Session Information
26 SES 01 A, World School Leadership Study: Practice and Resilience
Symposium
Contribution
There is broad scientific evidence for the importance of school leadership for the effectiveness and the improvement of the school quality (Robinson, Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008; Day et al., 2009; Hallinger & Heck, 2010; Hallinger & Huber, 2012; Huber & Muijs, 2010; May, Huff, & Goldring, 2012). As the expectations of society have changed and school systems in many countries have been geared towards both decentralization and centralization at the same (with new public management being more and more consequently implemented), school leaders are confronted with a wider range of tasks, as well as more complex tasks. Resilience of school leaders has also increasingly become a concern in many countries. Hence, studies of school leadership practices and factors influencing school leader health are needed to contribute to the academic knowledge base as well as to policy formulation and implementation and human resource management in the education system.
Identifying aspects of the principals’ job that can affect their health, especially those factors that are detrimental to their health, is a crucial step in finding ways towards improving the work situation and the work life of school leaders.
There is a lack of international comparative studies on leadership practices in terms of preferences, strain, behavior and performance on the one hand and on working conditions, professional health and resilience on the other hand.
This symposium is intended as a platform to present and discuss the aims and the design of the World School Leadership Study (WSLS). The WSLS is currently in its preparation phase; it is coordinated from Switzerland. Around 30 countries have already expressed interest in joining the research consortium.
In the symposium, two contributions illustrate the international pre-studies of the WSLS to demonstrate the research potential of various research questions on practices and resilience. Moreover, they report on the quality of scales using classical test theory as well as Rasch modelling (in particular TIF-analysis) and different possible and implemented translation procedures. The two different pre-studies were conducted in Europe. The first study was conducted in all German-speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria). The second study was conducted in eleven countries. Data analysis is based on five European countries and Australia. The third contribution elaborates on the WSLS research design (and how it is organized within and across the various countries).
As a short fourth part, the invited discussant reflects briefly on the three presentations, most of all on the third presentation about the WSLS. Questions will be: What research questions could grasp best an international study of this size comprising countries from all continents to increase the academic contribution from an international comparative research perspective as well as from an ideographic research perspective? Besides, how to shape the research to contribute also to inform policy and practice and increase the significance of the study?
A fourth of the time of the symposium will be allocated to an interactive part which allows members of the research consortium and colleagues as further potential members to discuss the research focus and design issues.
References
Day, C., Sammons, P., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Leithwood, K., Gu, Q., Kington, A. (2009). The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes - Final Report. Nottingham: University of Nottingham. Hallinger, P., & Heck, R.H. (2010) Leadership for learning: Does collaborative leadership make a difference? Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(6). 654- 678. Hallinger, P. & Huber, S.G. (2012). School leadership that makes a difference: international perspectives. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, (23)4, 1-9. Huber, S.G. & Muijs, D. (2010). School Leadership Effectiveness The Growing Insight in the Importance of School Leadership for the Quality and Development of Schools and their Pupils. In S.G. Huber (Eds.). School Leadership - International Perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer May, H., Huff, J., & Goldring, E. (2012). A longitudinal study of principals’ activities and student performance. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 23(4), 417–439. Robinson, V. M. J., Lloyd, C. A., & Rowe, K. J. (2008). The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Differential Effects of Leadership Types. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674.
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