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Building coherence for school improvement through integrated school leadership model: evidence from public secondary schools in Ethiopia
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Unfortunately, the role of school leadership in fostering school improvement in non‐Western countries, especially African countries, is relatively little discussed. The present study sheds light on the contextual role of instructional leadership (IL) and transformational leadership (TL) in promoting the Ethiopian School Improvement Program (SIP), which is intended to enhance student academic performance. Hence, this study aimed to extend the integrated leadership model by conceptualizing the moderating mediation effect of IL on student academic achievement in public primary schools. A cross‐sectional study was performed by distributing a survey to 1280 public primary school teachers in Addis Ababa. Surprisingly, the study's findings affirmed that unlike previous studies, IL and TL significantly directly affect student academic performance, and TL plays a significant role as a moderator of the indirect effect of IL on student academic achievement.
Aim
To develop self-management education for preventing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients on hemodialysis and to verify its effects.
Background
During the current pandemic, studies on various areas, such as infection control in dialysis units, infection rates, clinical characteristics, treatment progress, and the emotional and psychological states of dialysis patients, have been actively reported. However, experimental research verifying the effects of interventions on infection prevention in hemodialysis patients is very rare.
Methods
This study included 34 patients on hemodialysis in a South Korean general hospital (18 in the experimental group and 16 in the control group). Data were collected from September to October 2021. The experimental group was provided with self-care behavior for infection prevention education for 8 weeks, and the control group was provided with usual nursing care.
Results
The patients on hemodialysis showed moderate fear of COVID-19, good compliance with patient role behavior and self-management efficacy, and poor handwashing practice. After the intervention, there were no significant differences concerning fear of COVID-19, compliance with patient role behavior, and self-management efficacy between the experimental and control groups. However, confidence in handwashing (subjective norm) and proper handwashing practice improved significantly in the experimental group compared with the control group.
Conclusion
The infection prevention education developed in this study positively affected confidence in handwashing and proper handwashing practice in patients undergoing hemodialysis. This intervention can be used in various clinical settings where care is provided for patients with chronic illness, including those on hemodialysis.
The study area has faced with school improvement program (SIP) implementation problems, in limited leadership roles, inadequate participation of stakeholders, lack of experience and skills among school principals, low coordination of school community that might have hindered the program from achieving its objectives in the selected schools in the study town. The main purpose of this study was, therefore, to assess the leadership roles and challenges on the implementation of school improvement program and thereby to identify the major challenges in relation to school principal role that affected proper implementation, and finding solution to ensure the success of SIP in Dilla city administration primary government primary schools. In order to achieve this purpose, mixed design-both quantitative and qualitative approach was employed as research method in the study. The study was conducted in five primary schools from a total of thirteen private and governmental primary schools in the study town administrations. Out of these, five schools was purposively selected from eight governmental primary schools found in Dilla city administration. Teachers and students were selected by simple random sampling technique where as the School principals, supervisors, District education office heads, parent Teachers Association (PTA) and others were selected by purposive sampling techniques. To gather data, questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussion (FGD), observation and document reviews were employed. After the data were gathered, analysis was made by organizing in tables and computing using frequencies, percentage, mean value, standard deviation, t-test. The findings of study indicated that school principals role had low practice in participating with stake holders and the extent of teachers', students' and parents' in planning and implementing SIP was low; the mechanism principals used through which monitoring and evaluation practiced to support SIP implementation was not in position to effectively run SIP. Furthermore the level of participation of community members to offer necessary support was low. In addition most of activities across the four domains were implemented at moderate level and students' achievement was also improved at moderate. Hence from the result of the study the overall principals role in the implementation of SIP was moderate. There was Shortage of budget, insufficient school facilities, Inability of school improvement committee to properly play their role, inadequate planning and low involvement of stake holders in the implementation of SIP and inadequate monitoring and evaluation were major factors that negatively affect SIP implementation.
Since the education reform did since 2018, there are many improvements has been observed, and the study intended to investigate teachers are the one who is playing a significant role in executing the goals—standing from that perception, this study was conducted to measure the level of teachers' organizational commitment and correlate the level with their characteristics. For that reason, the study employed a quantitative survey design to address the research questions, followed by choosing 15 public secondary schools and 230 teachers randomly in Addis Ababa.Mayer and Allen(1991) three sub-dimension(Affective, Continuance, and Normative) questionnaire with 21 questions in total. The significant findings from the study were public secondary teachers low speaking of Affective and Normative, but their continuance commitment was encouraging, and senior and experienced teachers were specifically showed low commitment levels. Therefore the school leaders, teachers' unions, and concerned bodies need to serve a new way, refreshing senior teachers and giving responsibilities and participating teachers in the decision-making process.
