The evolution towards more shared leadership in schools is irreversible. There are many good reasons to opt for this, both for the school itself (as for student outcomes) and for the team and school leader involved. Research has found positive effects on organizational change and school improvement, teachers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction, the well-being of leaders, and student improvement [1,2,3].

While there is a general conviction in literature, policy and practice about its value, shared leadership is a broad concept. It has different conceptualizations and can take on different forms  [3, 4, 5]. It is important that  the form of shared leadership is aligned with the schools’ context and needs, and that school leaders and school team have shared beliefs about the motives and purpose of sharing leadership [3, 6] .

In Flemish education, where this study was conducted, the national job profile for school leaders and the inspection quality framework also entail a clear choice for  shared leadership [7, 8]. However,  schools still need to figure out what and how. In previous research we found that there is a great demand for more insight into the concept of ‘shared leadership’ and more tools to actually grow in it. The research also showed that few schools have an explicit vision on (shared) leadership [9].

In order to contribute to the understanding of these challenges we formulated the following research questions:

RQ 1: How do school leaders and teachers in Flemish primary education think about the added value of shared leadership in general, and the current and desired degree of shared leadership in their schools? What are similarities and on what points can we see differences?

RQ2: According  to school leaders and teachers, what forms does shared leadership take in their schools? Do their perceptions align?

RQ 3 What reasons do school leaders have for choosing shared leadership and how does this relate to the effects experienced by their teams?

With this project, we want to obtain more insight in the perceptions of both school leaders and teachers, and the extent of similarities and differences between their points of view. The results can have important implications for educational practice and how to support schools in developing shared leadership in their organization.

Based on a literature study, we developed two online surveys: one for school leaders and one for (the other) educational employees of a school team (which we call ‘teachers’ for readability reasons). School leaders and primary school teachers’ general perceptions about the importance of shared leadership were measured on a 5-point likert scale. Their views on the current and desired amount of shared leadership in their schools were measured on a 10-point scale. We also asked both parties to which extent they perceived the other party to value shared leadership. As for the reasons to choose for shared leadership we listed up 14 reasons, based on literature, from which school leaders could choose their top 3. For teachers we split up the experienced effects of shared leadership in three categories: 1) effects for themselves as teachers; 2) effects for the school as a whole; and 3) effects for the school leader. In each category there was the option that no effect was experienced or that they found that there was too little shared leadership in their school to answer the question. Teachers were forced to check at least one effect per category, with a maximum of six checks in the whole. Concerning the forms of shared leadership in their schools, both school leaders and teachers were presented with a list of 17 forms, and were asked to indicate the most apparent forms of shared leadership in their schools, with a maximum of six. To end with we asked teachers to make some suggestions about how their school (team) could grow towards more shared leadership in an open question. After removing schools with too little response in the teams, we ended up with 25 primary schools, so answers of 25 school leaders and 465 teachers were analyzed, using SPSS. Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, frequencies, percentages and difference scores were calculated. The answers to the open-ended question will be analyzed using Nvivo through an inductive coding process.

Some of our prime results are: • On average, the importance of shared leadership in education and in one’s own school is rated fairly high among both school leaders and staff members. • The extent to which shared leadership is experienced in schools does not differ a lot between school leaders and teachers. The mean difference in our sample only 0.2 on a scale from 0 to 10. • Both school leaders and teams wish for more shared leadership than they currently experience. However, this desire seems larger for school leaders: 20 school leaders (80%) want an increase, of which 11 would like to increase 2 or more points, while only 4 teams wish for more than a 2-point increase in shared leadership (on a scale from 0 to 10). • Also in terms of reasons and effects we observe like-mindedness between school leaders and teachers, which suggests that in general the desired effects are realized in schools. Our respondents believe that shared leadership especially leads to a more supported, successful functioning of the school and to the more optimal use of the competences present in the team. • When asked in what ways shared leadership is expressed in the school, the responses of school leaders turn out to be fairly similar to those of teachers. The top 5 most indicated forms are exactly the same among the two groups, as are the top 5 least indicated. Having a policy team and working groups are the most common forms indicated, followed by a culture of shared responsibility and collaboration in the team. In sum, in Flanders, both parties believe in shared leadership, although principals want to go a little further. At ECER we also present our analyses of the suggestions made by teachers to grow towards more shared leadership in their schools.

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