Purposes

The paper focuses upon and discusses a conceptual model developed as a framework of analysis to investigate the dynamic, interactive relationship between internal and external contexts that challenge every school and how the impact of these contexts on school performance may be mediated by the quality of school leadership over time.

Theoretical framework

The original design of the conceptual model stemmed from a nine country Europe-wide, three-year project (Day et al., 2007) which analysed leadership strategies in improving and sustaining success in 36 primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged urban communities. This research revolved around three main questions: i) What are the key contextual factors which influence principals’ thinking and practice in improving schools in challenging circumstances, and how? ii) What are the key leadership strategies which principals use to manage the effects of these contextual factors and through these, achieve and sustain success in their schools over time? iii) What are the implications for policy makers and school leaders in relation to school improvement and effectiveness?

However, challenge in school contexts tends to be used in a narrow and static manner in the literature, most often referring to deep levels of socioeconomic deprivation which characterise the communities that schools serve (e.g. Leithwood and Steinbach, 2002; Johnson, 2007). Although some scholars have extended this definition by linking indicators of social disadvantage with those of educational underachievement (e.g. Harris and Chapman, 2002), their definition may entail three concerns.

First, to assume that performance and improvement should be measured primarily by pupils’ raw examination grades is to limit educational purposes to the pursuit of a narrow curriculum and, implicitly, to deny the importance of attending to a broad range of pupil outcomes, i.e. pupils’ affective, social and behavioural learning outcomes. Second, although schools’ socioeconomic contexts are unlikely to change dramatically, challenges associated with such contexts can be managed as a result of strong school leadership. Taking together the above two concerns, we argue that the third limitation is that it fails to recognise that the nature, intensity and forms of internal and external challenges can vary significantly and impact differently on school performance  as schools change, improve and thrive.

Evidence from the 36 primary and secondary case study schools on our European leadership project supports this observation. What shines through their success is the principals’ ability to identify and diagnose the urgency and intensity to which different internal and external challenges affect school performance at different time point of their improvement, and through these, make context sensitive judgements about the combination, sequencing and timing of their leadership strategies and engage their staff and the school community in a journey which leads to profound change and transformation in their schools.

Day, C., Assuncao, F. M., Johansson, O., Martinez, M. A., Michalak, J., Papanaoum, Z., Sugrue, C., Tirri, K., van Veen, D. and Gu, Q. (2007) Leading Schools Successfully in Challenging Urban Contexts: Strategies for Improvement. Paper presented to the 20th Annual World ICSEI Congress. Harris, A. and Chapman, C. (2002) Effective Leadership in Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances. A research report for the National College for School Leadership. NCSL: Nottingham. Johnson, L. (2007) Rethinking successful school leadership in challenging US schools: culturally responsive practices in school-community relationships. ISEA, 35 (3): 49-57. Leithwood, K. and Steinbach, R. (2002). Successful leadership for especially challenging schools. Journal of Leadership in Education, 79(2), 73–82.