This quantitative study investigated the relationship between leadership styles and teacher job satisfaction in Ethiopia, based on teacher perceptions. The multifactor leadership theory also known as full range leadership theory and work adjustment theory provided the theoretical framework to explore the relationship. Analysis of data yielded three major findings: (1) while the practice of transformational leadership was significantly lower, the practice of laissez-faire was significantly higher than international benchmarks; (2) teacher job satisfaction was low and significantly lower among males; and (3) there were low to moderate correlations between leadership styles and teacher job satisfaction with aspects of transformational and transactional leadership predicting job satisfaction, a trend similar to studies in other African countries. This study suggests that practicing principals, leadership preparation programs, and reform initiatives for school success in Ethiopia, consider providing professional development that includes predictors of teacher job satisfaction—inspirational motivation and contingency reward among other things.
Background Education delivers a fundamental base for all further human, social and economic development. It inspires creativity and fosters innovation. Education is generally considered as the tool for economic growth and social development of a nation. Education or school outcomes are strongly associated with the quality and/or relevance of leadership style used by principals. The quality of education is positively correlated to quality educational leadership. As a result, in educational organisations, leadership behaviour plays a significant role in success in schools. Methods:To understand the research issues and to investigate the feeling of the public secondary schools principals and teachers in the study, this research applied a qualitative research approach. Specifically qualitative instrumental case study design was used. In this research 34 participants were selected, 24 teaches and 10 principals from the 65 public secondary schools. Semi-structured individual in-depth interviews used to collect data from participants. Data analysis was done concurrently with the data collection process. As the interviews conducted in Amharic language, the interviews translated to English language after the audio recorded data transcription. In this research ATLAS.ti 8 qualitative data analysis software used to facilitate the organisation of collected data. Results:The public secondary school management system has unique structures in schools namely, teachers' one-to-five grouping, development group/change army and school command post committees together with different departmental structures. Even though the school has four principals (one head principal and three vice-principals), all of them seemed to focus on coordinating and developing an 'educational army' in the school. The principals are evaluated by the officials based on the effectiveness of the school in developing the 'educational army', such as monitoring one-to-five teams. They also work hard at changing teachers' attitude toward to the ruling political party. The school principal has no mandate to make any decisions alone as it can be negated by the command post. Conclusions:the public secondary school management structure is consisted of principals and department heads. However, the process of managing and leading the school is executed by hidden politically organized body like school command post, one to five structures and ruling party members in the school.
Aim: While integrated leadership has received significant scholarly attention in the past decade, most existing research in this vein has focused on its impact on student achievement and often dismissed how it might be related to instructional practices, which are at the center of many school reforms. In this research, we examined the relationship between integrated leadership and teacher professional learning and teacher practices in Turkey, where educational policy makers have recently introduced several school reform initiatives. More specifically, we aimed to examine the moderating function
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess practices, opportunity and challenges of SIP in selected primary schools of Elu Gelan Woreda. Methodology/Approach/Design: A descriptive survey method was employed. The population of the study was 90 teachers, 14 principals, 7 primary school supervisors, 1Woreda Education Office heads, 3 Woreda Education Office process owners and 31 SIP committee. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using simple statistical tools such as frequent count and percentages, while the data obtained through interviews, Focus Group discussions, Observation checklist and Document review were analyzed qualitatively to substantiate the result of quantitative analysis. Findings: The findings of the study showed that there is a shortage of financial support and a lack of awareness among stakeholders. The results also indicate that there is a lack of learning facilities and poor community participation. The study revealed poor management, poor community mobilization, and poor collaboration in SIP implementation. Practical Implications: Based on the results of the study, it is proposed that an adequate awareness creation program should be implemented to ensure the practical involvement of all stakeholders; organizing and allocating the necessary resources, providing proper technical support and practical training to support the implementation of SIP. The findings of the study may help schools and other educational authorities at different administrative levels in providing valuable information for planners and policymakers to set strategies for better school improvement. Originality/Value: SIP in the study area was not implemented as indicated in the framework of SIP.
We investigated the effects of principal instructional leadership (IL) on the frequency of two forms of teacher collaboration (TC) namely exchange and coordination of teaching (EXCHT) and professional collaboration (PROFCOLT) and their influence on student achievement (SA). Using data from the representative German PISA 2015 sample, we carry out structural equation modeling analysis to estimate the direct effects of IL on TC and of TC on SA, as well as the indirect effects of IL on SA. The analyses were conducted at the school level and only teachers belonging to the non-science group in PISA 2015 were included. After testing for the factorial validity of the instrument, only the collaboration form (EXCHT) could be retained. Our analysis suggests that principal instructional leadership can positively influence teachers’ collaboration frequency and that the remaining form of teacher collaboration is not positively related to student achievement. Our study builds on and extends research on student achievement by adding evidence about the relations between principal leadership and teacher collaboration in Germany.
