School middle leadership: A systematic review

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322098332
Author(s):  
Kylie Lipscombe ◽  
Sharon Tindall-Ford ◽  
Jodi Lamanna
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Team Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Middle Leaders

School middle leadership is a complex and increasingly important school leadership position, with research showing the significance of middle leadership to school improvement and teacher development. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse empirical peer reviewed articles on middle leadership from 2006 to 2020, to understand how middle leaders are defined, the responsibilities they hold, the impact and professional development they are afforded, and to discover lacunae in studies to support further research. The review was conducted using Scopus and ERIC; a total of 35 articles across 14 countries were selected. Using Nvivo, narrative synthesis was utilised to analyse the articles resulting in four conclusions: 1) middle leadership is difficult to define; 2) middle leadership positions and responsibilities vary considerably and are best understood in context; 3) middle leaders directly and indirectly impact teacher practice, team development, school reform and professional learning, although there is limited direct research into their impact; and 4) middle leadership professional learning has not progressed to the point to adequately equip middle leaders for the complexity of their positions. The article highlights two distinguishable differences to separate teachers and middle leaders, and provides an operational definition, elaborated description and set of middle leadership characteristics to guide future research and policy advancement.

Investigating principals’ data use in school: The impact of evidence-oriented attitudes and epistemological beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 925-942
Author(s):  
Ramona Buske ◽  
Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Epistemological Beliefs ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
School Leadership Practices ◽  
The Impact

In this study, we examine the relationships between principals’ evidence-oriented attitudes and their data use in school leadership practices. Based on theoretical assumptions and existing empirical research, we develop hypotheses on the correlation of evidence-oriented attitudes, epistemological beliefs and principals’ data use. We test these hypotheses based on data collected from a sample of N = 297 principals at 153 schools of different types using structural equation modelling. The findings show that the examined attitudes and epistemological beliefs have a slight, yet significant influence on principals’ data use. In particular, principals’ skepticism towards knowledge or academia influences data use. We conclude by addressing the limitations of our study and the challenges they pose for future research as well as implications for evidence-based school improvement.

scholarly journals Hastening slowly: insights about teacher development from an evaluation of courses at the WCED’s Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Meyer ◽  
Lydia Abel
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Level ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Leadership Institute ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Education Administrators ◽  
The Impact

In the area of teacher professional development, South African education administrators face the challenge of reconciling two imperatives that have entirely different implications for programme time frames and budgets. On the one hand, there is an urgent need to improve the pedagogic content knowledge of many teachers to improve the overall standard of teaching and learning in the public school system. Considering the scale and urgency of the matter, centralised course-based in-service training seems to be the only affordable alternative. On the other hand, researchers have long warned that once-off course-based training on its own has limited impact on teachers’ practice, and has to be accompanied by further professional support in the school and classroom, or be abandoned in favour of more enduring professional learning communities. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has grappled with this dilemma in the Department’s various professional development initiatives for teachers, a mainstay of which is the training offered by the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI). This paper presents some of the data and findings from an external evaluation that ORT SA CAPE conducted in 2011–2012 of courses offered by the WCED at the CTLI. The hierarchy of INSET outcomes proposed by Harland and Kinder (1997) was applied to record changes in the practice of 18 teachers at eight schools. The progress of five of the teachers is discussed to illustrate the interplay between school-level factors and the experiences of individual teachers which influenced the impact of CTLI training on their teaching.

scholarly journals The Power Sources and Influences of Secondary School Principals in Eastern Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Birhanu Sintayehu
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Eastern Ethiopia ◽  
Power Sources ◽  
Secondary School Leadership ◽  
Descriptive Survey

This study aimed to critically examine the power sources and influences of school principals in secondary schools of Eastern Ethiopia. A descriptive survey research design was employed to carry out the study. The participants of the study were 145 teachers, 78 principals, and 41 supervisors who were selected by using stratified and random sampling techniques. The researcher adopted descriptive and inferential statistics to make sound interpretations of data. The results revealed that school principals were mostly used expert, legitimate, and reward sources of power. Likewise, school principals have predominantly exercised a positional basis of power rather than personal power. There was a significant statistical difference in power sources of school principals regarding positions, gender, and service years. The findings also showed that school principals dominantly practiced proactive influencing tactics. Moreover, findings indicated that subordinates carried out school principals' compliance to obtain a prize or avoid punishment by applied reactive influence tactics. The study further discovered that subordinates were inclined to resist school principals' influence. This study suggests secondary principals should rethink how power is managed and deployed to make sound influence over subordinates to assure quality education. Hence, the results of the study may serve as a springboard to improve secondary school leadership and equip novice teachers to bring them a principalship position. Plus, this study may provide a clear picture for policymakers, scholars, and government officials to support and retain principals for long-term school improvement, and it may also a theoretical benefit for future research on the area of study.

scholarly journals Operating educational networks in Northern Ireland: the EQI shaped professional learning network

2021 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 01003
Author(s):  
Joe O’Hara ◽  
Patrick Shevlin ◽  
Martin Brown ◽  
Gerry McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Learning Network ◽  
Professional Learning Network ◽  
The Impact

