Leadership attributes that support school improvement: a realist approach

ABSTRACT

School improvement reforms aimed at achieving improved student learning remain high on the agenda for leaders across the globe. The purpose of this paper is to understand the leadership attributes that enable school leaders to bring about positive change. This qualitative study is based on interviews with school leaders (school principals and their deputy principals) and focus groups of six teachers in two case study schools. A realist approach is used to understand how leadership attributes spark related social mechanisms that lead to improved outcomes. Data analysis generated four leadership attributes: (1) valuing diversity, (2) support for staff, (3) collaborative leadership style, and (4) valuing teachers’ professional learning. Each of these was found to have influenced decision-making and sentiment, which generated positive school improvement outcomes in the two case study schools. These findings have the potential to contribute to professional learning which can improve understanding of how leadership attributes in context bring about school improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• School leadership
• school improvement
• leader attributes
• realist approach

Acknowledgments

Funding provided from Queensland Department of Education Horizon Grant 2018–2021.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Funding provided from Queensland Department of Education Horizon Grant 2018–2021.

Notes on contributors

Suzanne Carrington

Suzanne Carrington is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her areas of expertise are in inclusive education, disability, and teacher preparation for inclusive schools. She has engaged in research to inform policy and practice in Australian and international education contexts, more recently extending this research to the South Pacific and Asia. She has broad knowledge of education research, and her publication list provides evidence of extensive collaboration with education and health research. Currently she is the Program Director of the School Years Program for the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC). This is the world’s first cooperative research centre focused on autism across the lifespan.

Nerida Spina

Nerida Spina is a Senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests concern teachers’ and school leaders’ work in an era of accountability and quantification. She examines these issues through a lens of social justice and equity. She is currently researching how pre-service teachers are assessed and prepared to work in schools given contemporary education policy contexts. Nerida was awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) Research in Educational Leadership and Management Award in 2017. In 2020 she was awarded the QUT Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award for her Leadership, for her work in the Quality Teaching Performance Assessment. Nerida teaches the sociology of education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has also worked on a number of major research projects including the Stronger Smarter Research Evaluation Team, and the Australian Research Council Linkage grant, “Ethical leadership: How educators address learning, equity and accountability”. Nerida hopes to continue to explore how assessment and the “datafication of education” impacts on practice, policy, and the everyday lives of children, families, teachers, school administrators and staff. Recently, she has also investigated the experiences of non-tenured academics working in universities.

Megan Kimber

Megan Kimber is a Senior Researcher at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. As an experienced researcher, her interests encompass Australian politics, policy, and public management; democratic theory; educational administration and education policy; and inclusive education. Megan has published on public sector accountability, ethical leadership, inclusive education, service-learning, and public sector reform. Her most recent publications are on social justice challenges confronting school leaders in Australia and ethical leadership for inclusion. Megan’s research has been recognised through several awards.

Rebecca Spooner-Lane

Rebecca Spooner-Lane is a Senior Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. Rebecca is the Director of the Quality Teaching Performance Assessment (QTPA) for pre-service teacher education and three partner universities in Australia. In 2020 she was awarded the QUT Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award for her leadership of the QTPA. As a teacher educator and registered psychologist, Rebecca teaches child and adolescent development, educational counselling, and prepares pre-service teachers for the QTPA. She also trains teacher educators to assess the QTPA. She has a keen interest in the professional development and career progression of teachers from graduate to lead teacher. She has worked on a number of projects investigating mentoring, school leadership and school improvement, and highly accomplished and lead teacher certification. Rebecca is currently investigating the impact of the QTPA on the classroom readiness of graduate teachers.

Kate E. Williams

Kate E. Williams is an Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research focusses on children’s development of self-regulation and the parenting, educational, and intervention contexts that support such, along with the developmental outcomes associated with children’s self-regulatory functioning. She is also involved in programme evaluation and interested in the measurement of children’s development and wellbeing. Kate is also a Registered Music Therapist and so is interested in the ways that music can be used to support children’s development. She is currently developing and trialling a neurobiologically-based rhythm and movement programme for stimulating preschool self-regulation skills in disadvantaged communities. Kate has been published in international early childhood, education, and medical journals and has won awards for her PhD and Masters theses and conference presentations. In 2018 she was awarded a prestigious Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) by the Australian Research Council.