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Article
Publication date: 4 January 2022

David Gurr, Lawrie Drysdale and Helen Goode

Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school…

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Abstract

Purpose

Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and these descriptions are then used inductively to create a new successful school leadership model.

Findings

The open systems approach adopted depicts schools as a continuous cycle of input-transformation-output with feedback loops that inform each stage of the cycle. The inputs are the variables that lead to transformation. The transformation stage is the actions or processes that individuals, groups and organisations engage in because of the inputs, and these lead to a range of student and school outcomes. Feedback loops connect the stages, and the whole model is open to the influence of five contextual forces: economic, political, socio-cultural, technological and system, institutional and educational.

Originality/value

Models are an important way to make sense of complex phenomena. A new model of successful school leadership, with an open systems approach, provides a different frame to consider the findings of the ISSPP and potentially allows the ISSPP research to inform practice and connect with other school leadership views in new ways.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 60 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 18 August 2020

David Gurr, Fiona Longmuir and Christopher Reed

Through discussion of research about the leadership of two schools, this paper explores the complexity of school leadership and how various contextual elements interact with the…

4085

Abstract

Purpose

Through discussion of research about the leadership of two schools, this paper explores the complexity of school leadership and how various contextual elements interact with the work of principals in schools that are attempting to create inclusive, rich, worthwhile and unique schools. A systems thinking leadership and context model is developed to frame the exploration of the two cases, which, in turn, helps inform the veracity and development of the model.

Design/methodology/approach

The research reported is broadly based on multiple-perspective case studies that have included individual and/or group interviews with school leaders, teachers, students, parents and/or school council members, observation and document analysis. The focus for this paper is on evidence from the cases that elucidate the model.

Findings

A leadership and context view of schools helps to understand how school leaders work with, within and influence various contextual factors to develop schools that are both successful and unique. The cases demonstrated how individual leadership factors including career histories, personalities and values coalesced with school and broader community factors in reciprocal ways that resulted in school-specific improvements.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited by the nature of bounded, small number, qualitative case research. Nevertheless, the authors suggest that the school leadership and context systems model the authors presented captures much of the complexity of the successful leadership of these schools. The authors further suggest that this model provides a conceptual contribution to the study of successful school leadership that moves beyond more linear leadership views. Implications of this research and the conceptual contributions that the authors advance are that leadership and context should be considered in reciprocal and nuanced ways across a complex variety of contextual levels.

Practical implications

These cases explore the growth and development of new school communities and capture the dynamic interactions between leadership and context within the complex arrangements of policy, system, history and community. The cases demonstrated how individual leadership factors, including career histories, personalities and values, coalesced with school and broader community factors in reciprocal ways that resulted in school-specific improvements. These findings and the system thinking leadership model help school leaders to consider their own work in developing successful and unique schools.

Social implications

School leadership is important for school success, and schools that meet student and community needs are important for society. The authors’ system thinking leadership model helps school leaders improve their practice in creating more interesting and successful schools that meet student and community needs.

Originality/value

At a time when international sharing of information and international testing of schools is pushing towards a uniformity of thinking about what good schools should be, the reality of leading schools is far different. This paper contributes to the knowledge about how school leaders navigate contextual complexities to create successful and unique schools that meet local needs.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 59 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Available. Content available

Abstract

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 60 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2025

Christopher Hudson and David Gurr

The aim of this study was to present a systems model of successful school leadership from a rural school case study, demonstrating how it connects to the weaving circle for…

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to present a systems model of successful school leadership from a rural school case study, demonstrating how it connects to the weaving circle for systemic impact model. Doing so builds an awareness of how both complement each other to prompt thinking about schools as complex and adaptive systems that achieve broader school and student outcomes alongside students’ academic results.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was a multiple-perspective mixed-method case study. Data were collected through interviews with the principal on three separate occasions, school leaders (n = 3), teachers (n = 4), students (n = 12), parents (n = 9), the school council president and a system leader. Interview data were supported by school observations, document analysis and a whole-staff teacher survey. The case study was part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP).

Findings

The authors found a symbiosis between the research of the ISSPP and the ecosystems for learning and flourishing approach, specifically through the weaving circle for systemic impact model. This suggests that future ISSPP research protocols could be modified to consider the weaving circle model and also provides a way for thinking about how the weaving circle model could be extended to better capture the complex world of leading schools successfully.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the existing literature on successful school leadership by engaging with understandings of leading schools as complex and adaptive systems.

Details

Journal of Professional Capital and Community, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-9548

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Article
Publication date: 15 February 2022

Jin Tian, Wanying Zhang, Yaqing Mao and David Gurr

Principal leadership is an important external environmental factor that affects and alleviates teachers' job burnout. The purpose of this paper is to explore the deep internal…

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Abstract

Purpose

Principal leadership is an important external environmental factor that affects and alleviates teachers' job burnout. The purpose of this paper is to explore the deep internal mechanisms of the influence of principal transformational leadership on teacher job burnout in the context of Chinese teachers.

Design/methodology/approach

A cluster sampling method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey on 990 elementary school teachers in 14 primary schools in Beijing. This study uses a structural equation model to analyze the chain intermediary effect of social-emotional competence and the student-teacher relationship between transformational leadership and teachers' job burnout.

Findings

The results reveal that transformational leadership has a significant negative predictive effect on teachers' job burnout; this kind of leadership affects teachers' job burnout through a chain intermediary effect of social and emotional competence and student-teacher relationship.

