Abstract
This paper presents findings from a recently completed doctoral study of the characteristics and practices of successful principal leadership of a single-sex, kindergarten to year 12 independent school in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. From the findings, five strands of successful principalship emerged, and within those strands, the characteristics and practices of principal leadership formed three broad areas: personal, professional, and pedagogical. This study was one case study within the International Successful Schools Principalship Project (ISSPP), a four-year multiple-perspective research study of the leadership of successful schools in England, USA, China, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada and Australia (Victoria and Tasmania).
Introduction
The objective of the research presented in this paper was to identify and explore the characteristics (qualities, beliefs, values, vision) and practices of successful principal leadership of an independent school. This case study explored successful school principalship through the perspectives of school community members as well as those of the principal. Due to the nature of this conference, consideration of the study’s results have been compressed for practical purposes.
The principal as ‘leader of leaders’ (Day, 2005, p.575) holds the key role in facilitating and building a successful school. It is the leadership practised by the principal that is believed to be crucial to the success of a school. Gurr (2008, p.6) suggests that the work of the principal is perhaps the ‘most fulfilling role in a school because of its enormous capacity to influence what happens, especially in terms of student outcomes’. There is no one style or set of leadership behaviours suited to all school leadership contexts. Effective principals often behave differently depending upon the school context in which they are working (Collard, 2004, p.51). Principals may have similar knowledge, values, visions and competencies, but their leadership practice and ultimate success as principal depend upon how effective they are in meeting the learning needs of students in a particular school community.
Methodology
The methodology was a case study that utilized the qualitative methods of semi-structured interviews with members of the executive staff, the school council, heads of faculty, heads of year, teachers, students and parents, the observation of school events and activities over one school calendar year, and the analysis of school documents and documentation. By collecting data through the three methods, it was possible to gain a rich insight into (a) the personal and professional qualities and practices that constitute the principal’s leadership of the school, (b) the reasons for the school’s success, (c) the contribution by the principal to the school’s success, and (d) details of the current school environment, culture and identity. In turn, the study’s results provided evidence of successful principal leadership in a school context of which there has been little previous research.
Key terms
From the onset, it was essential to establish clear definitions for the key terms used in the study. The term ‘leadership’ takes on various definitions, but simply expressed, leadership is the act of influence (Robbins, Millett, Cacioppe & Waters-Marsh, 2001, p.401). Leaders mobilise and coordinate with others to achieve shared goals. In the educational context, it is the school principals who are acknowledged as having the key role in school leadership as they motivate the school community to carry out a certain regime or prevailing order of things.
The key term ‘successful principal leadership’ was defined as the leadership behaviour exhibited by principals in their role of key leader within a successful school. It is “an interactive, reciprocal and evolving process involving many players, which is influenced by, and in turn, influences the context in which it occurs” (Mulford & Johns, 2004, p.56). It includes the four sets of qualities and practices presented by Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris & Hopkins (2006a, pp.6) that are:
‘building vision and setting directions; understanding and developing people; redesigning the organization; and, managing the teaching and learning programme’.
Successful principals are able to align their professional and personal values and beliefs with those of the school in which they lead.
The term ‘successful school’ was defined with reference to the ISSPP. Here, the term refers to the richness of student and teacher learning experiences and the levels of school and student attainment demonstrated by the school.
In Victoria, the term K-12 Independent school refers to a non-government school catering for students from the year of Kindergarten to Year 12. It is synonymous with ‘private school’ and is largely seen by society to be separate to Catholic schools.
As the case study school had a Headmaster, rather than a Principal, it was necessary to define the term Headmaster. The role of Headmaster of a school takes its historical roots from English schools, in particular English Grammar Schools, and came to Australia in the time of early settlement. The headmaster of this school defines the role of Headmaster as having:
a pastoral essence inherent in the title … a pastoral-centred mission within the school context. The Headmaster is the leader of the school community and people look to the Headmaster as being the leader of the school community.
However, since the term principalship is used in the ISSPP, the generic term of principal was used interchangeably with headmaster throughout the study, except where the headmaster was quoted directly.
A short look at the findings
Two consistent explanations emerged from the data for the school’s success: (a) a focus on the principal, his leadership of the school, the reputation that he had in education circles and beyond, and the person who he is; and, (b) a focus on the school working together, it having a community spirit, a good school tone, genuine relationships throughout the school community, and a staff that was dedicated to the overall education of the students. One executive staff member said:
‘I think there is one person who is the quiet key [to what makes this school successful] and that’s the principal. I guess what he has brought to the school is that sense of sincerity and genuineness that has started to work through the ranks so people see him by example and then start to relate in a similar way. He’s a very personable person and he’s extremely good at listening and communicating with people and empathising, so people have really learnt from that and can then start to do that. I think in a way, he is the key to the success of the school, but he is working in such a way that hopefully that success will continue even after he’s gone, whenever that might be’.
