The Interplay Between Instructional and Entrepreneurial Leadership Styles in Cyprus Rural Primary Schools

Job realities of primary school principals in Greece: similarities and variations in a highly centralized system

“…streaming is prohibited) Implement the laws and all the regulations of all the supervising authorities as well as the decisions of the teachers' assembly Promote educational innovations and be responsible for their implementation Evaluate the teaching and administrative staff (non-applicable in reality since a system of evaluation is missing) Cultivate a positive school climate Inform the newly appointed teachers about their legal rights and obligations and coach them during their first steps Allocate duties and responsibilities to the assistant principals of the school Keep record of all official correspondence of the school and issue and sign all the official documentation of the school Keep files of students and teachers Provide instructions and guidelines to the teaching staff Resolve problems with the teaching staff in a collegial spirit of mutual respect and report these problems to higher levels only if his/her efforts to resolve them are proved unsuccessful Communicate with the supervising authorities asking for help to overcome staff shortages or for reporting other serious problems Furthermore, a primary school principal in cooperation with and with the approval of the teachers assembly: Calls the teachers' assembly meetings Assigns specific administrative and extra-curricular duties to individual members of the teaching staff Proposes the time schedule of the lessons and makes all possible arrangements so that all teachers cover their workload Makes the necessary provisions about the maintenance of school facilities and the supply of essential instructional materials Ensures the orderliness of the school environment and the conditions of students' safety Cultivates a democratic climate and prevents or tackles disciplinary problems Proposes the replacement of absent teachers Distributes the state-approved textbooks to all students Cooperates with the school advisors for organizing school-based teachers' in service training programmes, and school visits to sites of educational interest which referred to their leadership ability (3.90) and their ability to evaluate teachers (3.83) (Menon & Saitis, 2006). Similar observations have also been found in terms of the role of school, in the Cypriot education system, also highly centralized and bureaucratic (Pashiardis & Savvides, 2011). As in the case of Greece, school principals were found to be generating positive attitudes in teachers but there are some areas where they need to improve, such as, personnel management and professional growth and development especially as far as instructional and curricular issues are concerned (Pashiardis & Orphanou, 1999).…”

‘Culture’, ‘Context’, School Leadership and Entrepreneurialism: Evidence from Sixteen Countries

“…Furthermore, those in Brazil, Cyprus, Jamaica, Mozambique and South Africa appear more reliant on returns from fundraising activities to fund aspects of schooling. These findings extend findings from earlier research, in Cyprus by [11], which found, school leaders were engaged in multiple fundraising activities due to necessity and not because they wanted to. The results also highlights that reduced funding to schools, associated with conditions in the global and national economic environments, is demanding that school leaders develop and demonstrate entrepreneurial skills and behaviours.…”

“…Furthermore, from their study of primary school leaders in Cyprus, [11] (p. 424) concluded instructional and entrepreneurial are the two "domains of practice for successful school leadership", whilst noting that entrepreneurial school leadership involve parents in school the community and other stakeholders in the school, through projecting the school and through funding for infrastructure and other resources. Additionally, research on school leadership in England and Jamaica that found, school leaders showed evidence of a "corporate mindset" [12] (p. 120), which means being able to "engage internal and external factors in pursuit of new and different opportunities or ways to realise a school's mission, notwithstanding events or ongoing changes in the environment" [3] (p. 102).…”

Instructional leadership in centralised systems: evidence from Greek high-performing secondary schools

“…However, a different picture is painted within the centralised Cypriot educational system. As part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), Pashiardis and Savvides (2011) show how the instructional and entrepreneurial aspects of leadership interact to build the capacity for student learning, while principals focused on improving student achievement and employed a learningcentred leadership approach to assist students' academic performance. Mattar's (2012: 523) survey in Lebanese schools also shows that 'principals in the high-performing schools were adopting a stronger instructional leadership style than those in the lowperforming schools'.…”