School leadership in Indonesia: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This paper reviews systematically literature on school leadership in the context of Indonesian education from 2004 to 2019. Its purpose is to investigate major issues which exist in the school leadership practices in Indonesia and propose some sustainable solutions so that educational policymakers, stakeholders and scholars can improve their awareness and knowledge of school leadership. Eight core international EDLM (educational leadership and management) journals were used as the source of the literature. Additionally, a high-quality journal with the indexation of Scopus and Social Sciences Citation Index, Asia Pacific Journal of Education (APJE), was included. The literature search yielded 16 articles that were reviewed. This study reports several crucial issues that need to have serious attention paid to them, including a lack of capacity to lead and manage schools, insufficiency of published studies, and the inappropriateness of principal selection processes. The suggested solutions for these problems consist of developing principal training centres in all the provinces of Indonesia, conducting more collaboration with overseas scholars, and improving principal selection procedures. Contributions for theory, practices and further study are provided.

Is educational leadership (still) worth studying? An epistemic worthiness-informed analysis

“…The causality belief is often deployed by mainstream educational leadership researchers as a rationale for examining, and the departure point for presenting findings on, the work of educational institutions’ senior management post-holders, such as headteachers and principals, as illustrated by the following statements – all appearing in the abstracts or opening paragraphs of articles in specialist educational leadership, management and administration journals: ‘School leaders are essential to the success of schools’ (Anderson et al, 2020: 1); ‘School principals play an invaluable role in schools’, teachers’, and students’ success’ (Woong Lee and Mao, 2020: 1); ‘Effective school leadership is a critical aspect to improve the quality of education. If the school leaders are unable to properly manage the school's resources, then educational institutions will struggle to survive and to develop’ (Lumban Gaol, 2021: 1); and ‘Research in the past few decades has consistently shown that principals are powerful players who can affect school effectiveness and bring about change’ (Qadach et al, 2020: 737). As their dates of publication show, such statements indicate the causality belief to remain, ostensibly at least, alive and kicking in the third decade of the 21st century, and evidently resilient in the face of extensive criticism (outlined below) that has accumulated over the last five decades of educational leadership scholarship.…”

Pathways to the school principalship: An international scoping review

“…The significant body of work from the Global North on the ways that leadership pathways can be inequitable and exclusionary for women and educators from racial minority backgrounds evidence how hegemonic understandings of who ‘looks /acts like’ a leader shuts the door in systematic ways to qualified applicants (Goldring et al, 2021). Research studies show that in some regions of the Global South even though highly formalised policy might exist, in practice candidates report a lack of transparency in the leadership pathway leading to the appointment of many unqualified principals (Lumban, 2021; Sumintono et al, 2015). In jurisdictions such as South Africa (Mampane, 2015), Turkey (Kılınç and Gümüş, 2021) and West Africa (Bush and Glover, 2016; Oplatka, 2004) contest mobility is in the policy.…”

Educational needs of the general secondary education institution heads as an indicator of the development of professional competence

“…Діяльність з управління якістю освіти досить багатогранна. Успішна реалізація управлінської діяльності керівника ЗЗСО потребує від нього володіння різноманітними компетенціями та навичками використання (8,6), застосування технології формування інклюзивного освітнього середовища у ЗЗСО (8,1), реалізації фінансового забезпечення закладу освіти за умов фінансової автономії закладу освіти (8,0), організації роботи з обдарованими учнями (7,9), використання технології ефективного ділового спілкування (7,8), викладання окремих навчальних предметів в умовах Нової української школи (7,5). Порівняння отриманих даних з результатами вивчення освітніх потреб керівників закладів середньої освіти у Сербії, що були проаналізовані вище, дає можливість побачити схожі тенденції.…”

“…Так, Huu Cuong Nguyen [4], досліджуючи процес професійного У статті Nasib Tua Lumban Gaol [6] автор за результатами ретроспективного аналізу проблеми у науковій літературі за 2004-2019 роки робить висновок про недостатність дослідження питання виявлення освітніх потреб і наявних якостей (управлінських, лідерських) у потенційних претендентів на посади директорів шкіл та неадекватність самих процесів їх відбору на прикладі Індонезії. На його думку, рішення проблеми полягає у створенні основних навчальних центрів у всій країні та вдосконаленні основних процедур відбору.…”