(Executive Staff Member 4)
‘Genuine’ was the adjective of description constantly used by participants for the principal. Day, Harris, Hadfield, Tolley and Beresford (2000, p.67) referred to ‘the person in the professional’, that is, the importance of core personal values in influencing the leadership style of the headteacher. In this study, it was found that the principal was thought of highly as a person by members of the school community and the high calibre of the relationships within the school was strongly attributed to the personable qualities of the principal. School community members referred to the following qualities of the principal.
‘I think it is personality. He is a genuinely decent person.’
(School Council Member)
‘He’s certainly got a presence about him. When he walks in the room and smiles, everyone smiles, and it’s more because he affirms people, and it’s the affirmation that brings people forward.’
(Executive Staff Member 1)
‘He’s open, he’s welcoming and he’s nice. He’s really friendly and always interesting to talk to. He’s also a really honourable guy. He doesn’t promote himself. He tries to cater for everybody not just purely academic or purely sport. He tries to get a range of things and interests. He’s genuinely interested in like everything that goes on, and he’s always looking for ways to make things better, and he gets the respect of everyone.’
(Student Group)
‘He listens. He is very good at understanding. He is very good at taking opinion. He’s very good at re-positioning himself as well. … At times he does not like to make hard decisions but he can. He likes to see the decisions evolve themselves. He’s a mediator. He’s able to say yes to the parents and yes to the staff. He’s able to move things around so that he gets people on side. He rarely clashes with people. He tends to really work well with people and to work them around and to bring them on side. He’s very, very inclusive.’
(Executive Staff Member 2)
‘He has a natural humility that liberates people – both student and staff - to be themselves and it empowers them. It is his own belief in self and in his own practice.’
(Teacher Group)
Staff members and students believed that the principal’s outlook was as much that of a teacher as a headmaster and that it was important to him to be seen as a teacher. He led instruction by example.
‘He is a great teacher, but I don’t think he thinks he is a great teacher. He thinks he can teach better. He still prepares his lessons.’
(Executive Staff Member 2)
‘He visits a lot of classes, he sometimes teaches them. He turns up to sports events and other events to encourage the boys. That really helps the boys do well in those areas.’
(Student Group).
‘He sees himself as someone who needs to be in the classroom and working in the classroom.’
(Teacher Group)
Identified characteristics and practices of principal leadership
The initial findings were contracted to a succinct list of characteristics and practices that fell into the following three groups: Personal; Professional; and, Pedagogical. It became obvious that the person and the professional educational leader (including the identity of teacher) were entwined. Consequently, in practice, it emerged that the personal, professional, and pedagogical qualities, beliefs, values, and vision of principal leadership often overlapped.
Members of the school community defined the following characteristics and practices of principal leadership of the school.
Personal characteristics and practices
The principal:
Professional characteristics and practices
The principal:
Pedagogical characteristics and practices
The principal:
One example of overlap occurring between groups was the quality calmness that the headmaster instilled into the school community through his presence and behaviour. Calmness was a personal quality as well as being a professional attribute that had been developed through professional experience. It was placed in the personal group of characteristics and practices specifically as: ‘Instils a sense of calm in the school community’ and was included in the professional group in ‘Models behaviour for the school community’. The quality ‘calmness’ was defined as a personal characteristic and a demonstrated attribute of emotional intelligence that had been honed, in this case by experience, to be a characteristic of successful school leadership practice. Its effect on the school environment was to nurture a definite tone of calm in the school day and the playground, and consequently, in the teaching and learning environment. This characteristic and practice was strongly evident across the data analysed.
Another example of overlap was the professional characteristic and practice of ‘Building genuine relationships based on trust, respect, and affirmation’. Underscoring this professional practice were the personal value of love for others and being loved by others, and the belief in the power of affirmation to encourage positive behaviour in others and the ripple effect that affirmation has through a school community. Such values and beliefs, and the effective interpersonal communication skills that they must entail, had been developed by the principal through personal life experiences, as well as the experience of having held several professional leadership positions in a variety of schools.
The characteristics and practices of successful principal leadership identified by the principal
In Figure 1, the two sets of identified characteristics and practices are presented side by side. Clearly, there is a strong correlation between the two lists. Added to the identified characteristics and practices by school community members are: ‘Balance in own life’; ‘Sharing the journey’; and the specific ‘Demonstrate excellence from the principal’. These three were evident in the data collected, but were specifically identified by the principal. In his list, the principal had identified what he believed to be important for him to successfully execute his role and for his own well-being. It appeared that he had blended together his personal, professional and pedagogical qualities, values and beliefs into a philosophy of school leadership practice.