Originality/value

This research has discovered that teacher burnout is the result of the interaction of external environmental and individual internal factors. Transformational leadership, as an external environmental factor, positively predicts the internal social-emotional competence of the teacher, and then the teacher's internal social-emotional competence positively predicts the external student-teacher relationship. Finally, the teacher-student relationship of the external environment negatively predicts the job burnout of internal individual teachers.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 60 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 19 December 2024

Turgut Karakose, Tijen Tulubaş, Sedat Kanadli and David Gurr

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of principal leadership (PL) on teacher professional learning (TPL) with the possible mediation of teacher trust (TT) and…

55

Abstract

Purpose

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of principal leadership (PL) on teacher professional learning (TPL) with the possible mediation of teacher trust (TT) and teacher agency (TA) using a broader set of data collected from published research.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses meta-analytic structural equation modelling to compare weighted effect sizes between variables produced by research across different periods and contexts. The bilateral relations of PL with study variables were first examined, and then the model-data fit was tested for both the proposed and the two alternative models.

Findings

The results showed that PL had a significant and “very large” effect on TPL, TT and agency; PL affected TPL mostly indirectly over TT and agency. TT and agency collectively predicted nearly half of the variance in TPL.

Originality/value

The study uses a novel and advanced methodology to investigate the relationships among the study variables using data from 59 studies with a sample size of 67,035 participants from around the world. The results contribute to the literature, offering a more global understanding of the interaction of PL, TPL, trust and agency.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 63 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 25 January 2013

David Gurr and Lawrie Drysdale

The aim of this paper is to bring together for the first time three studies of middle‐level leaders in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. The studies span more than a…

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to bring together for the first time three studies of middle‐level leaders in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. The studies span more than a decade and allow consideration of the progress in developing middle‐level leadership roles.

Design/methodology/approach

All studies followed a consistent approach using multiple perspective interviews of middle‐level curriculum and subject leadership in government and Catholic secondary schools in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Principals, senior leaders, middle‐level leaders and teachers were interviewed to gain their perceptions on middle‐level leadership. Interviews were supplemented with school document analysis.

Findings

The work of middle‐level leaders is heavily dependent on how their roles are constructed and the capacities, abilities and attitudes of the leaders. Some are expected to be leaders that influence teaching and learning, and they may be developed and supported to do so. Too often, however, teachers in these key roles have few expectations or opportunities to exercise leadership. Whilst many have the capacity to be leaders of teaching and learning, others are not sure about their ability to influence teaching and learning. Suggestions are made for how leadership might be structured in schools to emphasise the importance of middle‐level leaders, and how these leaders can be better prepared and supported.

Research limitations/implications

Observational studies, studies of primary school contexts and cross‐country comparisons would extend this research.

Practical implications

Middle‐level school leaders need to be seen as key personnel in improving teaching and learning, school structures need to reflect this, and developing leadership capacity needs to be prioritised.

Originality/value

This paper highlights continuing issues with how the work of middle‐level school leaders is conceptualised and supported, and makes suggestions for leadership structure and the preparation and development of school leaders.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 51 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Book part
Publication date: 7 December 2009

Rose M. Ylimaki, David Gurr, Lawrie Drysdale and Jeffrey V. Bennett

Populations in the United States and Australia are also becoming increasingly culturally diverse. In the United States, for example, it is projected that between 1990 and 2050…

Abstract

Populations in the United States and Australia are also becoming increasingly culturally diverse. In the United States, for example, it is projected that between 1990 and 2050, the percentage of the US population of Hispanic origin will be almost triple, growing from 9% to 25% (making them the largest minority group by far) and the percentage Asian population will be more than double, growing from 3% to 8%. During the same period, the percentage of Black population will remain relatively stable increasing only slightly from 12% to 14%; while the percentage of White population will decline sharply from 76% to 53%. Australia has a long history of skill- and humanitarian-based migration policy. This has resulted in a culturally diverse society, especially in parts of the capital cities of the states and territories. This emphasis looks likely to continue in the future, and will continue to change the Australian society as the humanitarian needs change across the world.

Details

Educational Leadership: Global Contexts and International Comparisons
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-645-8

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Article
Publication date: 25 September 2009

Lawrie Drysdale, Helen Goode and David Gurr

This paper seeks to demonstrate how the principal was instrumental in turning around an underperforming school by using a leadership style that modelled appropriate behaviour, and…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to demonstrate how the principal was instrumental in turning around an underperforming school by using a leadership style that modelled appropriate behaviour, and which was consultative, conciliatory, inspirational and empathetic, through having a clearly articulated whole‐child‐focused educational philosophy, by building relationships and developing staff, and through displaying a range of appropriate personal qualities such as integrity, high energy, sensitivity, enthusiasm, and persistence.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a multiple‐perspective, observational case study that included individual and group interviews with the principal, staff, parents and students, and involved shadowing the principal for a total of three days.

Findings

The four themes found in the original study remained important. In addition, the leadership of the assistant principal, and increasingly that of teachers working in teams, were important for success. During the study it became obvious that to move the school from a good school to a great school would likely require a different approach to leadership, changes to school direction, and new improvement strategies. The principal indicated that she was not able to do this and it was time for a new principal to take on this challenge.

Originality/value

This is part of a larger study that is revisiting case studies of successful principals to explore sustainability of successful school leadership and successful schools.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 47 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 2 September 2014

Encarnacion Garza, Jr, Lawrie Drysdale, David Gurr, Stephen Jacobson and Betty Merchant

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…

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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.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 28 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

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