Overview, Objectives, and Framework

Many contemporary schools worldwide serve increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse students due to internal demographic shifts and global population migrations. Increased diversity has occurred amidst multiple layers of influence (e.g. policies, global climate changes, technology, wars, and a pandemic). At the same time, many national and local school contexts have long histories of persisting systemic racial/ethnic, economic and social inequities in different structures of centralization. 

This symposium features findings from the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) research grounded in a new interdisciplinary theoretical framework that considers multiple layers of influence on the education of children in schools from local communities and districts to transnational levels and events of time. In ISSPP research, schools are considered social systems that sit at the nexus of policy, communities, and society. The newly developed ISSPP theoretical conceptualization and comparative methodologies enables the research to capture the ways in which principals lead schools amidst multiple layers of influence and rapid, complex changes. Researching school leadership amidst a complex and rapidly changing society requires conceptualisations and methodologies to be sufficiently robust and dynamic to capture the nuances of the ways that multi-layered influences in society, communities, and schools shape, and are shaped by, what successful principals do. 

Research Questions

RQ1: To what extent, and in what ways, do diverse socioeconomic, cultural, political systems, and professional contexts at different levels of the education system influence systems serving high need communities in which many schools operate?

RQ2: What are the key enablers and constraints for achieving school ‘success’ in different contexts?

RQ3: How do different key stakeholders within and outside the school community and at different levels of the education system define successful school leadership practices [within and across different countries]?

RQ4: To what extent, and in what ways, is ‘success’ in schools perceived and measured [similarly and/or differently within and across different countries]?  

RQ5: What similarities and differences can be identified in the values, beliefs, and behaviors of successful school principals across different schools in the same country, [and across national cultures and policy contexts]?  

In seeking to answer the urgent issues of defining how success is achieved and sustained in all schools, and especially those serving high need communities, the ISSPP research examines school leadership through the lens of ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) which theorizes individual practices and development within the context of various dynamically interacting layers of social and ecological systems with complexity theory (e.g., Byrne & Callaghan, 2013), education and leadership (Authors, 2025) and to capture the processes and actions in which school organizations operate, develop, and thrive in an increasingly unpredictable, globalized world.

Methodology

The ISSPP utilizes a comparative mixed methods design with a variety of data sources in order to bring multiple perspectives to bear in the inquiry (Creswell & Creswell, 2017; Patton, 2002). Sampling features principals who lead successful schools in their communities as well as aims of education, including Freire’s (1968/1996) articulation of educational aims for social equity and justice. Sources include semi-structured qualitative interviews with the district/municipality, governors, principal, teachers, parents, students, and a teacher survey. The comparative analysis of these data sources within and across different schools and countries (Authors, 2021) enables trustworthiness and enhances rigor (Denzin, 2012).

Session Structure 

This session will begin with an overview from the chair followed by four paper presentations, audience discussion, and a commentary from a discussant. Discussions will consider the role of theoretically grounded empirical research on principal leadership and schools with aims toward social justice in a future as an open question.

Authors (2025) Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of Human Development. Harvard University Press. Byrne, D., & Callaghan, G. (2022). Complexity theory and the social sciences: The state of the art. Routledge. Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., Giardina, M. D., & Cannella, G. S. (Eds.). (2023). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Sage publications. Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York: Continuum, 356, 357-358. Patton, Q. (2015). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. Sage.