Figure 1: Characteristics and practices of successful principal leadership
Five strands of successful school principalship
Hallinger and Heck (1996, p.6) suggest that the principal’s role is part of a web of relationships within the school and its environment that influences the school’s learning and teaching outcomes. This study’s results showed five strands of principal’s leadership throughout that web in the case study school. They were:
The five strands interwove and supported each other as the principal’s personal, professional, and pedagogical qualities, values, beliefs, vision, and practices worked to fulfil the role of principal in the school community. As shown in Figure 2, the focus of the principal’s leadership was on meeting the students’ learning needs in the school.
Figure 2. Successful principal leadership of an independent school model
A brief discussion of the findings
The results indicated that through his influence on the school community, the principal was able to contribute significantly to the school’s success. This supports the finding by Leithwood and Riehl (2003, p.7) that the influence process of leadership works within social relationships. Effective leadership is socially embedded and woven through relationships across internal and external agents and networked within (and without) the school community. This principal sought to build genuine relationships throughout the school, and through being the role model, he set the benchmark for the quality of professional relationships within the school. He treated all groups within the school community with the same interest, enthusiasm and respectful courtesy. He appeared to be the influential glue that held all groups in the school community together:
‘I guess with the network of relationships in this school, I am a sort of catalyst for the kind of relationships we have or want in this school. Because people value these relationships they want to do better if they go wrong. If I feel that I have let any of the staff down then I want to do better because of the relationship that is there. I don’t want to let the staff or the boys down’.
(Headmaster)
Through his own approach towards building genuine relationships, the principal influenced the school to become a connected community. By affirming others, he encouraged those around him to develop their sense of ‘otherness’. He exercised ‘influence on others through social interaction’ (Owens, 2001, p.234). In this school, the members of staff felt that they were part of a supportive environment in which they (and students) were empowered. By trusting others and by being trusted, the principal behaved with integrity and invited others to behave in like fashion as depicted by Stoll & Fink (1996, p.109). Through his example, his participation in school events and activities, and his constant movement through the school, the principal’s influence carried consistently throughout the school groups. Duignan (2006, p.127) comes close to explaining the influence that this principal had on the school community:
‘Authentic leaders’ are those capable, relevant human beings who transform the lives of those they touch; in the case of authentic educational leaders, those they touch most of all are their teaching colleagues, students, parents and their local school communities.’
The findings support those by Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris and Hopkins (2006, pp.74-75) in their review of literature regarding the affective characteristics of successful leaders, that is, personality, motivation and social appraisal skills. For personality, they examined the main five leader personality factors: emotional stability (able to control moods); extraversion (sociableness); agreeableness (courteous, good-natured, tolerant); conscientiousness (hard-working, achievement orientated, persevering); and openness to experience (imaginative, original, broad-minded, intelligent). In this study there was evidence of those five leader personality factors. Leithwood and colleagues (2006, p.76) also considered the internal states of optimism, pro-activity, internal locus of control, and nurturance that may be linked to successful school leadership. Participants in the Teacher Group indicated the internal states of optimism (the principal’s belief in the notion of virtue), pro-activity (the powerful way in which the principal engaged fully with someone when he talked with them), and internal locus of control and nurturance (resilience, a highly regulated man).
The principal demonstrated the personal and professional maturity and wisdom that comes from a deep understanding of personal values and consequent beliefs. In his professional and personal behaviour, the principal indicated that his basic personal and professional values dominated his decision-making. His actions also supported the conclusions drawn by Leithwood, et al. (2006, p.81) that expert or successful principals “make greater use of their values to solve complex problems in their schools” than do those who are non-expert or unsuccessful. The principal’s leadership style, or the characteristic way in which he used power, made decisions and interacted with others (Lashway, 2006, p.77) emanated from his fundamental belief that:
An authentic leader takes the position because of what he/she can do in terms of providing service to others. (Headmaster)
Thus, to underpin the success of his leadership, the principal sought to build and grow a strongly connected school community through genuine relationships based on trust, respect and affirmation.
Successful school leadership qualities and practices
The principal’s leadership practices supported the following four broad sets of successful school leadership practices defined by Leithwood et al. (2006, pp.6-7).
Building vision and setting directions. The principal inspired a shared vision and enlisted others to that vision by being personable and talking about issues and challenges for the school and the values underpinning practices. Participants described the principal as being: inspiring, charismatic, approachable, supportive and consultative. He exhibited the behaviour that Burns (1978) describes as ‘transformative’, that is, not the manipulation of others, but the practice of genuinely elevating others to higher levels of motivation and human values and morality.
