Session Information
26 SES 07 C, Discourses of Gender on Educational Leadership
Paper Session
Contribution
Existing international literature highlights the critical role of headteachers in school development. Although the literature has focused on the extent to which classroom and school conditions influence student learning, less attention has been paid to how leadership can positively influence those conditions (Leithwood and Day 2007; Cruickshank 2017). Headteachers balance personal, strategic and operational leadership (Netolicky 2020) while drawing upon combinations of transformational and instructional leadership strategies to foster school improvement (Day, Gu and Sammons 2016; Cruickshank 2017). Effective transformational and instructional leadership have been closely connected with teacher commitment as well as school culture and ‘strongly linked to improved student outcomes’ (Cruickshank 2017, 121).
There is vast literature on leadership focusing on the challenges of instructional leadership by using student achievement information for instructional improvement (Temperley, 2005), on how school leaders enact policies in context managing tensions and balancing conflicting goals (Flores & Derrington, 2017), on the interplay of the relationships between school context, principal leadership and mediating variables in leadership for learning (Paletta, Alivernini, & Manganelli, 2017), and on school leadership focusing on values embedded in the biographies of principals of successful schools and how they influence their response to systemic policy reforms (Day & Gu, 2018).
Drawing on the work by Leithwood et al., (2006) and Day, Gu & Sammons (2016), this paper reports on findings from a 3-year research project aimed at investigating the impact of school leadership on teachers’ work and on pupils’ outcomes. The goal of this paper is to investigate to what extent biographical characteristics (e.g. gender, experience as principals, sector of teaching and leadership training of school principals impact on their leadership practices).
Method
This study is part of a wider research project funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology entitled ‘IMPACT - Investigating the Impact of School leadership on Pupil Outcomes’ (PTDC/CED-EDG/28570/2017). Drawing on work by Leithwood et al., (2006) and Day, Gu and Sammons (2016), it aimed to examine leadership practices and their impact on teachers' work and students' academic outcomes. Data were collected according to three phases: i) exploratory interviews with 25 headteachers: ii) a national survey of headteachers and key staff; iii) case studies N=20. This paper reports on findings arising from the national survey of school principals (n=379). It seeks to explore how much variance in leadership practices, leaders’ internal states and leadership provision and impact in Portuguese state schools can be attributed to principals’ personal and professional variables, namely gender, years of experience, leadership training and sector of teaching. The research project was approved by the Committee of Ethics for Research in Social and Human Sciences at the University of Minho (CEICSH 009/2020) and by the DGE/Ministry of Education (Ref.ª 0555900002). In total, 379 Portuguese state school/cluster principals participated in this study (see Table 1 for sociodemographic characteristics). The population (i.e. the number of existing public school/clusters) was 809 school/school cluster principals, so the participants constitute a sample of 379 (46.8% response rate). The vast majority completed the questionnaire online using a link provided via e-mail while six participants completed the questionnaire in person. These procedures resulted from the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic which had implications for the way data was collected due to the closure of schools. The participants came from every region of mainland Portugal. The majority were male (56.2%), mostly aged over 51 years (77.3%). In addition, 3.2% of the participants were over 65 years old and 19.3% were aged between 61 and 65 years old. These figures are generally in accordance with the latest TALIS report (OECD 2019), according to which headteachers in Portugal are, on average, 54 years of age (higher than the OECD average of 52 years old) and 23% of whom are over 60 years old (broadly in line with the OECD average of 20%). The same report states that only 43% of headteachers in Portugal are female (as opposed to 47% in OECD countries) although the vast majority of teachers are female (74.0%) (as opposed to 68% in OECD countries).
Expected Outcomes
This paper aimed at examining whether headteachers biographies influence leadership, namely gender, years of experience, sector of teaching and training in leadership. These independent variables were considered to find out how they impacted on leadership practices, leaders’ internal states and leadership provision and impact. In general, setting expectations and setting directions for collaborative work are associated with headteachers’ experience, but the later was also associated with gender. Redesigning organisation and use of observations are associated with having leadership training. In turn, use of data is more frequent when the headteachers are female, are from preschool and/or 1st cycle (primary school) and have leadership training. A higher level of leader’s trust in teachers and openness to discuss feelings was observed in more experienced headteachers, as well as in headteachers from the preschool and/or 1st cycle (primary)and headteachers who had leadership training. Gender issues (female) also played a significant role in openness to discuss feelings with teachers. The efficacy for motivating teaching and learning and for sustaining personal motivation and commitment was associated with the sector of teaching and leadership training. These and other dimensions will be explored in the paper.
References
Cruickshank, V. 2017. ‘The Influence of School Leadership on Student Outcomes’. Open Journal of Social Sciences 5: 115-23. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2017.59009 Day, C., Q. Gu, and P. Sammons. 2016. ‘The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: How Successful School Leaders Use Transformational and Instructional Strategies to Make a Difference’. Educational Administration Quarterly 52 (2): 221-258. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X15616863 Flores, M. A., and M. L. Derrington. 2017. ‘School principals’ views of teacher evaluation policy: lessons learned from two empirical studies.’ International Journal of Leadership in Education 20 (4): 416-431. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2015.1094144 Leithwood, K. and C. Day. 2007. The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes. Sage. Leithwood, K., A. Harris, and D. Hopkins. 2008. ‘Seven strong claims about successful school leadership’. School Leadership & Management, 28 (1): 27-42. doi: 10.1080/13632430701800060 Netolicky, D.M. 2020. ‘School Leadership During a Pandemic: Navigating Tensions.’ Journal of Professional Capital and Community 5 (3/4): 391-395. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-05-2020-0017 Paletta, A., Alivernini, F., Manganelli, S. (2017). Leadership for Learning: The Relationships between School Context, Principal Leadership and Mediating Variables. International Journal of Educational Management, 31(2), 98-117.
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