Successful Principal Leadership in Times of Change: An International Perspective (Studies in Educational Leadership Book 5)

The leadership of school principals is an enormously powerful influence on the quality of schools and the learning of pupils. While the work of principals has been examined intensively over the past 20 years, almost no effort has been made to understand the role from an international or cross-cultural perspective. This book contributes significantly to our understanding of successful school leaders by describing similarities and differences in the work of such leaders in countries ranging from England to Australia, the United States to Norway, Sweden to Hong Kong. Bringing together case study research, the book helps explain what all successful principals do and the ways in which context shapes some of their work. __'The research reported in the book present an interesting and rich picture of successful principals in different socio-cultural contexts and their reponses to national accountability policies. This book will make an important contribution to the existing body of knowledge about leadership practices.'__ Prof.dr. P. Sleegers, Faculty of Social- and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands 978-1-4020-5516-4_BookFrontmatter_OnlinePDF.pdf 2 978-1-4020-5516-4_1_OnlinePDF.pdf 8 Starting with What we Know 8 Kenneth Leithwood and Christopher Day 8 Setting the Stage 8 Evidence for the Book 9 A Framework for Sampling the Initial Knowledge Base 11 Successful Principal Leadership Practices 12 Factors that Mediate Successful Principal Leadership 15 Factors that Moderate Successful Principal Leadership 15 The Antecedents of Successful Principal Leadership 16 What you can Reasonably Expect from our Evidence 19 References 20 978-1-4020-5516-4_2_OnlinePDF.pdf 23 Successful School Principalship in Tasmania 23 Bill Mulford 23 Introduction 23 Recent Literature on Successful School Leadership 23 Methodology 24 Findings 25 Principal's Values and Beliefs 27 Providing Individual Support and Building Individual Capacityand Commitment 28 Building School Capacity 29 Towards a Shared School Vision/Direction 32 School Outcomes 34 Evidence-based Monitoring, Evaluation, Critical Reflectionand Change/Transformation 38 Conclusion: A Preliminary Model of Successful School Principalship 40 References 43 978-1-4020-5516-4_3_OnlinePDF.pdf 45 Models of Successful Principal Leadership: Victorian Case Studies 45 Dr David Gurr and Dr Lawrie Drysdale 45 Introduction 45 The Victorian Context 46 Methodology 47 Findings 48 The Principal's Contribution to Success 48 Values and Beliefs 49 Personal Characteristics and Qualities 50 Leadership Style 50 Understanding the Context 51 Interventions 51 Towards a Contemporary Model of Educational Leadership 52 Teaching and Learning (Level 1 Impact) 54 School Capacity Building 55 Other Influences 58 Generalisations from the Case Studies that Illustrate the Model 59 Conclusion 59 References 62 978-1-4020-5516-4_4_OnlinePDF.pdf 64 Sustaining Success in Challenging Contexts: Leadership in English Schools 64 Christopher Day 64 Introduction 64 The ``Standards'' Agenda 66 Moral Purpose and Social Justice 68 Organisational Expectation and Learning 70 Identity, Trust and Passionate Commitment 71 Conclusion 73 References 75 978-1-4020-5516-4_5_OnlinePDF.pdf 76 Successful Leadership Based on Democratic Values 76 Jorunn M"01Cller, Astrid Eggen, Otto L. Fuglestad, Gjert Langfeldt, Anne-Marie Presthus, Siw Skr"01Cvset. Else Stjernstr"01Cm and Gunn Ved"01Cy 76 Introduction: The Educational Context 76 Theoretical Perspectives 78 Research Methods 78 Findings 79 Team Leadership 80 A Learning-Centered Approach 82 Equity and Social Justice as Personal Commitment 83 Managing Tensions and Dilemmas 84 Dilemmas of Evaluation 84 Dilemmas of Conflict and Cooperation 85 Power and Trust 86 Conclusion 87 References 89 978-1-4020-5516-4_6_OnlinePDF.pdf 91 Successful Principalship --The Swedish Case 91 Jonas Höög, Olof Johansson and Anders Olofsson 91 Introduction -- The Swedish Educational Policy Context1 91 What Is a Successful School? 92 Structure, Culture, Leadership: Prerequisitesfor Successful Schools? 