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This study examines two case studies of failed leadership in school-based professional development. We describe the two initiatives and look to current leadership theories to help account for the events that occurred. The sociologist Bourdieu’s concept of habitus offers an approach to understanding the relationship between individual agency and structural determinism. Chaos and complexity theory conceptualize organizations from a systems level where relationships and connections among all constituents—both inside and outside—are the focus. In addition, transformational and charismatic leadership theories allow for a consideration of leadership characteristics. While much can be learned from failed attempts, a comparative analysis of failed and successful strategies may assist leaders in avoiding the pitfalls of these challenging times while simultaneously providing strategies for success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes the development and validation of a measure for transformational and transactional leadership that may be used as part of a more comprehensive instrument to measure a school’s capacity to implement school-based interventions. Data used for this study were gathered from the reports of 1144 teachers from 45 Norwegian schools who were taking on a school development intervention aimed at preventing and reducing problem behaviours among students. Using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, measurement structures with two factors at the teacher level and one factor at the school level provided a good fit to the data. Although there is some overlap between transactional and transformational leadership, the two concepts do measure distinct features. Transformational and transactional leadership was eventually measured by teacher reports on two scales, each consisting of four items. As part of the validation, scores on the scales were related to other aspects relevant for organisational capacity. As expected, the transformational and transactional leadership scales both correlated significantly negatively with staff freedom and positively with innovation climate, affiliation, principal positions in schools, and collaborative activity at both the teacher and the school levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The overarching purpose of this study is to examine the prospects of school leadership for the development of intercultural education. The article focuses on the ways in which Greek-Cypriot headteachers conceptualize: diversity and intercultural education; and their school leadership roles in culturally diverse settings. To this extent, interviews were carried out with the headteachers of 20 primary schools, which presented high concentrations of immigrant students. In general, two main approaches concerning intercultural education were identified: cultural-deprivation and cultural-celebration. Headteachers, who fostered assimilation in their schools, adopted a transactional leadership style the goal of which was ‘unobstructed’ and ‘unproblematic’ operation of their schools. Conversely, headteachers, who ‘celebrated’ diversity in their schools, opted for the transformation of their school cultures by promoting immigrant parental involvement and community liaison. Nonetheless, there was a third category of headteachers, who held container concepts of diversity, pertaining to both cultural-deficit and cultural-celebration approaches. These headteachers proclaimed the transformation of their schools to accommodate diversity by creating collaborative networks in their schools. However, such suggestions seemed to be rhetorical, while in practice they seemed to seek assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study investigated whether students perceive their university instructors in a virtual learning environment as leaders. Referring to the full range leadership theory (FRLT), we examined the effects of transformational and passive leadership styles of university instructors on students' satisfaction and learning outcomes. Completed web-based questionnaires were obtained from 1270 students who enrolled in large academic courses led by instructors in web-based instructional environments. Data analyses confirmed the validity of the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) in the virtual asynchronous communication setting with three second-order factors model composed of transformational, active management-by-exception and passive leadership. Leadership styles correlated with student satisfaction: the more the students attributed transformational leadership style to the instructor and the less they attributed a passive leadership style, the more satisfied they were. The attributed leadership style was not related to the actual participation of the students in the virtual discussions or to their academic achievements. The findings suggest that subordinates' satisfaction might be tied more strongly to their perception of the leader than to the actual tangible benefits the leader can provide. Moreover, the study shows that the FRLT is applied to the asynchronous, web-based, instructional environment which is being increasingly adopted in higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using meta-analytic review techniques, this study synthesized the results of 79 unpublished studies about the nature of transformational school leadership (TSL) and its impact on the school organization, teachers, and students. This corpus of research associates TSL with 11 specific leadership practices. These practices, as a whole, have moderate positive effects on a wide range of consequential school conditions. They also have moderately strong and positive effects on individual teachers’ internal states, followed by their influence on teacher behaviors and collective teachers’ internal states. TSL has small but significant positive effects on student achievement. Research Design: This synthesis of unpublished research results is accomplished by a systematic series of meta-correlations and is compared with the results of earlier systematic reviews of published TSL research. Findings: Among the conclusions arising from the study is that several of the most widely advocated models of effective educational leadership actually include many of the same practices. Conclusions: More attention by researchers, practitioners, and researchers needs to be devoted to the impact of specific leadership practices and less to leadership models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Throughout the world, educational policy makers, practitioners, and scholars have acknowledged the importance of principal leadership in the generation and implementation of innovations. In many studies, transformational leadership has emerged as a promising approach in response to increasing demands to develop and implement innovations in schools. Although research has suggested that having access to leaders with expertise can significantly stimulate innovation, the link between transformational leadership and principals’ social network position has not yet been extensively studied. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between principals’ positions in their schools’ social networks in combination with transformational leadership and schools’ innovative climate. It was conducted among 702 teachers and 51 principals in 51 elementary schools in a large educational system in the Netherlands. Using social network analysis and multilevel analysis, the authors analyzed a quantitative questionnaire with social network questions on work-related and personal advice and Likert-type scales for transformational leadership and innovative climate. Findings indicated that transformational leadership was positively associated with schools’ innovative climate. Principals’ social network position, in terms of centrality, was also related to schools’ innovative climate. The more principals were sought for professional and personal advice, and the more closely connected they were to their teachers, the more willing teachers were to invest in change and the creation of new knowledge and practices. Moreover, work-related closeness centrality was found to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative climate. Implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]