Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to outline and present a leadership framework for school leaders in uncertain times. The framework is intended to capture the key leadership and capabilities that will support leaders to main school success over time in a VUCA environment.

 Conceptual Framework

 In times of great change, complexity, and uncertainty, school leaders are challenged to adapt and navigate their way through the tide of internal and external forces to create the best positive outcome for students and the school community. Johansen (2012) called this the VUCA horizon of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Numerous writers have argued for some time that in such times of transformational change that leaders need adapt and re-invent themselves. From the 1950’s Peter Drucker (1950, 1980, 1995, 2002) informed us that society and organisations were changing in ways that we had not experienced before.  Alvin Toffler (1970) rocked the western world with his publication Future Shock when claimed that we lived in a chaotic world in which individuals and entire societies perceived we were experiencing too much change in too short a time. Other management writers such as Hamel (2007, 2012), Hamel and Prahahalad (1994), Kotter (2014), and Peters (1991, 1992, 2003) have written about the changes in the environment that have challenged leaders to adapt their practices. Covey (2004: 105) likened this environment to permanent white water.  In education there have been similar predictions. Leithwood and Riehl (2003, 2005) argued that the external and internal environments were far more challenging than in previous decades and they listed the numerous changes and challenges within schools as well as the challenges in the broader educational context. Mulford and Edmunds (2010) described the Australian education context as a complex, challenging and changing landscape, with schools being influenced by advances in science and technology, changes in demography, globalisation, and pressures on the environment. They argued that school leaders needed to respond to these forces by making a choice between competing pressures created by the forces, broadening what counts as good schooling, and ensuring that school processes were consistent with both these needs.

 We argue (Authors) that despite the many writers who advocate that leaders need to re-invent themselves in times of change, there are practices or domains that are likely to remain constant whereas the capabilities that underpin these practices can change. We identify seven generic domains: understanding the context, setting direction, developing the organisation, developing people, improving teaching and learning, influencing, and leading self. Utilising business and education literature, and the authors’ own research from the International Successful School Principalship Project, we explore these seven fundamental domains which and identify key capabilities that underpin each domain that are most likely to sustain school success in times of uncertainly. While we look at each domain separately, it is important to note that they are interrelated. We recognise that the application of the domains may vary depending on the context and needs of the school. We argue that while these generic leadership domains endure over time, the capabilities that underpin these need to be reviewed and where appropriate re-shaped.

   To accommodate to the multitude of changes, school leaders need to review and adapt the underlying capabilities that shape each domain. While the paper cannot explore all the capabilities that may exist, we identify numerous key capabilities that are likely to lead to a positive outcome for the students and the school. The presentation will interact with a published paper that participants will be able to access utilising their device.

The paper is largely conceptual but draws on both the business and education literature as well as the observations and findings from our research. The seven-part framework is used help order our knowledge-base about educational leadership. It draws on several well-known ideas and fits with our own research on successful school leadership and middle level leadership. A major source draws on our own research and research findings of our colleagues in the International Successful Schools Principals Project (ISSPP). The ISSPP is an international collaborative research network of academics representing 18 countries and 21 universities. The work is widely published in several edited books, special issue journals and numerous individual papers. Four of practices are key ideas for leadership that have been explored, developed and championed in Leithwood’s research and collaborations over the past two decades and which include setting direction, developing people, redesigning the organisation and improving the instructional program (e.g. Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris & Hopkins 2006; Leithwood & Riehl 2003, 2005; Leithwood & Sun 2012). The ISSPP research findings confirmed that these were important attributes of successful principals (Day & Leithwood 2007). Within this project these ideas have been used as a conceptual framework in many of the case studies for identifying successful leadership practices (e.g. Ylimaki & Jacobson 2011). They can also be observed in many of the cases such as those contained in an edited collection of cases (e.g. Day & Gurr 2014; Gurr & Day 2014). Based on our research within the ISSPP and our wider research, we have modified these four ideas to become setting direction, developing people, leading change and leading teaching and learning. To these four areas of practice there are at least three other areas that help promote school success. Leaders understand that ultimately, they are responsible for their own professional development. They are proactive in their development and restless for new ideas. They also understand that leadership is about influencing the behaviours of others in a deliberate process that leads to behaviour change. Finally, they understand the multiple contexts in which their school exists, and they can respond to, and influence, these contexts. They become a storyteller and sense maker to help others understand the place of a school in a complicated set of contexts. In our framework we identify 18 capabilities from our research and literature review that support each domain.

In our paper we present a ‘Leadership Domains and Capabilities Framework’ for leadership in uncertain times. We argue that in a VUCA environment (Europe and the western countries) leaders will need to adapt to the changing environment if they and their organisations are to continue to succeed. We also argue that key leadership domains are likely to remain relatively stable over time. From our research and a review of the educational and business literature we identify 18 capabilities that we explore as part of our framework. Some capabilities remain steadfast, while others will be required to be refined and enhanced. We define a capability is the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions (intersection between the terms ‘capacity’ and ‘ability’). The framework is drawn as three circles. We place student learning as the centre circle. In the middle circle are the seven domains that leaders will use to support student learning. The seven domains are: understanding the broader context; setting direction; developing people; developing the organisation; leading teaching and learning, leading self, and influencing others. In the outer circle, in support of each domain, we identify two to three core capabilities. Based on the proposition that of all the internal factors that influence student outcomes, leadership is only second to the teacher (Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris, & Hopkins, 2006), we demonstrate how the domains and capabilities impact directly and indirectly on building school and professional capacity and influencing teaching and learning. The presentation is supported by a published paper (ISEA • Volume 45, Number 2, 2017). As the presentation unfolds the published paper is used as a stimulus for participants to engage with the each other and to pose questions and statements for whole group consideration. It is expected that there will be interaction throughout the presentation followed by questions.

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