Let the context become your ally: school principalship in two cases from low performing schools in Cyprus

ABSTRACT

Context has a considerable effect on the role and responsibilities of school principals. The aim of this paper is to provide a holistic perspective of the effects of school principals’ involvement in two low performing schools with different contexts. A qualitative research approach was employed, with individual and focus groups interviews under a multi-actor perspective. Our results suggest that school leaders differ in the way they relate to the inner and outer environment of the school. We suggest that they have to acquire new skills that address entrepreneurial as well as pedagogical tasks, thus exercising edupreneurial leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Low performing schools
• context
• Edupreneurial Leadership
• school principalship
• Cyprus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper, we use the terms ‘school principals’ and ‘school leaders’ as synonymous.