School leadership has been identified by a number of researchers as a key element in the effectiveness of school organizations (Gronn & Ribbins, 2003; Marzano, Waters & McNulty, 2005). In their endeavor to raise school performance, principals employ various leadership styles which can be defined as the sets of practices, behaviors and/or actions that are used to provide direction and guidance to the school unit. School principals’ leadership styles are likely being influenced by their epistemological beliefs, namely beliefs about the nature and acquisition of knowledge (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997; Schommer, 1990). However, up to date no endeavour has been undertaken to explore this relation. Moreover, principals’ leadership styles influence and, are being influenced, by their beliefs about the contextual and governance structures in which they operate such as, for example steering patterns and accountability provisions (Leithwood, & Jantzi, 2005). Similarly, little research has been undertaken to explore this relation. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to explore the relation between the leadership styles school principals adopt when leading their schools and their epistemological worldviews (i.e. holistic beliefs about the nature and acquisition of knowledge) within the changing policy environments and organisational arrangements in which they operate (i.e., situational governance with regards to school context and system level differences). We hypothesize that epistemological worldviews and beliefs about educational governance structures co-determine the principals’ leadership style or styles by imposing certain constraints on principals’ decision making, learning, and practices. At this stage of our project, the conceptual framework will be presented depicting the relationships between the main variables investigated while reference will also be made to initial quantitative results obtained.

Three structured questionnaires were developed and validated in order to assess principals’ leadership styles, epistemological beliefs, and beliefs about the contextual and educational governance structures in which they operate. The three questionnaires were administered to a random sample of 120 primary and 120 secondary education principals. Qualitative data collection will also be conducted using a sub-sample of 30 primary and 30 secondary school principals, to enhance the validity of the quantitative data. The qualitative data collection will involve a think-aloud task during which principals will be asked to read about a complex problem in a school context involving teachers, students and the community. While reading out-loud the case study, one sentence at a time, participants will be asked to think-aloud at pre-specified points. Principals’ responses to the think-aloud tasks will be transcribed and then coded based on a coding scheme developed from the constructs extracted from the quantitative analysis.

The quantitative data analysis followed two steps. First, the data for each questionnaire were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis to identify the underlying structure of the questionnaires and to evaluate the items reliability. Second, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test models depicting various relationships between the identified constructs of interest: leadership styles, epistemological worldviews, and governance structures. With regards to the qualitative data, the frequency of responses for each think-aloud category will be analyzed through Cluster Analysis to explore the degree to which clustering of variables corresponds to the relations identified in the SEM models. Findings from this research have important implications. From a theoretical standpoint, modeling and testing these relations will provide insight into how different factors influence, and are being influenced, by the ways principals lead their schools. In practical terms, the findings will directly inform the design of evidence-based, school leadership training programs that take into consideration factors that influence how principals lead their schools. This research directly responds to the European goal of enhancing the competences of our society in managing complex situations within a lifelong learning context.