Researching Successful School Leadership: Working with Complexity

This chapter introduces a unique approach to designing and conducting research on successful principalship in improving schools serving different communities taken by ISSPP researchers in ten of the twenty five member countries. The research approach is based on complexity theory, allied with ecological human systems theory. This enables researchers to drill further into the dynamic, context-related interactions between the time-sensitive applications of values, qualities, dispositions, capabilities, relationships, and skills of those school principals who achieve and sustain success; and how these principals apply strategies in different ways, at different times, and in different combinations in managing changing external and internal challenges. The chapter discusses the structures, cultures, actions, and relationships in the work of “successful” principals, differentiating them from functionally “effective” principals who locate their purposes predominantly on developing human capital. They demonstrate that successful principals do this but also promote cultural and social capital, emphasizing well-being and achievement of each student, and ensuring the well-being and capabilities of staff. The ISSPP research has also found that while cultures differ in different national jurisdictions, successful principals’ values, purposes and change for improvement strategies are broadly similar; that regardless of cultures, conditions, and contexts, successful principals are not bowed by burdens of neoliberal educational policies, purposes, and governance structures, though they experience them; that they do not adhere to any single leadership model or view; that “substance” is important over “style”; that influencing change in systems, values, mindsets, and relationships takes time and contextually sensitive timing; and that this relies on their ability to understand and navigate the complex layers of the environments in which they work, understand the people, be wise, robust and compassionate in their decision-making, and exercise strong agency.