Topic The topic focuses on how three successful school principals respond to change and how it impacts on school performance.

Research question

The research question was ‘How can successful school principals maintain success and improve school performance over time?’

Framework

This research is part of an International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) that examined successful school principalship. The investigation identified the characteristics, processes and effects of successful school principalship in eight countries. Subsequently the project has been extended to another six countries.

The current study aimed at re-visit the schools where the principal remained (five years later) to investigate the changes that had occurred since the first study and discover the principal’s leadership style and behaviour in attempting to improve the school’s performance. The researchers were able to investigate three principals who had remained in their schools. This paper focuses on a key aspect of the principal’s leadership approach that impacted on school performance – the principal’s attitude and response to change.

Abstract

As part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) the Australian research team revisited successful school principals five years after our initial study. This paper reports on three of these principals and focuses particularly on their attitudes to change and how this influences their leadership practice, and ultimately its contribution to improving school performance. The three principals demonstrated different attitudes to change both in their capacity to continue to improve the school and to promote exemplary development. The three principals were characterised as restorer-builder, visionary-builder, and visionary-driver. The first part of each duality reflects their response to the individual school contexts, and second is their approach to leading change.  Whilst all principals have continued to lead successful schools, their attitudes to change were found to influence the pathway of success.

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