A systematic review of conceptual models and methods used in research on educational leadership and management in Arab societies

ABSTRACT

This review of research analyzed topics, conceptual models and research methods employed in 62 EDLM studies from Arab societies published between 2000 and 2016. Systematic review methods were used to identify relevant studies published in nine core international EDLM journals. Quantitative analyses identified patterns within this set of Arab studies and benchmarked them against trends in the broader EDLM literature. The review characterised these Arab studies as an ‘emerging literature’, largely of recent vintage. Consistent with other literatures from developing societies, topical coverage was diffuse, disconnected and lacking in programmatic inquiry. Recommendations are offered for strengthening future EDLM research in Arab societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Leadership
• management
• Arab
• review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Note that we characterised these as “eight core international research journals” rather than “the eight core international research journals … .” Although any selection of “the core journals” is disputable, we assert that this set is a reasonably comprehensive yet focused list of educational leadership journals.

2 We considered two other well known journals: Leading and Managing and the Journal of School Leadership. However, the former had an h-index below 25, and the latter failed to meet our criterion of having a mission of including international research.

3 The h-index was proposed by J.E. Hirsch in his paper “An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output”, arXiv:physics/0508025 v5 29 Sep 2005. It is defined as follows: A scientist has index h if h of his/her Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np-h) papers have no more than h citations each.

4 This is based on analysis using the Publish or Perish tool on March 30, 2017.

5 Thus, it should be noted that the actual search was conducted during February and March 2017.