Clarifying Institutional and Organizational Conditions Promoting Principals' Quality Leadership and Reform Design for Japan

Education reform helps ensure that the education in a given country is of the highest possible quality and is a key area of focus for many developed countries. Japan's education system rates highly and the evolution of education reform is key to ensuring this high level is sustained. School principals play a key role in delivering high-quality education and, indeed, a school principal's leadership correlates with the quality of education available. This is an area of interest for Professor Hirofumi Hamada, School Management Laboratory in the Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan, who is currently exploring the institutional and organisational conditions that affect the leadership of principals. The goal of this research is to help shape education reform in Japan. Hamada believes it is necessary to create an environment of independent and collaborative learning and to value the individuality of children. In addition, problem situations among children are diverse and complex and how schools respond influences the quality of education. Given that the principal is in charge of how a school is run, they play a vital role in assuring the quality of education. Key to Hamada's work is the idea that principals can share their knowledge and leadership with teachers and this creates an environment of shared leadership. He believes that empowering teachers and encouraging them to take on leadership duties is essential. He is working to inform educators that schools require the leadership of principals and for principals to promote a distributed approach to leadership.