Successful school principals in primary and secondary education: a comprehensive review of a ten-year research project in Cyprus

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore successful school principalship in Cyprus based on a ten-year research project, and in particular, by analysing leadership knowledge based on concrete actions of successful school principals derived from multiple case studies from the primary and secondary education sectors in Cyprus.Design/methodology/approachThe initial type of evidence was original qualitative empirical research undertaken through the examination of 11 case studies of successful primary and secondary school principals across Cyprus. Following, for the purposes of this paper a cross-case reanalysis was performed in order to extract successful actions from the participating school principals.FindingsBased on the emerging actions from the cross-case analysis, findings indicate that successful school principals, both in primary and secondary education, develop external relations, as well as networking with all relevant actors; create a collaborative and shared ownership feeling among their members and within their school organization; and finally promote a clear vision, based on a specific number of values.Originality/valueThis overall effort led us to the articulation of certain successful actions, which could be related and compared to the results in other successful school principalship contexts. Furthermore, it could contribute to the cross-country comparative knowledge body on successful school principalship, with different educational policies and different social contexts.

An open systems model of successful school leadership

“…Gurr (2015) integrated key aspects of most of the models above to create a revised model of successful school leadership (Figure 12) based on model 1 (Figure 1). It does not include the Australian models that were published subsequently (Goode, 2017;Longmuir, 2017;McCrohan, 2021) or the most recent model from Cyprus (Pashiardis and Kafa, 2021). This model has divisions between the why, how and what of successful schools articulated by Mulford and Johns (2004) and the use of impact levels articulated in Gurr et al (2003), moving from the least direct on learning outcomes (level 3, context), to level 2 (leadership) and then level 1 (teaching and learning) which directly impacts on student outcomes.…”

“…The Cyprus group has produced a framework (Pashiardis et al , 2018; Pashiardis and Savvides, 2011) and a model based on five rural primary school cases (Pashiardis et al , 2011), and, most recently, a model that includes the five primary cases and adds six additional secondary cases from across Cyprus (Pashiardis and Kafa, 2021); refer to Figure 11.…”

“…Gurr (2015) integrated key aspects of most of the models above to create a revised model of successful school leadership (Figure 12) based on model 1 (Figure 1). It does not include the Australian models that were published subsequently (Goode, 2017; Longmuir, 2017; McCrohan, 2021) or the most recent model from Cyprus (Pashiardis and Kafa, 2021).…”

“…Figure 11 shows the most recent model which includes the primary and secondary school cases from the Cyprus ISSPP research group (Pashiardis and Kafa, 2021). The model includes three action areas: developing external relations and networking with all relevant actors; promoting a collaborative and shared ownership feeling among their member and within school organisation; and, promoting a clear vision and endorsing a specific values system.…”

“…Managing the competing values between the context demands and school's needs does not seem to be represented in Figure 11, although it was an important feature of the earlier primary school model. Despite this omission, Pashiardis and Kafa (2021) note the importance of context, especially the centralised nature of the school system in Cyprus and how principals work with and made sense of context demands on their schools.…”