Although educational research clearly highlights school prinicipals as essential in school effectiveness and school quality, the role of this occupational group has scarcely been examined in health education and school health promotion. Only recently there is a growing body of interest in school principals and their relevance in the field of health education.

Based on literature overviews (e.g. Dadaczynski & Paulus, 2015; Huber, 2013) at least three perspectives can be distinguished: Firstly, there is an emerging field of research focussing on the health status of principals. This research perspective is framed by different disciplines such as occupational and work psychology, educational research or public health/epidemiology and assumes a relationship between working conditions, coping resources and health outcomes. Reflecting the trend towards educational decentralisation it is hypothesized that increasing autonomy and accountability of single schools lead to more tasks and demands of principals which in turn increases the probabilty of work stress and poor health outcomes. In comparison, the second perspective is interested in the influence school principals can have on teachers stress and health. This perspective is based on research results on different leadership styles and its impact on job satisfaction and the health status of subordinates. First results from the educational sector suggest that a transformative as well as leadership behavior that takes into account the subdimensions of the salutogenetic model of Antonovsky (1972) are significantly associated with better health and wellbeing of teachers (Gerick, 2014; Harazd et al., 2009). Finally, the third perspective is interested in better illuminating the role of school principals in complex change processes such as the health promoting school approach. This perspective is the result of a research shift from a developmental point of view (reflecting more the "WHAT" dimension, i.e. health measures and approaches) to an implementation point of view (reflecting more the "HOW" dimension, i.e. the way the different health measure have to be delivered). Based on this, school principals are increasingly considered as "gate keepers" to school health promotion and more research is conducted to understand the views, barriers and conditions for success perceived by school principals (Dadaczynski & Paulus, 2015; Samdal & Rowling, 2013; Viig et al., 2012).

These three perspective do not claim to be exhaustive and it is quite conceivable that these perspectives are highly interconnected, i.e. that the health status of school principals have an impact on the ability to apply a health promoting leadership style or support health promoting activities at their school. Against the background of an interdisciplinary field of research this joint symposium of network 8 (Health Education) and network 26 (Educational Leadership) persues the objective to bring together these different perspectives and to discuss perspectives for further development.

Dadaczynski, K., & Paulus, P. (2015). Healthy Principals - Healthy Schools?: A neglected Perspective to School Health Promotion. in V. Simovska, & P. McNamara (Hrsg.), Schools for Health and Sustainability - Theory, Research and Practice. (S. 253-273). Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag. Gerick, J. (2014). Führung und Gesundheit in der Organisation Schule. Zur Wahrnehmung transformationaler Führung und die Bedeutung für die Lehrergesundheit als Schulqualitätsmerkmal. Münster: Waxmann. Harazd, B., Gieske, M. & Rolff, H.-G. (2009). Gesundheitsmanagement in der Schule. Lehrergesundheit als neue Aufgabe von Schulleitung. Köln: Wolters Kluwer. Huber, S.G. (Ed.) (2013). Jahrbuch Schulleitung 2013. Befunde und Impulse zu den Handlungsfeldern des Schulmanagements. Schwerpunkt: gesunde Schule. Köln: Carl Link. Samdal, O. & Rowling, L. (Ed.) (2013). The Implementation of Health Promoting Schools. Exploring the theories of what, why and how. Milton Park: Routledge. Viig, N. G., Fosse, E., Samdal, O. & Wold, B. (2012). Leading and supporting the implementation of the Norwegian Network of Health Promoting Schools. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56, 671-684.