Educational or school outcomes are strongly associated with the quality and/or relevance of leadership style used by principals and its possible influence on the level of teacher job satisfaction. To attain the goals of the school, the principal needs to engage in an effective leadership style to inspire and encourage teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate the public school leadership practice in the theoretical view of instructional leadership and transformational leadership styles. Both theories have been found to encompass leadership practices that enhance teacher job satisfaction and student achievement. Qualitative case study research design was used to investigate the issue. The study participants were selected purposefully from the public school principals and teachers. In this research 34 participants were selected, 24 teaches and 10 principals from the 65 schools. The research participants were interviewed using the semi-structure interview quastions. The data analysis was done concurrently with the interview sessions were takes place. ATLASti version8 was used to organized and generate the codes and themes of the study. Based on the themes the study results were discussed. Addis Ababa public school principals were not fully implemented the instructional leadership and transformational leadership behaviors. The school leadership and management practice was interfered by politicians to execute ruling party interest in the school. Principals were not assigned by their profession and performance, afflation to the ruling party was mandatory to be the school principal. As the result of this teachers were not satisfied and motivated. Teaching and learning was not effectively supported by the school leaders. Thus, study participants perceived that the school leadership was traditional and not practice effective school leadership style like instructional and transformational leaderships style. The study participants stated that transformational leadership behaviour and instructional leadership style have a positive impact on teacher job satisfaction, work commitment and better school performance. In this study, as suggested by the teachers, transformational leadership is a favourable leadership style in order for schools to become effective in their activities. They also agreed that such leadership behaviour is strongly related to improving student achievement.
Using an integrated school leadership framework, this research intended to investigate 1.whether and to what extent transformational leadership could leverage teacher leadership; 2 the integrated effects of principal transformational leadership and teacher leadership on teacher self-efficacy and student academic performance. This study used a two-stage
stratified sampling approach and collected the complex survey data in one Chinese province. Researchers employed a rigorous three-level Structural Equation Model to investigate multi-dimensional relationships among the aforementioned variables. The results suggest that principal transformational leadership is significantly and positively related to teacher leadership. Meanwhile, principal transformational leadership and
teacher leadership are both positively related to teacher self-efficacy, but only teacher leadership is positively related to student learning. This study adds nuanced and international evidence and provides a practical framework to improve schools by involving teacher leaders through principal transformational leadership.
Empirical research considers teacher collaboration to be an important predictor of outcome variables at the student, teacher, and school level. Principals are responsible for shaping teachers' work environments, and in doing so, they can strengthen and support teacher collaboration. Drawing on social interdependence theory, we hypothesized that teachers' collective efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between principal leadership and teacher collaboration. We collected data from 630 teachers in 29 primary and secondary schools in Germany and found, based on structural equation modeling, that principal leadership had a significant indirect effect on teacher collaboration, mediated by teachers' collective efficacy. We discuss the implications of these results for supporting school improvement.
The purpose of this study is twofold: to examine the curriculum structure for instructional leaders’ training and development against the desired competences; and to evaluate the career development framework of instructional leaders. With these ends in view, the study examined the instructional leadership framework, the curriculum document, and the instructional leaders’ recruitment, selection and retention strategies. The perspectives of instructional leadership trainers, instructional leaders, zone education department heads, and national level education experts who were selected using a purposive sampling technique were explored through one-on-one interviews. In the light of these, the qualitative data analysis discloses the absence of national instructional leadership framework from which instructional leadership curriculum should have emerged. It was also understood that the loosened curriculum development culture ultimately resulted in the curriculum’s lack of relevance to the desired competences for instructional leadership development. It was further learnt that there existed an absence of context specific recruitment, selection and retention strategies for instructional leaders. It is, therefore, concluded that the instructional leadership development practices of Ethiopia, seemed to have been deviating from expectations. Hence, it is recommended that there is a need to design a national instructional leadership development framework based on which the instructional leadership curriculum development and implementation practices could be managed. The recruitment, selection, and retention strategies should also involve incentive packages that could attract competent candidates to the profession. It is further recommended that there is a need to promote positive mindset exercises for instructional leaders to take their own professional development initiatives.
Purpose: Instructional leadership has been identified as a key responsibility of principals who achieve promising results for school improvement. This study investigated how the national context has influenced the adoption of instructional leadership as a defining role responsibility for Israeli principals. Research Methods: Participants in this qualitative study consisted of a diverse sample of 46 Israeli principals, broadly representative of the larger body of school principals in Israel. Data were collected through both interviews and focus groups. Data analysis proceeded in a four-stage process that involved condensing, coding, categorizing, and theorizing from the interview data. Findings: Findings identified three sociocultural norms that shaped principal adoption of instructional leadership in their role set: low power distance, clan culture, and incomplete identification of principals (and teachers) with their schools’ academic missions. These contextual cohering forces led principals to resist new, formally defined policy expectations of their role as instructional leaders. Implications: This study’s findings reinforce arguments that propose national context as an underserved theoretical lens for understanding differences in principals’ practices across different societies. The findings suggest that despite increasing global acceptance of instructional leadership, its implementation in practice is inevitably shaped by the institutional policies and cultural values of different societies. Even when a “generic” model of instructional or transformational leadership is adopted by policy makers, there will be a process of mutual adaptation during implementation.
