactional and transformational models identified more than 20 years ago (Burns, 1978) and lately reinvented through such terms as 'liberation' (Tampoe, 1998), 'educative' (Duignan and McPherson, 1992), 'invitational' (Stoll and Fink, 1996) and 'moral' leadership (Sergiovanni, 1992). What is clear from these, and from the effective schools literature, is that successful leaders not only set direction but they also model values and practices consistent with those of the school, so that "purposes which may have initially seemed to be separate become fused" (Sergiovanni, 1995, p119).

Yet relatively few research studies have sought information from heads recognised as effective, and fewer still have sought educated opinion from those who know most about them, ie their students, staff, governors and parents. In 1998, the National Association of Headteachers, the largest in the UK, commissioned such a 360-degree study.

• Twelve heads were selected from schools of different sizes, operating within different phases, and located in a range of geographical, economic and socio-cultural settings.

• All the schools had received a positive inspection report by Ofsted, particularly with regard to their leadership. All were performing better than average, and the heads all had a good reputation amongst their peers. Gender and experience were also factored in.

• All schools were visited for three days by members of the five-strong research team, a substantial number of interviews was conducted, and local documentation supplemented these.

School Leadership

The term school leadership came into currency in the late 20th century for several reasons. Demands were made on schools for higher levels of pupil achievement, and schools were expected to improve and reform. These expectations were accompanied by calls for accountability at the school level. Maintenance of the status quo was no longer considered acceptable. Administration and management are terms that connote stability through the exercise of control and supervision. The concept of leadership was favored because it conveys dynamism and proactivity. The principal or school head is commonly thought to be the school leader; however, school leadership may include other persons, such as members of a formal leadership team and other persons who contribute toward the aims of the school.

While school leadership or educational leadership have become popular as replacements for educational administration in recent years, leadership arguably presents only a partial picture of the work of school, division or district, and ministerial or state education agency personnel, not to mention the areas of research explored by university faculty in departments concerned with the operations of schools and educational ...