System leaders and system leadership: exploring the contemporary evidence base

ABSTRACT

This article outlines the findings from a contemporary review of the evidence base on system leaders and system leadership. This article provides analysis, commentary, and insights about system leaders and system leadership based on a review of the current evidence. The review also includes insights from country experts and offers country-specific examples of system leaders and leadership in action. This is not a systematic review of the literature but rather an overview of findings from a contemporary exploration of the evidence base, over a specified period (2010–2020). The review encompasses peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters, and the grey literature. It focuses on the roles, responsibilities, actions, functions, and outcomes of system leaders and highlights the origin of the system leadership concept.

KEYWORDS:

• Change
• leaders
• leadership
• system leaders
• system leadership

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the National Academy for Educational Leadership (NAEL) in Wales for funding the research on which this article is based. The authors would also like to thank the country-specific experts who offered commentary, guidance and access to their own writing on this subject.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 * The asterisk is a wildcard symbol that broadens a search by finding words that start with the same letters.

2 Syntax is set of rules that guide the search. For example: TITLE (System* leader* AND Improv* AND school) OR TITLE: (System* Leader* AND Improv* AND education).

3 https://nctl.blog.gov.uk/2017/07/31/what-are-teaching-schools-and-system-leaders/.

4 Personal Communication.

5 Personal Communication.

6 Personal Communication.

7 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/system-leaders-who-they-are-and-what-they-do.

8 https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/ioe-content/uploads/2018/08/Hierarchy-Markets-and-Networks.pdf.

9 Personal Communication.

10 https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.40/485.648.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/National-Academy-Commission-Article-Our-Call-to-Action-EN.pdf.pdf.

11 https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.40/485.648.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/National-Academy-Commission-Article-Our-Call-to-Action-EN.pdf.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Academy for Educational Leadership.

Notes on contributors

Alma Harris

Dr. Alma Harris, is a Professor in the Swansea University School of Education. She has held Professorial posts at the University of Warwick, University College London, the University of Malaya and the University of Bath. Dr Harris is internationally known for her research and writing on educational leadership, education policy and school improvement.

Michelle Jones

Dr Michelle Jones is a Professor and the Head of Swansea University School of Education. Dr Jones is currently the academic lead for the National MA Education (Wales) a transformative and sector leading programme for educational professionals that is being developed collaboratively by seven Universities in Wales and will be delivered nationally in 2021/2022.

Nashwa Hashim

Dr Nashwa Hashim, MSC, PhD, FHEA, is a lecturer in the Swansea University School of Education. She has 3-years teaching experience in Higher Education and 4-year postdoc experience as a qualitative researcher in different research projects in the UK and overseas. She has experience in authoring and teaching online modules in MA (Education with Leadership) in different universities.