Systems thinking can be explained as the ability to see the whole beyond its parts and to see the parts in the context of the whole. As a holistic management approach, systems thinking enables managers to cope with increasing complexity and change. Given the inherent complexity of school organizations within dynamic educational environments, systems thinking can significantly benefit the realm of school leadership. Despite its potential contribution, the available knowledge on systems thinking in school leadership is meagre. This article seeks to identify possible avenues for research regarding systems thinking in school leadership, suggesting aspects of this leadership approach that are worthy of further academic exploration.
Teachers are the key agents in the promotion of parental involvement in
education. In this study, we examined the concept of transformational leadership for parental involvement (TLPI). The Transformational Leadership for
Parental Involvement Questionnaire (TLPIQ) was developed to assess teachers’
perceptions of support from school leaders in inviting parents to be involved in
their children’s education. Participants were 90 primary school teachers in 18
schools in urban and rural areas of Java, Indonesia. Results showed that
teachers’ perceptions of transformational leadership was positively associated
with their invitational behaviors toward parents. This study points to the
supporting role school leaders can play in the context of parental involvement.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SBPHQTEJJFBBIIGQKIGX/full?target=10.1080/15700763.2019.1668424
This article reports on an investigation into the influence stemming from school leadership as an important consideration in relation to school improvement. School readiness survey results and student achievement outcomes for one entire school district were analysed to indicate the degree to which school improvement attributes, behaviours, perceptions and attitudes of school leaders impact student achievement. Findings reveal a need for school leaders to focus more clearly on overall school alignment and optimisation behaviours, and these are discussed in relation to specific leadership recommendations and how leadership can better support and encourage school improvement in terms of educational accountability.
The school principal’s role in determining the academic achievement of students has been an agenda
of controversy among scholars in the field of educational leadership. Several studies, have been carried
out, over the years, to resolve this controversy. However, the findings so far have not produced
consistent outcomes pointing to the need for further research in differing socio-cultural settings. The
main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between secondary school principals’
leadership effectiveness as perceived by secondary school teachers and students’ academic
achievement West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. For this, the study employed
correlation design comprising of eight randomly sampled secondary schools. In this study, a total of
190 teachers were selected using a proportional random sampling technique to fill in a standardized
questionnaire on the leadership effectiveness of their school principals. Out of 3321 students who sat
for Grade 10 national examinations in 2014, the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) scores of 440
students was selected from the sampled schools using proportional random sampling technique. A
standardized questionnaire with five-point Likert scales was used to measure the leadership
effectiveness of principals whereas CGPA of students on Grade 10 national examination was used to
measure students' academic achievement. The findings of the study showed that the experience of
principals was not significantly correlated with their corresponding leadership effectiveness. The
findings also showed that the principals level of education was significantly negatively correlated with
principals’ leadership effectiveness (R = -0.866, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the study findings showed that
there was no significant correlation between a school principal’s leadership effectiveness and students’
academic achievement. The latter finding implies that there was no direct relationship between school
leadership and students' academic achievement. In addition , the findings suggest that the relationship
between principals’ level of education, service year, and leadership effectiveness was not direct. The
researchers, therefore, recommended further research on a large scale and in different contexts to
come up with more valid and generalizable finding.
Key words: Leadership, effectiveness, students' academic achievement, secondary school principal
Purpose
– Greater understanding about how variables mediate the relationship between leadership and achievement is essential to the success of reform efforts that hold leaders accountable for student learning. The purpose of this paper is to test a model of integrated transformational leadership including three important school mediators.
Design/methodology/approach
– In total, 5,392 students provided data on student engagement, and 569 teachers provided survey data on principal leadership and the collective teacher efficacy (CTE) and extra effort of their colleagues. Data were analyzed at the school level (n=51) using mediation analysis with the PROCESS macro to calculate the direct and indirect effects of all of the variables in the serial multiple mediator model.
Findings
– The model explained a significant amount of variance in both reading (38 percent) and mathematics (35 percent). CTE and student engagement mediated all of the leadership effects, demonstrating the importance of teacher and student relations in school improvement. The combined effect sizes are significantly greater than the effects of earlier TL models.
Originality/value
– This study contributes to “leadership for learning” research by demonstrating that refining transformational leadership behaviors to include instructional management can enhance a leader’s impact on achievement. As one of the few studies to examine student engagement as a mediator along with teacher mediators, the current study highlights the importance of teacher-student relations in school improvement. While collective efficacy mediated all of the effects of leadership on achievement, student emotional engagement also contributed to mathematics achievement. The study’s findings advance research into mutual influence processes, indicating that reciprocity may extend throughout the leader-teacher-student loop.
