The effects of community-wide distributed leadership on students’ academic achievement

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to verify whether students’ academic achievement is enhanced not only by the leadership of school organization members represented by a principal but also by the comprehensive power of community-wide distributed leadership. A questionnaire survey was conducted from July to September 2018. The participants were 1,157 principals from 55 school districts in Japan. A logistic multilevel analysis was conducted using three binary variables as dependent variables. In the logistic multilevel modeling, four district level variables including superintendent leadership and socioeconomic status factors, in addition to 10 school level variables including distributed leadership and socioeconomic status factors, were used as explanatory variables. The analysis results indicated that distributed leadership at the school level had a suppression effect on continuous low-level academic achievement and a promotion effect on academic growth. The main explanatory variables for continuous high-level and low-level academic achievement were socioeconomic status factors. On the other hand, academic growth was explained by distributed leadership and the establishment of support headquarters. However, this study is limited in the method of measuring distributed leadership, professional community, and teacher efficacy, in addition to do not describing the process from distributed leadership to academic achievement.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research in Japan under Grant number Educational System and Organization 047. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Conceptual studies on servant leadership have progressed mainly in the areas of leader philosophy since the 1970s. However, empirical studies have been developed relatively recently. For example, in Barbuto and Wheeler (2006), the servant leadership questionnaire items (SLQI) were developed and the five dimensions of servant leadership were extracted. The five dimensions are as follows: Always act according to the subordinate’s interests prior to one1s own (altruistic calling). Leaders can prepare their emotional environment and expect them to solve emotional problems (emotional healing). Leaders can accurately understand the current situation and see the future (wisdom). They can indicate the direction in which their subordinates should proceed and can persuade action selection (persuasive mapping). Leaders can explain that the organization should function as a community and strive to contribute to society (organizational stewardship). A case study of superintendent servant leadership was reported (Alston, 2005), but no quantitative analysis was confirmed (excluding doctoral dissertations).

2. School management council system is the Japanese version of School-Based Management. http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/chihou/05071301.htm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kenji Tsuyuguchi

Kenji Tsuyuguchi is a Professor of School Leadership Development at the Ehime University Graduate School of Education. Email: [email protected]. His research focuses on leadership, trust, and social capital in schools.

Fumio Fujiwara

Fumio Fujiwara is the Director of Department for Elementary and Secondary Education Research at National Institute for Educational Policy Research. Email: [email protected]. His research focuses on principal, school management, and school business.

Yuka Uzuki

Yuka Uzuki is a Senior Researcher in the Department for International Research and Co-operation at the National Institute for Educational Policy Research. Email: [email protected]. Her research focuses on inequality and poverty, social justice, and educational policy.