Conference Agenda

The World School Leadership Study (WSLS) has three aims. First, it aims to gain empirical insights into compulsory education school leaders’ leadership work and their professional health in around 40 countries. Second, based on the national data gathered in each country, comparative analysis will be conducted to identify similarities and differences across countries. Third, the WSLS aims to generate knowledge which can support policy formulation and implementation for the professionalization of school leaders and their work environment. Hence, this study contributes to the knowledge base of different human resource management aspects, e.g. attracting, recruiting, training and developing school leaders. The WSLS also has implications for institutions to provide professional support infrastructures for school leaders. The data will be analyzed and reported nationally with an ideographical perspective and internationally with a comparative perspective. The WSLS draws on several strands of literature originated in different positions in the field of educational leadership. This is necessary to understand the challenges of leadership related to shifting policy contexts and governing regimes

Perspectives on leadership roles and core practices may differ over time and across countries.

The WSLS intends to answer the following research questions:

1. What are school leaders´ roles and functions?
2. How do school leaders’ work settings and conditions look like and how are they experienced by school leaders?
3. How do school leaders practice their leadership, what are preferences and strains, how do they experience their competences as to professional challenges?
4. What programs exist for preparation of school leaders?
5. What programs exist for introduction of newly appointed school leaders and what programs exist for established and experienced school leaders in the different countries?
6. Which are the particularities and challenges of these programs?

Corresponding to the above research questions, particular research design, methods and instruments are designed to support the researchers from the participating countries to collect data. The aim of the symposium is to develop the research design and methodology further as well as examining theoretical models which will be used as frameworks for the project. A further aim is to provide insights into educational systems, role of school leadership and state of research on school leadership from different continents and stimulate discussion with the international audience.

Data for the WSLS will be collected using a mixed-methods approach. The mandatory part of the study comprises a country report (document analysis and expert interviews) and an online survey. The optional part of the study includes an end-of-day log and in-depth follow-up interviews. Each contribution presents findings but also some critical key questions about the profession of school leadership. First results will be presented based on the findings of the country reports from various countries including Australia, Canada, Hungary, and Malaysia.

Structure of the session: The symposium session begins with an overview by the chair, introducing the theme and speakers from the different countries. This is followed by paper presentations and brief Q&A sessions. The session ends with a panel discussion and audience engagement, fostering deeper exploration and interaction.

In this narrative review of Australian research on school leadership, it is shown how the focus on principals over the past 60 years is giving way to more holistic conceptions that include the work of senior leaders, middle leaders, teachers leaders, early career teachers, and how these are brought together through distributed and community of practice perspectives. It is argued that complexity, system and ecological perspectives are contributing to views about school leadership that are sufficiently complex to allow school leaders to respond and influence the uncertain, chaotic and crisis rich contexts that schools face. The paper explores the school leadership literature in several ways. It provides short syntheses of research on: school leader well-being and resilience; values and professional understanding; leadership practices; the fit between people, roles, schools and systems; and, school quality and success. To provide a currency, contemporary challenges and trends being faced by schools and school leaders are explored including: teacher shortages; school leader shortages; school choice and school funding; technology, people and schools. Bringing these findings together, and taking a futures perspective, the paper ends by exploring future research ideas. The first is to better understand the work of school leaders through exploring work practices that seem to be especially helpful for improving schools, better capturing the complex nature of contemporary schools and the work of school leaders, and better understanding how to identify, recruit and support leaders at all levels from early career through to system level. The second is to explore complexity through: the connections between distributed leadership, communities of practice and the work of teacher and middle leaders; the nexus between school leadership and governance; and, by applying system, ecological and complexity perspectives. The third is to consider the future of school leadership by: continuing research on post-pandemic changes; exploring the next wave of technology impacts on schools and schooling; and to update the scenario work of organisations like the OECD, and to develop several alternative views of schooling for the next 20 or more years. The paper captures the complexity, challenges and successes of school leadership in Australia now, and provides signposts for how schools and school leadership will develop in the future.

Moreno, B, Gurr, D., Goode, H. & Drysdale, L. (2025) Country Report: Australia. Report prepared for the World School Leadership Study.

Canada is the second largest country in the world, with a population of approximately 38 million people, of whom almost 20% are foreign-born, and approximately 6% of whom are Indigenous. While the United States and United Kingdom have had great influence on Canadian culture, political systems, and economics, Canadian education systems remain distinct from education systems in the United States and United Kingdom. With 13 jurisdictions, made up of 10 provinces and three territories, the Canadian education system has been referred to as a “system of systems”. Each province and territory in Canada have their own education system, many of which are undergoing reviews and reforms (Friesen & Jacobsen, 2021). Section 1 of the report outlines the education system in Canada and highlights the educational structure of Canada’s three important provinces: British Columbia (BC), Ontario (ON), and Alberta (AB). School leadership research in Canada has illustrated the often complex and intensified nature of the roles of principals and vice-principals within schools. As school administrators, principals and vice-principals are often seen as middle managers. Section 2 continues with the document analysis on school leadership in general at the national level and epitomizes the role of school administrators in the province of BC. Research on school leadership has evolved over time, reflecting changes in education landscape and emerging issues and challenges that school leaders encounter in today’s schools. Current research emphasis what school leaders believe, value, and do in response to the changing needs and priorities of their school communities, and also how well they do physically, mentally and emotionally. Section 3 presents new developments on school leadership research and highlights the importance of the health and well-being of principals, the expectations and demands placed on Canada’s school leaders. The changing role of school administrators has significant implications to school leadership and the comfortability of school administrators’ speaking up or out in such social and political contexts. Finally, the report offers final thoughts to providing better support for school administrators and their psychological safety. As conditions within and outside of schools rapidly change, additional research within the Canadian context is needed to better understand the realities of today’s school leadership, and to guide practices in looking ahead to better support Canada’s school leaders and students in today’s schools.

