School autonomy, leadership and student achievement: reflections from Finland

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide national information on school autonomy, leadership and student achievements in Finland. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a literature review on Finnish studies focusing on school autonomy, leadership and student achievement. The studies have been reviewed on the basis of a content analysis. Findings There exists a shortage of studies connecting school leadership to student achievements. School leadership in Finland has been investigated in previous research, especially from the perspective of shared or pedagogical leadership, but vast majority of the studies have focused on teachers and educational staff, not directly on students. An evident reason for this is inaccessible information on school-based data and the nature of education being a “public good”, which is supposed to meet the same standards across the country. Originality/value This review will provide the international audience a deeper understanding in the school autonomy and leadership development in Finland.

Influence of school leadership style on effective teaching and teacher-student interaction

“…The value of correlation between effective teaching and participative, transformational, and managerial leadership styles, for experimental and control group, indicates that increasing of school leadership style values would result in an increase of effective teaching, although there are differences. The result was consistent with previously reported works, which argued that school leadership is in a significant and positive relationship with effective teaching (Lamm et al, 2016;Gregersen et al, 2014;Brown & Corkill, 2004;Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016;Quinlan, 2014;Duttweiler, 1988;Burch & Guarana, 2014;Mustafa & Lines, 2014;Christensen, 2012;Sun, 2011;Fletcher et al, 2012;Price, 2015). In conclusion hypothesis # 1: There is a positive linear correlation between school leadership style and effective teaching, is well supported.…”

“…Lamm et al (2016) revealed transformational leadership positively predicted, and transactional leadership negatively predicted engagement in change, and Gregersen et al (2014) confirms that the correlations between transformational leadership and emotional exhaustion were negative and significant. School leadership and context influence teaching and learning (Brown & Corkill, 2004;Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016;Quinlan, 2014). Effective principals create and maintain a suitable learning environment (Duttweiler, 1988;Burch & Guarana, 2014).…”

Shared Sense-Making Processes Within a National Reform Implementation: Principals' Voices

“…Sense-making is an emotional process: it reduces anxiety caused by potential national reform requirements, which demand a change not only in teachers' practices but also in their beliefs (Pietarinen et al, 2017). Therefore, as pedagogical leaders, principals are expected to provide their teachers with emotional support, which is essential for helping them make decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of reform messages (Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016). In this regard, Maitlis and Christianson (2014) have shown that positive motivational dynamics enable discussions which engage members in deeper sense-making and greater agreement about an appropriate course of action, whereas motivational dynamics that are mixed or negative are associated with more superficial sense-making of policy demands and a failure to act collectively (Siczek & Engel, 2017).…”

Skolestrukturers betydning for skole-ledelse: En analyse af meningsskabelse, delegering og specialisering i to forskellige skolestrukturer i Danmark

“…Studiet er baseret på hypoteser informeret af eksisterende forskning om inter-og intraorganisatoriske aspekter i styring og ledelse af grundskoler. Forskning i interorganisatoriske aspekter indikerer, at skolestrukturen har betydning for skoleledelsens adfaerd, beslutninger og autonomi (EVA, 2010;Glatter, 2021;Hashim et al, 2021;Heffernan, 2018;Heikkinen et al, 2021;Keddie et al, 2018;Krevi, 2010;Rambøll, 2020;Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016;VIVE, 2018). Forskning i intraorganisatoriske aspekter indikerer, at skolestrukturen har betydning for, hvilke ledere i en skoleledelse, der varetager og delegerer specifikke ledelsesdimensioner (Abrahamsen, 2018;Weiner & Woulfin, 2017;Woods et al, 2021).…”