Session Information
26 SES 11 A, World School Leadership Study: Theoretical models, research design and methodological implications
Research Workshop
Contribution
The World School Leadership Study (hereinafter referred to as WSLS) has three aims. First, it aims to gain empirical insights into compulsory education school leaders’ leadership work and their professional health in around 40 countries. Second, based on the national data gathered in each country, comparative analysis will be conducted to identify similarities and differences across countries. Third, the WSLS aims to generate knowledge which can support policy formulation and implementation for the professionalization of school leaders and their work environment. Hence, this study contributes to the knowledge base of different human resource management aspects, eg. attracting and recruiting, training and development. This has implications also for institutions providing professional support infrastructures for school leaders.
A wide range of earlier research findings have supported the claim that school leadership is one of the key factors contributing to school effectiveness and improvement (Ärlestig, Day, & Johansson, 2016; Day & Sammons, 2013; Hallinger & Heck, 2010; Huber & Muijs, 2010; May, 2009; Robinson, Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008). In the 21st century, school leaders’ work content has been largely expanded and enriched to cover various responsibility areas including pedagogy, administration, management, and development. In many countries, school leaders’ work has become more challenging under the influence of the New Public Management and neoliberal ideas on the education sector (Ärlestig et al., 2016; Gunter, Grimaldi, Hall, & Serpieri, 2016). One the one hand, school leaders are given more autonomy to lead individual schools. On the other hand, they face an increasing amount of top-down control, accountability, and competition.
The WSLS connects two research areas, school leadership and health. More specifically, school leadership is examined from the aspects of school leaders’ roles and functions (e.g. work content, legal status, responsibilities, rights, legitimated power), work settings and conditions (e.g. working hours, school governance and structures, infrastructures, resources and demands), and leadership practice (e.g. principal preparation and requirement, competences, preference for leadership tasks, collaboration, and distributed leadership). Health is investigated from the aspects ofjob satisfaction, stress, strain, resilience, and coping.
In order to achieve the abovementioned research aims, both nationally and internationally, the WSLS intends to answer four overarching research questions.
- What are school leaders´ roles and functions?
- How do school leaders’ work settings and conditions look like and how are they experienced by school leaders?
- How do school leaders practise their leadership, what are preferences and strains, how do they experience their competences as to professional challenges?
- What is the current status of school leaders´ health in general and their resilience in particular?
The research consortium developed two theoretical models which will be presented at the workshop. One is about school leadership and another one is on health. These models integrate key components from several earlier models presented by researchers in these fields. In essence, the school leadership model tries to organise work areas and leadership practices. The health and resilience model describes how school leaders appraise various occupational situations; how they perceive the demands and resources given on the system, organisational and individual levels related to the situation; what coping strategies school leaders apply and the impact on their health; and lastly, whether the whole process leads to a reappraisal of the situation.
Corresponding to the above research questions, particular research design, methods and instruments are designed to support the researchers from the participating countries to collect data. The aim of the research workshop is to develop the research design and methodology further as well as disseminating the two theoretical models which will be used as frameworks for the project.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ärlestig, H., Day, C., & Johansson, O. (Eds.). (2016). A Decade of Research on School Principals. Springer International Publishing. Day, C., & Sammons, P. (2013). Successful Leadership: A Review of the International Literature. ERIC. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED546806 Furnham, A., & Ribchester, T. (1995). Tolerance of ambiguity: A review of the concept, its measurement and applications. Current Psychology, 14(3), 179–199. Gunter, H., Grimaldi, E., Hall, D., & Serpieri, R. (Eds.). (2016). New Public Management and the Reform of Education : European Lessons for Policy and Practice. Routledge. Hallinger, P., & Heck, R. H. (2010). Leadership for Learning: Does Collaborative Leadership Make a Difference in School Improvement? Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 38(6), 654–678. 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 International Perspectives. Spinger. Judge, T. A., Thoresen, C. J., Pucik, V., & Welbourne, T. M. (1999). Managerial coping with organizational change: A dispositional perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(1), 107–122. May, H., Goldring, E. &.Huff, J. (2009). A Longitudinal Study of Principals’ Activities and Student Performance. 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. Education Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674. Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Defining and measuring work engagement: Bringing clarity to the concept. In Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 10–24). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press. Tanck, R. H., & Robbins, P. R. (1979). Assertiveness, Locus of Control and Coping Behaviors Used to Diminish Tension. Journal of Personality Assessment, 43(4), 396–400. van Beek, I., Taris, T. W., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2011). Workaholic and Work Engaged Employees: Dead Ringers or Worlds Apart? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(4), 468–482. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024392 Whyte, G., Saks, A. M., & Hook, S. (1997). When success breeds failure: The role of self-efficacy in escalating commitment to a losing course of action. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 415–432. Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2007). The role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. International Journal of Stress Management, 14(2), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121
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