93 Methods 95 Results 96 River School 96 Mountain School 98 Multicultural School 100 Upper Middle Class School 101 Conclusions 103 References 104 978-1-4020-5516-4_7_OnlinePDF.pdf 106 Communicative Strategies Among Successful Danish School Principals 106 Lejf Moos, John Krejsler, Klaus Kasper Kofod and Bent Brandt Jensen 106 A Brief Description of the Context: Danish Educational Culture in Transition 106 Selecting Schools and the Establishment of Criteria for Success 107 North School 108 Inner City School 110 Relations 113 Communities, Meeting Structure and Power in the School Organisation 115 Discussion 117 References 119 978-1-4020-5516-4_8_OnlinePDF.pdf 120 Successful Leadership: Does Context Matter and If So, How? 120 Denise Belchetz and Kenneth Leithwood 120 Introduction 120 Purposes 120 Possibilities 121 The Accountable Policy Context for this Study 121 Our Benchmark: A Synthesis of Successful School Leadership Practices 122 Setting Directions 123 Helping People 124 Redesigning the Organization 124 Managing the Instructional Program 125 Research Methods 126 Design 126 Sample 126 Data Collection and Analysis 128 Results 128 Setting Directions 129 Helping People 130 Redesigning the Organization 130 Managing the Instructional Program 135 Discussion and Conclusions 135 References 138 978-1-4020-5516-4_9_OnlinePDF.pdf 141 Successful Principalship in Shanghai: A Case Study 141 Kam-cheung Wong 141 Overview 141 The National Context 142 Eastern Senior High School 144 Northern Junior High School 147 Conclusions 152 References 155 978-1-4020-5516-4_10_OnlinePDF.pdf 156 Against the Odds: Successful Principals in Challenging U.S. Schools 156 Corrie Giles, Stephen L. Jacobson, Lauri Johnson, and Rose Ylimaki 156 Introduction and Overview 156 Setting the Context: The Governance, Policy and Funding of Public Education 156 The Case Sites, the Principals and the Criteria for Selection 157 Frameworks for analysis 158 The Accountability Principle 160 The Caring Principle 162 The Learning Principle 164 Conclusions and Recommendations for Practice and Further Research 166 References 169 978-1-4020-5516-4_11_OnlinePDF.pdf 171 Building and Sustaining Successful Principalship: Key Themes 171 Christopher Day and Kenneth Leithwood 171 Differences in Contexts and Kinds of Principalship 172 Similarities 175 Conclusions 184 References 187 978-1-4020-5516-4_12_OnlinePDF.pdf 189 What We Learned: A Broad View 189 Kenneth Leithwood and Christopher Day 189 Introduction 189 The Nature of the Evidence 189 Successful Principal Leadership Practices 191 Factors that Mediate Successful Principal Leadership 193 Factors that Moderate Successful Principal Leadership 194 Antecedents of Successful Principal Leadership 194 Explaining Our Findings: Working from a Different Metaphor 199 References 202 1. Starting With What We Know / Kenneth Leithwood And Christopher Day -- 2. Successful School Principalship In Tasmania / Bill Mulford -- 3. Models Of Successful Principal Leadership : Victorian Case Studies / David Gurr And Lawrie Drysdale -- 4. Sustaining Success In Challenging Contexts : Leadership In English Schools / Christopher Day -- 5. Successful Leadership Based On Democratic Values / Jorunn Moller, Astrid Eggen, Otto L. Fuglestad, Gjert Langfeldt, Anne-marie Presthus, Siw Skrovset, Else Stjernstrom And Gunn Vedoy -- 6. Successful Principalship -- The Swedish Case / Jonas Hoog, Olof Johansson And Anders Olofsson -- 7. Communicative Strategies Among Successful Danish School Principals / Lejf Moos, John Krejsler, Klaus Kasper Kofod And Bent Brandt Jensen -- 8. Successful Leadership : Does Context Matter And If So, How? / Denise Belchetz And Kenneth Leithwood -- 9. Successful Principalship In Shanghai : A Case Study / Kam-cheung Wong -- 10. Against The Odds : Successful Principals In Challenging U.s. Schools / Corrie Giles, Stephen L. Jacobson, Lauri Johnson And Rose Ylimaki -- 11. Building And Sustaining Successful Principalship : Key Themes / Christopher Day And Kenneth Leithwood -- 12. What We Learned : A Broad View / Kenneth Leithwood And Christopher Day. Edited By Christopher Day And Kenneth Leithwood. Includes Bibliographical References. Starting with What we Know....Pages 1-15 Successful School Principalship in Tasmania....Pages 17-38 Models of Successful Principal Leadership: Victorian Case Studies....Pages 39-58 Sustaining Success in Challenging Contexts: Leadership in English Schools....Pages 59-70 Successful Leadership Based on Democratic Values....Pages 71-86 Successful Principalship – The Swedish Case....Pages 87-102 Communicative Strategies Among Successful Danish School Principals....Pages 103-116 Successful Leadership: Does Context Matter and If So, How?....Pages 117-138 Successful Principalship in Shanghai: A Case Study....Pages 139-153 Against the Odds: Successful Principals in Challenging U.S. Schools....Pages 155-169 Building and Sustaining Successful Principalship: Key Themes....Pages 171-188 What We Learned: A Broad View....Pages 189-203 This book contributes significantly to our understanding of successful school leaders by describing similarities and differences in the work of such leaders in countries ranging from England to Australia, the United States to Norway, and Sweden to Hong Kong. Bringing together case study research, the book helps explain what all successful principals do and the ways in which context shapes some of their work.