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The purpose of this paper is to explore successful school principalship in Cyprus based on a ten-year research project, and in particular, by analysing leadership knowledge based on concrete actions of successful school principals derived from multiple case studies from the primary and secondary education sectors in Cyprus.

The initial type of evidence was original qualitative empirical research undertaken through the examination of 11 case studies of successful primary and secondary school principals across Cyprus. Following, for the purposes of this paper a cross-case reanalysis was performed in order to extract successful actions from the participating school principals.

Based on the emerging actions from the cross-case analysis, findings indicate that successful school principals, both in primary and secondary education, develop external relations, as well as networking with all relevant actors; create a collaborative and shared ownership feeling among their members and within their school organization; and finally promote a clear vision, based on a specific number of values.

This overall effort led us to the articulation of certain successful actions, which could be related and compared to the results in other successful school principalship contexts. Furthermore, it could contribute to the cross-country comparative knowledge body on successful school principalship, with different educational policies and different social contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into successful secondary school principals in Cyprus, focusing on identifying their actions and behaviours through the adoption of a systemic view of the quality of leadership in school organizations from multiple stakeholders (i.e. self, parents, students and teachers).

This article is the sequel to another paper on successful principalship which was written about successful primary school principals in Cyprus. A multi‐case study methodology was followed where data were gathered from a wide range of school stakeholders such as the principal, teachers, students and parents employing a common, semi‐structured interview protocol developed specifically for the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) which was translated into Greek and adopted to Cyprus’ educational context.

This paper argues that the principals exhibit behaviors and actions such as developing relationships, being committed, being visionary and promoting a collaborative learning environment which, in combination with their passion, devotion and commitment, lead to successful principalship.

The paper offers insights into the implications for principals’ training by informing policies for recruitment and retention leading to the designing of more effective leadership training programs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a broader understanding of the role of Cypriot school principals’ personal identities, through a values system perspective, when exercising their leadership.

A multicase study methodology was followed with five school principals, representing five different leadership styles. In each case, an in-depth investigation of the school principal’s personal identity was undertaken. School principals’ personal values were explored during interviews, staff meetings and daily activities observations, as well as through the use of the think-aloud protocol method. This study utilized the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values, as well as the Pashiardis–Brauckmann Holistic Leadership Framework, as the guiding theoretical framework.

School principals’ personal identities in Cyprus seem to influence, to some extent, their daily leadership practice. However, particular factors associated with the context in which they live (social identity) and work (professional identity), seemed to be affecting the personal values embedded throughout their personal identities.

Five school principals are not enough to make generalizations on the relationships between leadership styles and values. However, through this paper, the authors sought to provide examples on how school principals’ personal identities influence their leadership practice.

The findings highlight the important role and attention to school principals’ personal identities, beyond the core management and leadership courses. The findings also shed light on the importance of looking more closely at contextual elements “outside” and “inside” the school and to what extent these could influence school principals’ personal identities.

This paper offers insights into school principals’ personal identities, through a values system perspective, and how these personal identities influence their leadership practice.

In an era of increased autonomy and accountability in education, school principals have been given the responsibility for many tasks that used to be centralized, such as hiring and managing personnel, ensuring that the curriculum is followed and that the development of the school is on the right path. In this study an exploration is attempted into the associations among institutional context, school leadership, school climate and student outcomes.

The authors analyze data from the Programme of International Student Assessment study 2015 to identify variations in institutional context (autonomy and accountability) among education systems to determine whether and how institutional context is associated with leadership and whether education systems, in turn, are associated with school climate and students' achievement in reading. To account for the hierarchical structure of the education systems under investigation, a three-level structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was employed to analyze the data gathered on the institutions, schools and students.

No association was found between the degree of autonomy of an education system and leadership behavior; however, accountability and leadership seemed to go together. Achievement in reading competencies was greater in school systems in which principals had more autonomy. At the school level, a relationship was found between leadership and opportunities for parental involvement.

The results of this study indicate the need of strong leadership in order to have better results when there is more accountability. In this sense, the authors' findings also point to the increased importance of context-sensitive leadership skills.

This paper is derived from a thorough and systematic study, contributing to further understanding of the perception of authentic leadership in the context of Cyprus, by involving school principals' both espoused values and values in action coupled with their leadership styles.

Data were drawn from a combination of methods, both quantitative (235 questionnaires) and qualitative (5 case studies), thus facilitating a more reliable and valid exploration of school principals' espoused values and values in action coupled with their leadership styles.