This paper reports on the operation of the DCU Shaped Professional Learning Network (DCU SPLN), an initiative of the Centre for Evaluation Quality and Inspection (EQI) at Dublin City University. The DCU SPLN was initially established in Belfast, Northern Ireland as part of the Erasmus+ Project, 'Polycentric inspections of networks of schools', the focus of which was to provide an assessment of the potential of polycentric inspection as a tool for improving school effectiveness and outcomes. The cluster has now grown to 140 schools organised in regional clusters throughout Northern Ireland. The paper provides examples of the impact of the network on policy and practice in Northern Ireland. Firstly, it has a Hearts and Minds driving force that is centered on the ethical use of first-hand evidence to drive school improvement and associated action research. Secondly, it is underpinned by the existence and support from external agencies, in this case, researchers at EQI. Thirdly, the professional development provided to schools by EQI and subsequent adjustments by participants and advisors had a direct ongoing positive impact on improving the actual quality of learning in individual schools. Finally, one of the key learning points was the gradual transfer of responsibility for professional learning provision from the EQI researchers to the leaders and teachers involved in the cluster. The paper concludes with drawing some general conclusions about the role of networks in educational practice.

scholarly journals Effects of consultation on professional learning communities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
June Laney Preast
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Baseline Phase ◽  
Baseline Design ◽  
Collaborative Engagement ◽  
Rti Model ◽  
Problem Solving Teams ◽  
The Impact

School consultation has been used to increase fidelity of implementation for team processes (Burns, Peters, and Noell, 2008) and resulting interventions (Noell, Witt, Gilbertson, Ranier, and Freeland, 1997). Professional learning communities are teacher teams with the overall purpose of changing educator behavior through collaborative engagement with colleagues and use of data to inform instructional practices (DuFour, Eaker, and DuFour, 2005; McLaughlin and Talbert, 2006). School-based teams, such as problem-solving teams, do not often follow implementation guidelines (Burns and Symington, 2002), thus hindering a crucial element of a successful response to intervention (RTI) model (Burns and Coolong-Chaffin, 2006). The discussion of student data and intervention strategies happening within PLCs is important for the continuation of an RTI model within schools (Burns and Gibbons, 2012). ... Each team was observed with the rubric using a multiple baseline design, including baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. The intervention phase involved the researcher providing consultation on an identified area of weakness and guiding the team through an intervention, using an instructional consultation framework. The results from the study indicated a change in PLC implementation when consultation was added. Each team displayed an improvement in their implementation of PLC practices that was maintained after consultation ended. However, the improvements for each team during the intervention and maintenance phases were small, in comparison to the baseline phase. Future research is needed to determine the impact of consultation with PLCs on student outcomes. Implications for research and practice, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Exploring the Impact of School Leadership on Student Learning Outcomes

2016 ◽  
pp. 953-977
Author(s):  
Andreas Kythreotis ◽  
Panayiotis Antoniou
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Impact

The chapter aims to explore the various models proposed in the literature related with the impact of school leadership on student academic achievement. In doing so, and drawing mainly from the mediate and indirect models, the chapter also discusses the role of various intermediate/moderate variables that facilitate the impact of principal leadership on student-learning outcomes. Results from a qualitative exploratory study that took place in Cyprus are also presented. This study developed a framework of school principals' actions and strategies that teachers considered as effective in relation to improving their quality of teaching and student outcomes. Some of the problems related with measuring the impact of school leadership on student achievement, such as issues of conceptual and operational definitions of school leadership and methodological issues in research design are also elaborated. Finally, implications for policy and practice on school leadership are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hallinger
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
School Contexts ◽  
Successful Leadership ◽  
Generic Set ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact

Research on educational leadership and management has resulted in the accumulation of increasingly persuasive findings concerning the impact school leadership can have on school performance. Indeed, there is a growing consensus that there exists a generic set of leadership practices (e.g. goal setting, developing people) which must be adapted to meet the needs and constraints that describe different school contexts. However, to date, researchers have yet to develop a theory or report comprehensive findings on this challenge. This paper explores several types of school contexts (institutional, community, socio-cultural, political, economic, school improvement) and what we have learned about how they shape school leadership practice. The analysis leads to several conclusions and recommendations. First, it affirms, elaborates and extends the assertion made by scholars of the importance of examining leadership in context. Second, the need to contextualize leadership highlights deficiencies in modal research methods that focus on mean effects and either ignore context effects or relegate them to the shadows. Finally, the field needs to refine current research methods and explore new approaches that enable us to better study how successful leadership responds and adapts to different contexts.

How School Leadership Influences Student Learning: A Test of “The Four Paths Model”

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Leithwood ◽  
Jingping Sun ◽  
Randall Schumacker
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Future Research ◽  
State Tests ◽  
Achievement Data ◽  
Study Results

Purpose: This study tested a set of variables mediating school leadership’s influence on students referred to as “The four paths model.” Each path in the model includes variables with significant direct effects on student learning and which are malleable to practices included in an integrated model of effective school leadership. Research Design: Evidence for the study were responses to a survey by 1,779 teachers in 81 Texas elementary schools about the status of school leadership and all 13 variables on the four paths. Student achievement data were provided by results of state tests combining all subjects and all grades, while the count and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was used to estimate socioeconomic status. Confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. Findings: Results uncovered a more nuanced and complex set of relationships among the four paths and their component variables than was specified in the original version of the model. School leadership significantly influenced student learning only through variables on one path, while variables on the other three paths influenced student learning only through their contribution to variables on that one path. Conclusions: Results point to the value of future research about the relationships among variables on the four paths, as well as efforts to identify latent variables among the observed variables in the study. Results of the study can be used by school leaders to more productively focus their school improvement efforts.

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