Purpose: This article illustrates how successful leaders combine the too often dichotomized practices of transformational and instructional leadership in different ways across different phases of their schools’ development in order to progressively shape and “layer” the improvement culture in improving students’ outcomes. Research Methods: Empirical data were drawn from a 3-year mixed-methods national study (“Impact Study”) that investigated associations between the work of principals in effective and improving primary and secondary schools in England and student outcomes as defined (but not confined) by their national examination and assessment results over 3 years. The research began with a critical survey of the extant literature, followed by a national survey that explored principals’ and key staff’s perceptions of school improvement strategies and actions that they believed had helped foster better student attainment. This was complemented by multiperspective in-depth case studies of a subsample of 20 schools. Findings: The research provides new empirical evidence of how successful principals directly and indirectly achieve and sustain improvement over time through combining both transformational and instructional leadership strategies. The findings show that schools’ abilities to improve and sustain effectiveness over the long term are not primarily the result of the principals’ leadership style but of their understanding and diagnosis of the school’s needs and their application of clearly articulated, organizationally shared educational values through multiple combinations and accumulations of time and context-sensitive strategies that are “layered” and progressively embedded in the school’s work, culture, and achievements. Implications: Mixed-methods research designs are likely to provide finer grained, more nuanced evidence-based understandings of the leadership roles and behaviors of principals who achieve and sustain educational outcomes in schools than single lens quantitative analyses, meta-analyses, or purely qualitative approaches. The findings themselves provide support for more differentiated, context sensitive training and development for aspiring and serving principals.
This article provides an overview of the literature concerning successful school leadership. It draws on the international literature and is derived from a more extensive review of the literature completed in the early stage of the authors’ project. The prime purpose of this review is to summarise the main findings from the wealth of empirical studies undertaken in the leadership field.
This paper examines the effects of principal leadership and peer teacher influence on teachers’ instructional practice and student learning. Using teacher survey and student achievement data from a mid-sized urban southeastern school district in the United States in 2006-2007, the study employs multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the structural relationships between student learning and theorized dimensions of principal leadership, teacher peer influence, and change in teachers’ instructional practice.The findings confirm previous empirical work and provide new contributions to research on the chain of hypothesized relationships between leadership practice and student learning. Both principal leadership and teacher peer influence were significantly associated with teachers’ instructional practices and English language arts (ELA) student learning. A major contribution of this research is the strong and significant indirect relationships which mediate education leadership and student learning. The results indicate the importance of principals work for student learning because of their indirect influence on teachers’ practices through the fostering of collaboration and communication around instruction.
Typescript. Thesis (Ed. D.)--Stanford University, 1983. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-136).
Over the past two decades, debate over the most suitable leadership role for principals has been dominated by two conceptual models: instructional leadership and transformational leadership. This article reviews the conceptual and empirical development of these two leadership models. The author concludes that the suitability or effectiveness of a particular leadership model is linked to factors in the external environment and the local context of a school. Moreover, the paper argues that the definitions of the two models are also evolving in response to the changing needs of schools in the context of global educational reforms.
This article reviews research from 1980‐1995 exploring the relationship between principal leadership and student achievement. The focuses is on the substantive findings that emerged from the review. Earlier reports focused on conceptual and methodological issues. The general pattern of results drawn from this review supports the belief that principals exercise a measurable, though indirect effect on school effectiveness and student achievement. While this indirect effect is relatively small, it is statistically significant and supports the general belief among educators that principals contribute to school effectiveness and improvement. Moreover, the review suggests that previously described discrepancies in research results may be explained by the conceptual and methodological tools employed by researchers. We also emphasize the limitations of these studies. Even taken as a group they do not resolve the most important theoretical and practical issues concerning the means by which principals achieve an impact on school outcomes and how contextual forces influence the exercise of leadership in the schoolhouse. It is concluded that while substantial progress has been made over the past 15 years in understanding the principal's contribution to school effectiveness, the most important scholarly and practical work lies ahead. In addition to this qualified, we assert that scholars are better equipped conceptually and methodologically to address these challenges than in 1980.*The authors would like to acknowledge helpful comments offered on earlier drafts of this paper by Ken Leithwood, Edwin Bridges, Larry Cuban, Peter Hill, and George Mar‐coulides. It should also be noted that papers drawn from this study, though with different foci, have appeared in Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(1), 5‐44, and in K. Leithwood et al. (Eds.), The International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration (pp. 723‐784).
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of professional qualifications and work experience on school principals’ instructional leadership performance in primary schools in the Awi zone of Ethiopia. This research used a quantitative research method where the researchers collected data from school principals through a questionnaire. Thus, we found that there was a significant difference in the mean scores between groups, where the mean score for educational leadership or management professionals were higher than those of professionals in other fields. This indicates that those principals qualified in Educational Leadership or Educational Management have significantly better instructional leadership performance than principals qualified in other fields of studies. In addition, the principals’ level of experience significantly influenced their instructional leadership performance. Those principals who had more experience performed better than less experienced ones. Therefore, professional qualifications and experience are the major determinant factors of principal’s instructional leadership performance.
Empirical research suggests that school leaders’ instructional leadership can make a difference in improving student achievement. We explored this issue in a mixed-method study that sought to verify whether or not, from participants’ perspectives, school principals enact this type of leadership and whether or not they feel that it affects student outcomes. The research included a sample of top-level school leaders in a Portuguese region. We analyzed the data with descriptive statistics and content analysis techniques. Participants reported that most of principals’ leadership practices did not focus on student learning, but rather on school administration and management. Many respondents felt that it was not their job to lead in several instruction-related areas. Furthermore, respondents regarded the impact of most of principals’ instructional leadership practices on student achievement as weak. The paper discusses possible reasons for these findings, including the contextualized nature of the exercise of principal leadership roles, and suggests future avenues for research on this issue.
