Conference Agenda

Objectives and Framework

In recent years, many nation states have enacted accountability policies with student learning measured by externalized evaluations. Some nation states (e.g., United States) have state-based education systems with shifts toward centralization; others have a long history of educational centralization (e.g., France); and still others have shifted from centralized systems to more decentralized systems (e.g., Italy). School leaders must, then, navigate accountability policy changes in relation to different transformations and other changes (e.g., student demographics, digitalization).

This symposium presents research from the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), the longest standing and largest leadership research network with members from 20+ countries. In ISSPP research, schools are considered adaptive social systems that sit at the nexus of policy, communities, and society. Researching school leadership amidst a complex and rapidly changing society requires conceptualisations and methodologies to be sufficiently robust and dynamic to capture the nuances of the ways that multi-layered influences in society, communities, and schools shape, and are shaped by, what successful principals do. This symposium presents new ISSPP research findings using the new conceptual framework and comparative, mixed methods research methodology. Papers in this symposium discuss how the ISSPP conceptualization and methodologies enable the research to capture the ways in which principals navigate within and between systems and layers of influence over time to grow and sustain success.

Research Questions

RQ1: How appropriate is complexity theory to furthering understandings of successful school leadership, and how will such understandings advance the application of complexity theory in social and comparative research in education?

RQ2: To what extent, and in what ways, do diverse socioeconomic, cultural, political systems, and professional contexts at different levels of the education system influence how schools operate to bring about valued educational outcomes, especially those serving high need communities?

RQ3: To what extent, and in what ways, is ‘success’ in schools perceived and measured similarly and/or differently within and across different countries?

RQ4: What are the key enablers and constraints for achieving school ‘success’ in different contexts within and across different countries?

RQ5: How do different key stakeholders within and outside the school community and at different levels of the education system define successful school leadership practices? What similarities and differences can be identified within and across different countries?

RQ6: What similarities and differences can be identified in the values, beliefs, and behaviors of successful school principals across different schools in the same country, and across national cultures and policy contexts?

In seeking to answer the urgent issues of defining how success is achieved and sustained in all schools, and especially those serving high need communities amidst the contemporary uncertainties, the ISSPP research examines school leadership through the lens of ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) which theorizes individual practices and development within the context of various dynamically interacting layers of social and ecological systems to capture the processes and actions in which schools operate, develop, and thrive in an increasingly unpredictable, globalized world.

Methodology

The ISSPP utilizes a comparative, mixed methods design with a variety of data sources in order to bring multiple perspectives to bear in the inquiry (Creswell & Creswell, 2017; Patton, 2002). Sampling features principals who lead successful schools in their communities. Data sources within each case study include semi-structured qualitative interviews with the district/municipality, governors, principal, teachers, parents, and students, and a whole-school teacher survey. The comparative analysis of these data sources within and across different schools and countries (Authors, 2021) enables trustworthiness and enhances rigor (Denzin, 2012).

Structure of the session

This session will begin with an overview from the chair followed by three paper presentations and audience discussion.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understandings of successful school leadership in Italy in an education system that has undergone significant transformations, transitioning from a highly centralized structure to a more autonomously managed system. Despite some advances, school leaders are faced with ongoing reform and face challenges due to frequent adjustments driven by political decisions, leading to a lack of continuity and resistance to change. This instability creates ongoing disruptions, and school leaders’ capacity to drive innovation and change. Conceptualisation The case study is informed by Ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) with Complexity theory (Haggis, 2008, Morrison, 2010) which serve as the theoretical underpinning. The paper conceptualises successful school leadership, through an analysis of the complex interactions within and between micro, meso, macro, exon and chrono level systems (Bronfenbrenner, 2009). Methods The case study has followed the ISSPP’s recently re-modelled research protocols and adopted a mixed method multi-perspective approach. The Case Study focuses on Comprehensive Institute which includes 1 kindergarten, 3 primary schools, and 1 junior secondary school. The data was collected through a staff questionnaire (n = 51), 6 individual face-to-face interviews with the principal, individual interviews with 5 teaching staff, as well as focus group interviews with 6 parents, and 6 students. The Institute’s evaluation documents from 2016 to 2022, including the RAV- Self-Assessment Report - Rapporto di Auto-Valutazione, and PdM- Improvement Plan – Piano di Miglioramento were also utilised. Findings The findings suggest that despite the complexities of Italy's bureaucratic education system, the principal embarks on a transformative journey aimed at uplifting the outcomes of underprivileged families within the Institute's community. The principal introduces new ways of working with a focus on ethics and service, the cultivation of relationships across the school and wider community, and a belief in distributed leadership. Anchored in Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological system theory and complexity theory (Haggis, 2008; Morrison, 2010), the case study provides invaluable insights into the nexus of ongoing educational reforms, institutional autonomy, community needs, and the pivotal role of the principal. This leadership transcends boundaries, not only focusing on educational outcomes but also nurturing a values-driven culture that cultivates a positive and inclusive environment. By championing social justice, equity, and inclusion, the principal's vision extends beyond academics, fostering overall positive developmental outcomes for the children across the Institute.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2009). The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Haggis, T. (2008). Knowledge Must Be Contextual: Some Possible Implications of Complexity and Dynamic Systems Theories for Educational Research. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40 (1), 158-176. Morrison, K. (2010). Complexity theory, school leadership and management: Questions for theory and practice. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(3), 374-393.

