Distributed leadership is considered one of the most effective approaches to leading a school, as this approach assumes that management is not concentrated in the hands of one person - the school principal but goes beyond the boundaries of the school management team and extends to the school staff. There have been various studies on distributed leadership and its effects on the student learning outcomes all over the world. Our research focuses on the phenomenon of project teams as one of the forms of distributed leadership which started to emerge in schools of Moscow (Benoliel, 2021; Moiseev, 2021). In fact, large scale reorganisation of schools that took place in Moscow (launched in 2012) has lead to major shift and changes in the educational landscape and  made impossible to lead the school the same way as before. Today about 80% of schools in Moscow have 5 and more buildings (the biggest school has 22 buildings), which poses new challenges for school principals and raises the question of rethinking the role of the principal.

The major debate and question  arises: whether leading a school is solely a principal's task or it should involve deputies, teachers etc. as well (Benoliel, 2021)? The concept of distributed leadership assumes that a principal involves school members in leadership. What is more, such leadership is not confined to deputies but involves teaching staff as well (Azorín, Harris & Jones, 2019). In other words, new leadership roles are appearing at schools. Research shows that the emergence of “middle leaders'' in schools has a positive effect on both the educational outcomes of students and the work of teachers (Gurr, 2023). 

Bush & Glover (2014, cited in Benoliel, 2021) claim that successful schools build their leadership via creating and developing interdisciplinary teams. The teams work on solving particular school issues which can be related to pedagogical issues as well as administrative. Emergence of the teams has a positive impact on school improvement as well as on the teachers’ involvement and motivation (Lu & Hallinger, 2018)  Such teams allow principals to cover the taks, issues which could not be covered by school management team alone and at the same time are significant for improving students’ outcomes. 

However, Hall, Gunter, and Bragg (2012) argue that often distributed leadership, delegation of decision-making, turns out to be a facade, an illusion created by the school management team. The question arises: are middle leaders truly included in leading a school and have their “say” in decision-making? If not, what is their main task? What purpose are teams created at school for? 

Our team has lead a case-study research on project teams in schools of Moscow to find out the reasons behind emergence of the teams and to answer the following research questions:

What role do project teams play in school management? What issues do they address or focus on?

What does the organizational structure of schools with project teams look like?

What is the role of a school principal in relation to these teams?

The research aims at unpacking 5 cases of schools where this approach to distributing leadership was implemented. Convenience sampling was used to define the schools for the studies. The final sample comprised 5 schools of different sizes (schools having from 1840 - 5421 students, 8-18 buildings) and from different parts of Moscow (Tab. 1). The schools were in different stages of implementation of the approach in leading the school. In this way, three schools were developing project teams over years (4-7 years), while two other schools just launched the approach and were testing it. School Quantity of buildings (campuses) Overall quantity of students When project teams approach was implemented The studies involved: - analysis of Moscow educational system; - analysis of the context of each school; - interviews with principals, deputies, leaders of project teams and members of project teams. In other words we interviewed all the parties involved in project teams, because it was crucial to analyze the role of project teams through different lenses. During the interview principals were also asked to draw the organisational structure with project teams. Studies involved analysis of school documentation (project teams proposal templates and other documentation), - in some schools we managed to participate in project proposal procedure and the final project listening (where teams were showing their results).

The research unpacked various strategies of leading a school using the project team approach. The organisational structure and the role of project teams in school management differed in schools as the purposes and prerequisites for their emergence differed as well. In all five cases, principals emphasized the importance of project teams in talent search and viewed them as a platform for the professional development of staff. However, it was not the main goal for many of them. Principals pursued different purposes: for some, it was seen as the only mechanism to distribute leadership and address school issues, while for others, it served as a means of quality assurance and staff retention. The research also highlighted changes in the role of the principal depending on the stage of implementation.

Bolden, R. (2011). Distributed leadership in organizations: A review of theory and research. International journal of management reviews, 13(3), 251-269. Benoliel, P. (2021). A team-based perspective for school improvement: The mediating role of school management teams. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 14(2), 442-470. Lu, J., & Hallinger, P. (2018). A mirroring process: from school management team cooperation to teacher collaboration. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 17(2), 238-263. Moiseev, A. M. (2021). School project teams: creation, activities, support.