This was a qualitative research, which explored how the school community experienced the outcomes of leadership on the effectiveness of the school improvement program (SIP) on Sidama Zone schools, Ethiopia. Four schools were purposively selected. Data were collected using interviews, focus group discussions, observation and documents, which included school plans, reports, minutes of meetings, memos, letters and the students' examination results were analyzed as they reflected issues related to the outcomes of the SIP on the school’s effectiveness. Principals, teachers, students, supervisors, parent teacher association members and SIP experts were interviewed. The findings indicate that in schools where there is strong collaboration of the school community in the planning, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation processes, the improvement initiatives are owned by all in the school and the performance of the schools is enhanced. It is recommended that the roles of the principals be redirected, the number of supervisors be increased, diverse professional development opportunities for principals and teachers be created, the recruitment, appointment and retention of principals be reconsidered and mechanisms to check school plans and performance reports be created. Keywords: stakeholder collaboration, qualitative research, theory of change, school community, school support, student performance.
Purpose: Despite occasional claims for the coexistence of transformational leadership and instructional leadership in schools, the literature is dominated by views supporting an “either/or” orientation. This is especially true in the wake of recent findings that instructional leadership has a greater impact on student learning. This study, going beyond simply evaluating whether these two modes of leadership complement or contradict each other, explores how they may intersect in complex and nuanced ways. Specifically, I examine the moderating effect of transformational leadership on the impact of instructional leadership on student outcomes. Research Design: A questionnaire, composed of items to measure instructional and transformational leadership, student outcomes, school background factors, and informant’s demographic variables, was sent to the vice-principals in Hong Kong schools. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to factor out the effect of informants’ personal and school factors on leadership perception and student outcomes in the testing of the moderating effect. Findings: With evidence drawn from 177 aided schools, this study confirms the moderating effect of transformational leadership through the identification of a disparity in the effect of instructional leadership on student outcomes corresponding to disparate levels of transformational leadership enactment in schools. Implications: The effect of instructional behaviors on student outcomes is considered to be situationally contingent on the extent of transformational behavior enactment. Despite its lack of a direct impact on student outcomes, transformational leadership serves as a necessary, although insufficient, condition for the effective implementation of instructional monitoring measures. Limitations of the study are also discussed.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of instructional leadership on high school students’ academic achievement in the Chinese context and to determine which specific instructional leadership dimensions have the most important role. The sample included 26 high schools with 26 principals and 4288 students in Shenyang, China. The principals rated their instructional leadership according to the Revised Instructional Leadership Questionnaire of China (ILQC-R). The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear models. The results indicated that, after controlling for student background, school context, and principal demographics, overall instructional leadership showed a significantly moderating influence on the relationship between high school entrance scores and college entrance scores for students. Regarding the four different dimensions, different influence trends were observed. The dimensions of managing instruction, defining the school mission and goals, and promoting teacher development were found to influence students’ college entrance scores in both direct and indirect ways; however, no significant impact on students from managing public relations was found.
The study is an explanatory qualitative research that seeks to investigate the processes of Ethiopian primary school principals’ selection and training for professionalising principals. The participants are seven faculty members, 11 school principals and five education officials. Data are collected through semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and document analysis that are analysed thematically. Findings of the study show that the denial of principalship to professional graduates and political affiliation lens are scenarios that inform principals’ selection for leadership positions. Selection criteria that give emphasis to university degree Grade Point Average (GPA), teaching experience and performance are deciding who is selected for postgraduate diploma in school leadership (PGDSL) training. These indicate the gap the selection processes have in selecting competent leaders for the training. The study also shows that the duration of the primary school principals’ training is short. Its curriculum lacks depth and breadth. Albeit the training helps trainees to be familiarised with school leading, it is deficient in informing principalship professionalisation. The Ministry of Education, therefore, needs to revisit the selection and training processes so that proper criteria and procedures, inform the selection and training of competent professionals needed in the area.
This bibliometric review of research sought to document and compare trends in educational leadership and management (EDLM) knowledge production from the emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Using a science mapping methodology, the review identified 1171 articles published in nine “core” EDLM journals between 1965 and August 2018. This represented 22% of the full corpus of articles published in these EDLM journals during this period of time. Despite representing a relatively small portion of the overall corpus, these studies from emerging regions grew to comprise 42.5% of the corpus published between 2015 and 2018. Despite this broad pattern of growth, there was also significant geographical variation in the volume of articles published in these journals both between and within the regions. The review also identified “canonical scholars and documents” that have demonstrated lasting influence on this knowledge base. Co-citation analyses also revealed several schools of thought within this literature. The review concludes that the global literature in EDLM is undergoing a significant change in composition. The findings will inform scholarly efforts to develop a more diverse, representative, and globally relevant knowledge base. Recommendations are offered for strengthening the quality and scope of research from emerging regions of the world.