Outlining purpose Following a 2-year continuing professional development programme on the issues and challenges of school leadership, a team of 50 French executives from a rural and disadvantaged French district were involved in a collaborative and reflective enquiry into successful schools and principalship, under my supervision. Conceptual framework The successful principalship was investigated in the international and comparative ISSPP programme (Day, Leithwood, 2007). It revealed invariants in the success factors of schools and principals, irrespective of their social, cultural and institutional context (Day & oth., 2010; Gurr, 2015). These factors relate to three main areas: the definition of a vision, values and purposes; the development of people; and the redefinition of the school organisation. Based on evidence of student achievement, but also other indicators of success, the ISSPP study shows that principals rely on the same repertoires of core practices and that they improve teaching and learning in indirect ways. A small handful of their personal traits account for a large proportion of school success. Methods Adopting and translating the ISSPP survey protocol in the French context, and developing the survey in 3 primary schools, 5 middle schools, 3 high schools, 2 vocational schools, the group of 50 executives (composed of principals, inspectors, and pedagogical advisers), structured in teams of 3 to 4 members, conducted interviews over 6 months with principals, teachers and students to identify success factors of each school. These interviews were cross-referenced with indicators such as national assessments, exam results and other data supplied by the Ministry of Education and the local authority. Findings The survey results corroborate what has already been observed throughout numerous ISSPP publications concerning common factors shared by successful leaders (Leithwood & al., 2020). However, these results have to be contextualized in the French education system. With their specific republican values and vision, French principals have to share their roles and responsibilities with inspectors, which limits their instructional and transformational leadership with teachers. Their face difficulties to understand and consider professional and organisational learning, and they have a limited autonomy in human resources management. It prevents them from taking full advantage of opportunities for school improvement and teacher professional development. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some attempts to move away from a bureaucratic organisation governed by planning, rules and hierarchy to promote more distributed and flexible activities and sharing new roles and responsibilities with teachers.

Day, C. and Leithwood, K. (eds.) (2007) Successful school principal leadership in times of change: International perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer. Day, C., Sammons, P., Leithwood, K., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Gu, Q. and Brown, E. (2010) Ten strong claims about successful school leadership. Nottingham: NCSL Gurr, D. (2015) ‘A model of successful school leadership from the International Successful School Principalship Project.’ Societies, 5(1): 136–150. Leithwood, K., Harris, A. and Hopkins, D. (2020) ‘Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited,’ School Leadership & Management, 40(1): 5–22, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077

Purpose U.S. public education has played a critical role in the founding, development, and unification of diverse citizens’ identities, thus reflecting society. In recent years, the U.S. has experienced increased diversity from internal demographic shifts as well as global population migrations (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Although U.S. public education is a state-based system, federal policies have recently shifted toward curriculum centralization. Efforts toward curriculum centralization or common core were not successful; however, all states developed similar curricula as well as externalized evaluations holding schools accountable (Loveless, 2021). Additionally, the U.S. history of colonization and slavery has affected many citizens, including children, with lingering trauma. At the same time, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many school members have also experienced a range of health and social emotional effects as well as trends toward digitalization and virtual education. Such new and perennial tensions and complexities have been complicated by an ongoing teacher shortage. The purpose of this paper is to present new ISSPP cases with a specific focus on how successful principals balance and mediate tensions between accountability and the broad human needs of students in hopeful and positive ways. Cases are located in the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest, including public, religious, and reservation community schools that serve traditionally marginalized populations in public schools. Framework and Methods Drawing on the ISSPP theoretical framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Morrison, 2010) and revised protocols, teams interviewed the principal, teachers, parents/community members, and students. Additionally, teams administered a survey to all teachers. Findings and Implications Preliminary findings indicate that, amidst contemporary complexities and influences, successful principals develop a positive and hopeful school direction for change that meets or exceeds accountability policy requirements for all children. In so doing, principals build teacher leadership capacity, relate increasingly diverse home cultures to curriculum content, promote equity, and support pedagogical quality. Findings indicate that these leadership practices contribute to student academic outcomes and wellness outcomes. In these cases, successful principals also influence and educate district leaders and even state leaders about the effects of accountability policies as well as the cultural wealth of their increasingly diverse communities. While principals must navigate new complexities and influences, they honor historical values and traditions. The paper discuses findings in relation to the ISSPP theoretical frame

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press. Loveless, T. (2021). Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core. Harvard Education Press. 8 Story Street First Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. Morrison, K. (2010). Complexity theory, school leadership and management: Questions for theory and practice. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(3), 374-393. U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov on January 24, 2024.