School principals' values in action may be filtered by particular factors, which affect them, when they try to promote their espoused values during their leadership practice. In general, the findings indicated that practicing authentic leadership might be, in fact, impeded by specific factors connected to the broader context in which school principals operate.

It is not possible to draw concrete conclusions on relation between the espoused values and values in action, as only five school principals took part during the second research phase. However, in this study, the quantitative (first phase) and qualitative (second phase) research were combined in order to produce a general picture, with regards to the practice of authentic leadership.

The study of values has received an extensive research interest lately. In this study, it was approached collectively and cohesively by taking into consideration the differentiation between espoused values and values in action.

The overall purpose of the European Union‐funded Leadership Improvement for Student Achievement (LISA) project was to explore how leadership styles, as conceptualized in the developed dynamic holistic leadership framework, directly or indirectly affect student achievement at the lower secondary level of education in seven European countries. This paper seeks to address this issue.

In its methodological design the study is a mixture of research methods and collaborative action research shared by acting school leaders and researchers. A series of statistical analyses was carried out in order to gather evidence whether the data from the LISA project supported the initially developed holistic leadership theoretical framework. Consequently, first some descriptive statistics are introduced in order to acquaint the reader with the kind of data the survey used from the schoolteacher questionnaires. Further, some explanations are laid out with regard to the methodologies employed in order to analyze the data, such as the treatment of missing data and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis structural equation models (SEM); then, a description of the main findings is offered through the analyses, which were conducted in order to predict school performance level from the relevant leadership style, followed by between‐countries comparisons and analyses. Finally, an in‐depth discussion and interpretations of the main findings – both integrative and concludive in nature – are offered.

The quantitative analyses stemming from confirmatory factor analysis and SEM identified five robust underlying dimensions of practised leadership styles across the seven participating European countries. Furthermore, the findings stemming from the logistic regression analyses pointed out clearly the complementary inter‐relationships of the main research questions of the study and analytical strands, especially with regard to the impact of certain intermediate variables on student achievement.

The expected results of this approach are predominantly assumed/seen as an enrichment in the grounding of hypothetical and theoretical ideas as well as professional development for both school principals and researchers. Such an equal contribution of school leaders and school leaders' organizations and researchers could probably provide a model for future professional development programs for both groups of professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether emotional intelligence and political skill (PS) of school principals influence the way they exercise leadership and the job satisfaction of their teachers.

As regards to the methodology, quantitative research methods were used to conduct the research. Specifically, the data analysis was performed with the statistical program SPSS and the EQS program for the development of structural equation models. Participants were 182 principals of Cyprus public elementary schools and 910 teachers.

The findings indicated that the emotional intelligence and PS of school principals are related to the educational leadership styles they use and to teachers’ job satisfaction. Such a relationship highlights the social skills of principals as an important area for further research.

Future research may benefit from developing and validating an investigating tool which rates school principals’ Emotional-Political Capacity because, as revealed from the current research, this new construct directly affects the leadership radius and teachers’ job satisfaction.

This research provides important feedback to those organizations interested in educational leadership and reform, as it can further illuminate (unknown until now) qualities that an effective school principal must have.

The importance of this research and its contribution to science, is illustrated by the fact that this is one of the first research efforts undertaken, which indicates that the emotional and political skills may be factors that shape effective educational leadership styles.

Life is lived in an era characterised by complexity and instability. Pedagogical ideals or educational goals are usually determined based on the socio‐political and cultural period in which people find themselves at a specific point in its history. Then, in what ways do people train their principals to be models of and act in line with those democratic values and ideals that aim at fostering good citizens? Furthermore, how do these goal statements fare in relation to the moral purpose of schools and especially focus on the social goals of schools? These and similar issues are dealt with in this paper. More specifically, there is a description of the major restructuring initiatives towards school empowerment and democracy introduced in the Cyprus education system. Further, an attempt is made in order to show how these changes have affected (or not) the education system with respect to personnel management, the power of the centre, democracy and the curriculum, and democracy and inspection.

This article seeks to centre on Cypriot, English, Greek and Swedish selection and training of principals. This was part of a 2001‐2002 European Union (EU) funded study which created a distance learning CD ROM for principals.

National education systems and principals' selection and training were analysed and compared using documents, focus groups, principals' interviews and an international seminar.

The most centralised systems of Greece and Cyprus had less principal preparation, and more government involvement in principal selection, than the less centralised Sweden and England.

The extent of training was perceived to matter less in successful principalship than selecting the right people, although even a good leader can be improved through training and principals were concerned about their lack of formal training.