Research abstracts for Vision and Leadership
Contents
- Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and their Effects on Children
- The Organisation of Effective Secondary Schools
- School Matters: The Junior Years
- Successful Secondary Schools
- The Quality of Schooling: frameworks for judgement
- Principals as Leaders in a Culture of Change
- Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis
- Leading or Misleading: Distributed Leadership and School Improvement
- Transformational Leadership
- Principals’ roles in the development of US programs of school, family, and community partnerships
Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and their Effects on Children
M Rutter, B Maughan, P Mortimore and J Ouston (1979), Open Books
Consensus on the values and goals of the school is associated with improved educational outcomes. Unity of purpose, particularly when it is in combination with a positive attitude towards learning and towards the pupils, is a powerful mechanism for effective schooling.
The atmosphere of a school will be greatly influenced by the degree to which it functions as a coherent unit. Consistent approaches to discipline are particularly important in that pupils are more likely to maintain principles and guidelines of behaviour if they see that standards are based on the general expectations set by the school as a whole.
The Organisation of Effective Secondary Schools
V Lee, A Bryk and J Smith (1993), in L Darling-Hammond (ed) Research in Education, 19, 171-226, American Educational Research Association
This review of the literature concerning the organisation of effective secondary schools points to the importance of a sense of community as being a crucial factor in success. Elements such as cooperative working, effective communication and shared goals have been identified as being particularly important. Whilst the extent to which this is possible is partly in the hands of the headteacher, it also relates to other, broader features of schools which are not necessarily determined by particular individuals.
School Matters: The Junior Years
P Mortimore, P Sammons, L Stoll, D Lewis and R Ecob (1988), Open Books
Linked to the idea of working together and achieving a sense of community is the extent to which teachers follow a consistent approach to their work and adhere to common agreed approaches to matters such as assessment, and the enforcement of rules and policies regarding rewards and sanctions. In schools where teachers adopt a consistent approach to the use of school policies and guidelines there is a positive impact on pupils’ progress.
Successful Secondary Schools
B Wilson and T Corcoran (1988), London: Falmer Press
Collegiality and collaboration are important conditions for creating and sustaining the vision. Pupil success is greater in schools with a decision-making process in which all teachers feel their views are represented and seriously considered. The contribution to achievement also comes through a strong sense of community among staff and pupils, fostered through relationships involving support and respect. It also comes through staff sharing ideas, observing each other and generally working together to improve the teaching programme.
The Quality of Schooling: frameworks for judgement
J Gray (1990), British Journal of Educational Studies, 38, (3), 204-33
The importance of the headteacher’s leadership is one of the clearest messages emerging from research. There is no evidence of a school being effective with weak leadership.
Principals as Leaders in a Culture of Change
M Fullan (2002), Educational Leadership, May Issue
The leader of the future has to be much more attuned to the big picture, and much more sophisticated at conceptual thinking, and transforming the organisation through people and teams. The key aspects of leadership are the personal characteristics of energy, enthusiasm and hope, together with the five core components of leadership: moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making.
Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis
P Gronn (2002), The Leadership Quarterly, 13, 423-51
Instead of a view of leadership that focuses primarily on the deeds of individual leaders, the idea of distributed leadership is proposed. The focus of distributed leadership is on leadership as ‘concertive’ action, the idea that distributed leadership is more than the sum of its parts. This view of distributed leadership is about the leadership that emerges from within groups and the influence that individuals can have acting together.
There are three varieties of concertive action: ‘spontaneous collaboration’ on particular tasks in which leadership is reflected in the interaction and relationships among people with different skills and from different organisational levels; ‘shared role’ which emerges between two or more people and involves close joint working; and ‘institutionalisation’ of structures of working together, such as committees.
Leading or Misleading: Distributed Leadership and School Improvement
A Harris (2005), Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37, (3), 255-67
The idea of distributed leadership offers a new and important way of interpreting and evaluating leadership practice in schools. Research suggests that distributed forms of leadership can assist capacity building within schools. However, further work is needed to investigate the relationship between distributed leadership and improved school and pupil outcomes.
Transformational Leadership
K Leithwood and D Jantzi (2005), in B Davies (ed) The Essentials of School Leadership, Paul Chapman Publishers
Transformational approaches to leadership emphasise emotions and values, and have the fundamental aim of fostering capacity development and higher levels of personal commitment to organisational goals on the part of leaders’ colleagues. Some of the research has shown that transformational leadership practices can explain a small but significant amount of variation on pupils’ engagement in school.
Principals’ roles in the development of US programs of school, family, and community partnerships
Frances Van Voorhis and Steven Sheldon, International Journal of Educational Research, Volume 41, Issue 1, 2004
There are many reasons why any given school may be more or less successful educating students. Perhaps the most important of these is the school principal Educators, researchers, communities, and politicians interested in improving the quality of schools have long recognized the principal as a critical force in creating and maintaining strong schools. Principals are vital to the success of schools because they play many roles as leader. They supervise staff, interact with students, oversee student discipline, work with families and the community, manage school facilities, assist in curriculum decisions, plan staff development, and administer the budget, to name a few. With so many responsibilities, it is not surprising that strong principal leadership contributes to effective schools.