Principles of Educational Leadership & Management

Tony Bush,Les Bell,David Middlewood

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781526471239
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Leadership in der Bildung

This new edition brings together leading authorities from across the globe to provide a truly international perspective into educational leadership and management in school and post-school sectors. Covering both developed and developing countries, it is underpinned by a substantially updated analysis of theory, research, policy and practice. Key topics include:
- How leadership and management differ in education
- An overview of key models of educational leadership
- The relationship between leadership capabilities and enhanced student outcomes
- Leading for diversity and inclusion and the policy and practice challenges that follow leadership for social justice This is essential reading for anyone taking courses in educational leadership and management at postgraduate level, or as professional development, and for current and aspiring educational leaders seeking to enhance their practice.

Part I Principles Of Educational Leadership And Management

1 Models of Educational Leadership

Tony Bush

Introduction: The Significance of Educational Leadership

It is widely recognised that leadership is second only to classroom teaching in its impact on student learning. Leithwood et al.’s (2006) widely cited report shows that ‘leadership acts as a catalyst’ (p.4) for beneficial effects, including pupil learning. Their conclusion, that ‘there is not a single documented case of a school successfully turning around its pupil achievement trajectory in the absence of talented leadership’, offers powerful support for the vital role of heads, senior and middle leaders in all types of school.

Definitions of Educational Leadership

Gunter (2004) shows that the labels used to define this field have changed from ‘educational administration’ to ‘educational management’ and, more recently, to ‘educational leadership’. Bush (2008) discusses whether such changes are purely semantic or reflect substantive changes in the nature of the field. Yukl (2002: 4) argues that ‘the definition of leadership is arbitrary and very subjective’, but the following ‘working definition’ includes its main features:

Leadership is a process of influence leading to the achievement of desired purposes. Successful leaders develop a vision for their schools based on their personal and professional values. They articulate this vision at every opportunity and influence their staff and other stakeholders to share the vision. The philosophy, structures and activities of the school are geared towards the achievement of this shared vision. (Bush & Glover, 2003: 5)

Three dimensions of leadership arise from this working definition.

Leadership as influence

Leadership involves a social influence process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person [or group] over other people [or groups] to structure activities and relationships in a group or organisation (Yukl, 2002: 3). Bush (2008: 277) refers to three key aspects of these definitions. First, the central concept is influence rather than authority. Both are dimensions of power but the latter tends to reside in formal positions, such as principal or head teacher, while the former could be exercised by anyone in the school or college. Leadership is independent of positional authority while management is linked directly to it. Second, the process is intentional. The person seeking to exercise influence is doing so in order to achieve certain purposes. Third, influence may be exercised by groups as well as individuals. This notion provides support for the concept of distributed leadership and for constructs such as senior leadership teams.

Leadership and values

The notion of ‘influence’ is neutral in that it does not explain or recommend what goals or actions should be pursued. However, leadership is increasingly linked with values. Leaders are expected to ground their actions in clear personal and professional values. This implies that values are ‘chosen’ but Bush (2008: 277) argues that the dominant values are those of government and adds that these may be ‘imposed’ on school leaders. Teachers and leaders are more likely to be enthusiastic about change when they ‘own’ it. Hargreaves (2004), drawing on research in Canadian schools, finds that teachers report largely positive emotional experiences of self-initiated change but predominantly negative ones towards mandated change. There is a tension here between the obligation to implement the policies of democratically elected governments and the need for teacher professionals to feel positive about new initiatives if they are to enact them successfully.

Leadership and vision

Vision has been regarded as an essential component of effective leadership for more than 20 years. Southworth (1993: 23–4) suggests that heads are motivated to work hard ‘because their leadership is the pursuit of their individual visions’ (ibid.: 47). However, Thoonen et al. (2011: 520) refer to the ‘adverse effects’ of vision, which arise when principals do not involve teachers in the process of vision building.

The articulation of a clear vision has the potential to develop schools but the empirical evidence of its effectiveness remains mixed. A wider concern relates to whether school leaders, in England and elsewhere, are able to develop a specific vision for their schools, given government prescriptions of both curriculum aims and content. Many head teachers are like Bottery’s (2004: 164) ‘Alison’, who examines every issue in relation to the school’s Ofsted report. Hoyle and Wallace (2005: 139) add that visions have to conform to centralised expectations and to satisfy Ofsted inspectors.

A Typology for Leadership

There are many alternative, and competing, models of school leadership. In this section, I review seven of these theories, drawing on Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinbach (1999), Bush (2011), and Bush and Glover (2014).

Instructional leadership

The increasing emphasis on managing teaching and learning as the core activities of educational institutions has led to ‘instructional leadership’ being emphasised. Instructional leadership is the longest established concept linking leadership and learning. However, several other terms may be used to describe this relationship, including pedagogic leadership, curriculum leadership and leadership for learning. Despite its prominence and longevity, instructional leadership has been criticised on two grounds. First, it is perceived to be primarily concerned with teaching rather than learning (Bush, 2013). The second criticism is that it ‘focused too much on the principal as the centre of expertise, power and authority’ (Hallinger, 2003: 330). As a consequence, it tends to ignore or underplay the role of other leaders such as deputy principals, middle managers, leadership teams, and classroom teachers.

Hallinger and Heck (2010) note that, in the twenty-first century, instructional leadership has been ‘reincarnated’ as ‘leadership for learning’. This tends to stress shared or distributed leadership, counteracting the principal-centric approach of the instructional model. The second is a focus on learning, in contrast to the teaching-centred dimension of instructional leadership. Robinson’s (2007: 21) meta-analysis of published research shows that ‘the closer leaders are to the core business of teaching and learning, the more likely they are to make a difference to students’. This indicates that instructional leadership effects are much greater than those of other leadership models, a view confirmed by Shatzer et al. (2013).

The recent emphasis on instructional leadership is based largely on practice in decentralised and partly decentralised contexts, where principals have substantial scope to decide how to lead and manage their schools (Bush & Glover, 2014). However, there is emerging evidence (e.g. Bush et al., 2018 in Malaysia; Gumus & Akcaoglu, 2013 in Turkey; Hallinger & Lee, 2014 in Thailand; and Kaparou & Bush, 2015 in Greece) that governme...