The purpose of this study was to investigate leadership practice of school principals and cluster supervisors in implementing continuous professional development (CPD) program. School principals (14) and cluster supervisors (4) were included in the study using comprehensive sampling techniques. A total of 305 teachers were selected from 14 secondary schools. Among the samples, 295 (96.7%) of teachers, 18 (100%) of school principals and cluster supervisors were involved in filling questionnaires. Percentage, mean score and one sample t-test were used for data analysis. The qualitative data obtained through interview and open-ended questions were analyzed using narration descriptions. The findings revealed that school principals’ and cluster supervisors’ leadership practices of CPD program were ineffectively implemented. Even principals and supervisors had knowledge gap on CPD program. Therefore, one can conclude that principals and supervisors had medium knowledge and understanding about the concept of CPD program. Finally, the following points were recommended: principals and supervisors must give attention for CPD training programs, the regional state must give capacity building trainings for principals and supervisors, and the program needs further study. Therefore, it would be better to give attention for individuals, government and nongovernment organizations to conduct research in the area.
Educational leadership has been an integral part of the Ethiopian traditional education. Nonetheless, the nation’s school leadership evolution started with the deployment of the first principal in Ethiopian western type school a century and a decade ago. Since then, Ethiopian school leadership evolved through seven distinctive phases: principalship evolved into separate position, Ethiopian replaced expatriate staff, principal preparation initiated, albeit enlargement of the task, principals’ preparation reduced, principalship deprofessionalised, principals’ preparation reemphasised, and PGDSL preparation started. During the evolution, the dominant model of decision making for initiating school leaders’ development programmes was political command. Unfortunately, those decisions didn’t involve educational stakeholders and, most often, it didn’t incorporate the will and concerns of the principals’. Furthermore, evolution of the school leadership was erratic in that it fluctuated back and forth rather than consistently advancing forward. Hence, school leadership of the nation couldn’t contribute what it must contribute to the Ethiopian education.
A corelational research design was employed to examine if a relationship exists between organizational school climate and student achievement in Ethiopia secondary schools setting, and to investigate whether the various elements of school climate have independent effects on student achievement. Organisational climate was measured using the School Climate Index (SCI) developed by Tschannen-Moran, Parish and Dipaola and student achievement was measured by students’ test scores at the Ethiopia General Education Leaving Certificate Examination (GELCE) in the year 2014/15. A total of 32 schools, 973 teachers and 14882 students were involved in the study. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, Pearson r correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were applied for the data analysis. The results indicate that school climate has a significant and positive relationship with student achievement in Ethiopia secondary schools, but nonetheless, a weak one. The collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, and academic press were significantly and moderately correlated to students’ achievement while the community engagement sub scale was not. The four factors used both for the SCI as predictor variables in the regression model were shown to have a significant relationship with student achievement when viewed as a whole, but they generated more varied results when examined individually. Teachers’ professionalism is the most positive predictor of student achievement in Ethiopia secondary schools. Similarly collegial leadership and academic press are also found to be significant predictor of academic achievement. This study found no independent effect of community engagement on student achievement. It is recommended that school leaders should design school improvement plans that entail the school climate construct. School leaders need to find ways of including the community in the life of the school and foster positive relationships with the community. Principals in particular need to be mindful that the climate of a school affect achievement and the former can be enhanced to improve results.
The principals’ leadership is the most important factor in determining the development of schools. In order to improve education quality, the principals’ leadership competences should be improved. The aim of this study is to test the effect of self-evaluation as the technique of the self-development of the principals’ transformational leadership and its effect on teachers’ work motivation, teamwork effectiveness and school improvement. The study was conducted in Malang, Indonesia. It used quasi-experimental research design with non-equivalent comparative group. The subjects of the study were 40 principals and 240 teachers for each experimental groups, and 40 principals and 240 teachers for the controlled group. They were chosen using cluster quota random sampling. The instrument used to collect the data was questionnaires including behaviour observation scale, numerical scale and summated rating, while the data analysis techniques were statistic descriptive, univariate and multivariate analysies of variance. Based on the data analysis, it could be concluded that the self-evaluation technique was effectively proven in improving transformational leadership, teachers’ work motivation, teamwork effectiveness and school improvement. The model of self-evaluation with feedback has a stronger effect compared to self-evaluation without feedback.
The purpose of the current study was (1) to determine if three observed variables (teacher academic press, parent academic press, and student academic press) would come together to create the latent construct school academic press and (2) to examine the utility of this construct along with instructional leadership and two control variables (elementary school level and socioeconomic status) in predicting academic achievement. A confirmatory factor analysis and a simultaneous structural equation based on a multiple indicator–multiple cause model were developed and tested that explained the relationships among these variables in 49 schools in one large urban district. Participants included 1,292 teachers who responded to an instructional leadership and academic press survey, as well as 980 parents and 4,782 students who responded to surveys of academic press. As predicted, instructional leadership, school academic press, and the control variables explained approximately 84% of the variance in student achievement, with school academic press making the largest contribution.