Wang, F. (2025) Country Report: Canada. Report prepared for the World School Leadership Study.

International research identifies school leadership as a key lever for improving educational quality and promoting equity (Baráth et al., 2019; OECD, 2020). At the same time, leadership effectiveness is strongly conditioned by governance arrangements and levels of institutional autonomy (OECD, 2018, 2023). This presentation examines the role and potential of school leadership in improving school effectiveness and equity within the highly centralised Hungarian education system, drawing on national research evidence and international comparative data. Hungary has long been characterised by strong selection mechanisms and notable inequalities in educational outcomes. Student achievement is closely linked to family background and, even more strongly, to the socio-economic composition of schools (OECD, 2023; Széll, 2018). Research demonstrates that early tracking, school choice, and growing segregation contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities rather than their mitigation (Fejes & Szűcs, 2018). Since 2010, these structural challenges have been reinforced by re-centralisation of education governance, which substantially reduced school-level autonomy in financial, staffing, and organisational matters while simultaneously increasing accountability pressures on principals (OECD, 2018). Synthesising findings from Hungarian empirical studies and international surveys (PISA, TALIS), the analysis focuses on three interrelated dimensions of leadership: (1) organisational culture and school climate, (2) leadership practices supporting professional learning and collaboration, and (3) leadership responses to socio-economic disadvantage and segregation (Széll & Lénárd, 2025). The evidence suggests that while structural constraints limit leaders’ direct influence over resources, school leaders play a crucial role in shaping internal school conditions that can mitigate the effects of disadvantage. Research on resilient and effective schools in Hungary shows that inclusive organisational cultures, strong professional communities, and supportive school climates are associated with better student outcomes, particularly in socio-economically disadvantaged contexts (Széll, 2018). Leadership practices emphasising collaboration, distributed leadership, and learning-oriented organisational development appear especially important in compensating for limited institutional autonomy (Horváth et al., 2015; Héreginé Nagy et al., 2024). At the same time, the centralised governance model creates persistent tensions between control-oriented accountability and development-oriented leadership. Evaluation and inspection systems are widely perceived as compliance-driven, limiting opportunities for innovation and equity-focused strategies. The Hungarian case contributes to international debates on equity and school leadership by illustrating how leadership operates in systems where inequalities are structurally embedded and autonomy is limited, yet leadership agency remains crucial for shaping school-level responses (Széll & Lénárd, 2025). The presentation was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

References Baráth, T., Horváth, L., Nóbik, A., & Verderber, É. (2019). Educational leadership in Hungary. In S. Ševkušić, D. Malinić, & J. Teodorović (Eds.), Leadership in education: Initiatives and trends in selected European countries (pp. 113–133). University of Kragujevac Faculty of Education in Jagodina. Fejes, J. B., & Szűcs, N. (Eds.). (2018). Én vétkem: Helyzetkép az oktatási szegregációról [My fault: An overview of educational segregation]. Motiváció Oktatási Egyesület. Héreginé Nagy, M., Lénárd, S., Horváth, L., & Rapos, N. (2024). The organisational context of middle management role behaviour in Hungarian schools. School Leadership & Management, 44(4), 389–412. Horváth, L., Verderber, É., & Baráth, T. (2015). Managing the complex adaptive learning organization. Contemporary Educational Leadership, 2(3), 61–83. OECD (2018). Education at a glance 2018: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing. OECD (2020). TALIS 2018 Results (Volume II): Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals. OECD Publishing. OECD (2023). PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The State of Learning and Equity in Education. OECD Publishing. Széll, K. (2018). Iskolai légkör és eredményesség: Fókuszban a reziliens és a veszélyeztetett iskolák [School climate and effectiveness: Focusing on resilient and at-risk schools]. Belvedere Meridionale. Széll, K., & Lénárd, S. (2025). School Leadership in Hungary: Country Report.

As part of the World School Leadership Study, this chapter offers an overview of school leadership within the Malaysian education system, examining both structural features and emerging trends that are reshaping leadership practice. It begins by contextualizing Malaysia’s education system, highlighting how national reforms, notably the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025, have redefined school leadership practices. The chapter then explores competency frameworks, with emphasis on KOMPAS 2.0, the leadership competency standard that integrates both administrative and instructional leadership, along with personal attributes essential for effective school management in the Malaysian context. Next, drawing on empirical studies, six critical areas of leadership research are synthesized under the headings, school leaders’ health, well-being, resilience, demands and resources; values and professional understanding; leadership practices, person-job-organization-system fit, school quality and its development, and challenges and trends in education and of school leaders. Particular attention is given to how policy aspirations pertaining to distributed leadership, instructional leadership and inclusive education, encounter structural and contextual barriers within Malaysia’s hierarchical system. The chapter concludes by identifying research desiderata, calling for future studies on three key areas, these being, AI leadership integration, inclusive practice implementation and rural school leadership.

Adams, D. (2025) Country Report: Malaysia. Report prepared for the World School Leadership Study.