An Australian model of successful school leadership

Abstract

Purpose-This paper seeks to demonstrate how the principal was instrumental in turning around an underperforming school by using a leadership style that modelled appropriate behaviour, and which was consultative, conciliatory, inspirational and empathetic, through having a clearly articulated whole-child-focused educational philosophy, by building relationships and developing staff, and through displaying a range of appropriate personal qualities such as integrity, high energy, sensitivity, enthusiasm, and persistence. Design/methodology/approach-This was a multiple-perspective, observational case study that included individual and group interviews with the principal, staff, parents and students, and involved shadowing the principal for a total of three days. Findings-The four themes found in the original study remained important. In addition, the leadership of the assistant principal, and increasingly that of teachers working in teams, were important for success. During the study it became obvious that to move the school from a good school to a great school would likely require a different approach to leadership, changes to school direction, and new improvement strategies. The principal indicated that she was not able to do this and it was time for a new principal to take on this challenge. Originality/value-This is part of a larger study that is revisiting case studies of successful principals to explore sustainability of successful school leadership and successful schools.

Engaging parents in schools and building parent-school partnerships: The role of school and parent organisation leadership

“…School Principals appear to play a central role in shaping school climate and facilitating parent engagement in child learning through their leadership style, communication, attitudes and expectations (Barr & Saltmarsh, 2014;Drysdale, Goode, & Gurr, 2009;Giles, 2006;Gordon & Louis, 2009;Mleczko & Kington, 2013). When it comes to identifying the precise mechanisms through which this occurs however, the current literature is far from conclusive.…”

A Model of Successful School Leadership from the International Successful School Principalship Project

“…These models have been developed by two Australian groups, from doctoral research supervised by the Australian researchers in Singapore and Indonesia, and from the Cyprus research group full accounts of these models can be found in [11,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Across most of these models from the four countries, establishing collective direction, developing people and improving teaching and learning are common and explicit, and implicitly there is a sense of being able to lead change.…”

Why is school reform sustained even after a project? A case study of Bac Giang Province, Vietnam

“…For example, three other principals were eager to conduct PTMs after the project concluded. These principals were more determined to introduce and continue with PTMs (Drysdale et al 2009). Although all of these principals were colleagues of the authors, principals reformed their schools without any substantial support from the authors.…”

“…Several of these factors have been considered influential: (1) leadership (Drysdale et al 2009;Hargreaves and Fink 2003); (2) turnover (Huberman and Miles 1984;Ose and Sato 2003;Sato and Sato 2003;Sindelar et al 2006;Taylor 2006); (3) organizational learning (Hargreaves and Fink 2003;Lai et al 2009;McIntyre and Kyle 2006); (4) conduct (Gersten et al 2000;Guhn 2009;Wood 2007); (5) teachers' dilemmas, conflicts, and changes (Grimes et al 2006;Gersten et al 2000;Hargreaves and Fink 2003;McIntyre and Kyle 2006;Wood 2007); and (6) accumulation of experiences (Datnow 2005;Giles and Hargreaves 2006;Grimes et al 2006;Hargreaves and Fink 2003;Kilbane 2009;Taylor 2006).…”