Transformational leadership by the principal appears to be a precondition of shared instructional leadership in schools, but it does not guarantee that principals and teachers will collaborate on curriculum and instruction. The present study, a content analysis of existing case studies, explores the ways in which teachers respond to transformational leadership by the principal, with attention paid to the influence and conditions that activate interdependent relationships and enhance shared transformational leadership and shared instructional leadership. A contrast school, where shared instructional leadership did not take hold, suggests that structures and processes that organize teachers’ work differently do not automatically result in the kinds of interactions associated with quality teaching and learning.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the taxonomy of two conceptual models of leadership roles for principals – instructional and transformational leadership (IL and TL) – can be traced empirically in a sample of Norwegian school leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
– The participants consisted of 149 school leaders attending a national training program for newly appointed principals at the University of Oslo. Leadership preference was measured according to a theoretically grounded self-report scheme representing the most important aspects of both leadership models. Estimations were conducted by means of principal component analyses and confirmatory factor analyses.
Findings
– The principal component analyses revealed seven meaningful factors: demand-supportive leading, outcome control and loyalty to school owner, management by objective, trust in standard programs for development, trust in professional community, emphasis on collective responsibility, and distributed leadership. Furthermore, by using these seven factors as inputs, the authors attempted to model second-order factors representing IL and TL. The results showed that the structure of IL and TL could not be replicated. Instead, a more complex cross-model structure was revealed.
Practical implications
– The results suggest that even though the concepts of IL and TL are valuable analytic tools, they may be too simplistic to represent the reality of school leaders’ thoughts and actions.
Originality/value
– The study contributes to the field by challenging the established models of school leadership and by generating insights into Norwegian school leaders’ leadership beliefs and preferences.
The purpose of this study was to compare transformational and instructional leadership theories, examine the unique impact that school leaders have on student achievement, and determine which specific leadership practices are associated with increased student achievement. The sample for this study consisted of 590 teachers in 37 elementary schools in the Intermountain West of the United States. Teachers rated their principals' leadership style according to the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Transformational Leadership) and the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (Instructional leadership). Student achievement was measured by a criterion referenced test. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Results indicated that instructional leadership explained more of the variance in student achievement than did transformational leadership. Principals' leadership style tended to have a meaningful impact on student achievement beyond the impact of school context and principal demographics. Specific leadership functions associated with student achievement were also identified and reported. Conclusion, implications and limitations are also discussed.
The curriculum is one of several foci for change in the more comprehensive school restructuring initiatives currently prevalent in most developed countries. Other foci include, for example, school decisionmaking structures; empowerment of teachers, parents, and students; site-based management; instructional processes; and forms of leadership (Hallinger, Murphy, & Hausman, 1993; Murphy, 1991). Almost all of these initiatives interact (and all are of no mean consequence for what teachers do). Although curriculum reform is the theme for this journal issue, what we have to say about teacher commitment in this article
This paper uses evidence about transformational forms of leadership in schools provided by 32 empirical studies published between 1996 and 2005 to answer questions about the nature of such leadership, its antecedents, and the variables that both moderate and mediate its effects on students. Results indicate significant, primarily indirect effects of this form of leadership on both student achievement and engagement in school. These effects are mediated by school culture, teachers’ commitment and job satisfaction, and a small number of other variables. Few studies have examined the antecedents or moderators of transformational school leadership.
Using data from a larger 4-year evaluation of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, this study tested the effects of a school-specific model of transformational leadership on teachers (motivation, capacities, and work settings), their classroom practices, and gains in student achievement. Some 2,290 teachers from 655 primary schools responded to 2 forms of a survey (literacy and numeracy) measuring all variables in our framework. Our measure of student achievement was gains in the British government's own Key Stage 2 tests over either 2 (numeracy) or 3 (literacy) years. Path analytic techniques were used to analyze the several different versions of the results. Results indicate significant effects of leadership on teachers' classroom practices but not on student achievement.
In the present study, the direct effect of principal transformational leadership to school staff turnover and school performance was examined, in addition to its indirect effect through school staff job satisfaction. Survey data were obtained from elementary school staff and students, and school-aggregated student achievement test scores were obtained from school archives. Results showed that staff reports of principal behaviors could be described in terms of the three components of transformational leadership: inspiration or charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Principal transformational leadership was not associated directly with either school staff turnover or school-aggregated student achievement progress. Rather, principal transformational leadership showed an indirect effect, through staff job satisfaction, on school staff turnover (negative) and on school-aggregated student achievement progress (positive). Finally, higher levels of school staff job satisfaction were associated with smaller achievement gaps between minority and non-minority students. This result was more evident among schools having higher levels of principal transformational leadership. Results are discussed in relation to the role of transformational leadership in school performance and in recruiting, training, and evaluating school principals.