Understanding and developing people. The principal held high expectations of staff and students and of himself. It was evident from the results that he worked to build leadership capacity in students and staff. During the time of observation of school events and activities it was noted the principal shared the responsibility of leadership and management with staff and students easily. The invitation for others to share the leadership and management of the school was essential to his growing school capacity through supporting other people to grow. Underlying this support for others was his belief that: ‘ . . . in the end a true leader makes leaders of others’. (headmaster)
Consequently, through personalised attention to individuals, to groups and the school as a whole, he effectively encouraged optimism, innovative thinking and supported problem-solving. By exuding high levels of commitment and motivation he supported the school community in achieving the desired learning outcomes that it wanted for students, and he expected others to do the same.
Re-designing the organisation. In redesigning the organization, the principal worked through people, by encouraging, supporting, and allowing them to make the most of their own capacity. He effectively managed conflict between members of the school community, encouraged collaborative planning, built a safe and happy working environment, and worked to build good relationships and networks between the range of school groups, such as, the Old Grammarian Association and the Anglican Church. He challenged process by changing and improving school operation through innovative ways, for example, changing the traditional house system from four to eight Houses so that students would be nurtured and catered for more effectively in smaller groups. He was described by some participants as having a good executive team around him who knew what he wanted to achieve and effectively supported him in doing it.
Managing the teaching and learning program. The principal demonstrated a desire for students to achieve more than they would hope to achieve. Underscoring his leadership practices and strategies was his belief in the value of educating the whole person. Duignan (2006) supports such a commitment by stating that:
‘A capable leader is, first and foremost, a capable and confident human being. While knowledge and competencies are necessary ingredients, capable leaders also instil a deep set of values and confidence in all those they touch through their leadership. Their sense of self-efficacy is contagious, thereby creating a learning culture in which all involved believe that they can be what ever they want to become’. (p.123).
Coalition building. Evidence was found to support this fifth successful school leadership set of practices suggested by Leithwood and Day (2007, p.192). The principal built coalitions within the school community and with groups in the wider and global communities. For example, he participated in Anglican Church groups and supported the development of new schools and grew networks for staff and students with schools in other countries. Participants frequently commented on his reputation within education and community circles when he first came to the school.
Emotional Intelligence. The principal demonstrated strong emotional intelligence competencies in his leadership behaviour. He was aware of his own emotions and needs in order to manage those emotions. Primarily, he believed that energy was the vital component required to manage himself and others in his role of headmaster of the school. He stated clearly, that when he had lost his energy and enthusiasm to run the school, it was time for him to move on from his position. The principal’s behaviour supported the five basic emotional and social competencies that Golman (1998, p.318) makes in his definition of emotional intelligence.
Self-awareness. The principal had a realistic assessment of his own abilities and a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
Self- regulation. The principal demonstrated that he could handle his emotions so they facilitated rather than interfered with the task at hand. Participants related times when they had seen, and there were times during observation, when the principal was seen to cope well with emotional tension.
Motivation. Participants said that the principal was values driven, that is, he was moved towards his goals by his values, beliefs and knowledge. He was said to be able to take the initiative, had a resilience to survive setbacks and frustrations, and demonstrated a toughness to continue to keep striving.
Empathy. In talking about the needs of staff members at certain times of the school year when stress could be heavy, the principal demonstrated a sense of what other people feel, to be able to see things through their perspective. He demonstrated that he affirmed others, and was able to connect with a broad range of people. All participants spoke of how he engaged with them, was interested in what they had to say, and that he knew their names.
Social skills. The principal demonstrated that he could accurately read the emotions in relationships, social situations and professional networks. He obviously could use these skills to gather followers (to persuade and lead) by the support he had from all participants. Participants related incidents where the principal had effectively mediated within disputes between members of the school community.
Growth. A strong sense of growth in the school emerged from the findings. This was a growth of individual capacity, of school capacity, and leadership capacity throughout the school. Daresh (2002, p.167) believes that principals need to continue to learn and develop in much the same manner as they would expect the students in the school to learn more and more. Evidence showed that the principal did this by keeping his own personal and professional learning journey to be an effective leader of the learning of others alive.
The identified characteristic and practice of ‘Pursuing the growth of self, and of the school’ in the principal’s leadership is an interesting one to place with Duignan’s (2004) argument for a shift in emphasis from competencies in leadership training and development to one based on the enhancement of leadership capabilities. This involves a shift from thinking of the principal as merely acquiring competencies to fulfil a purpose, to focusing on the principal’s capability of judging the fitness or relevance of the purpose itself. Implied here is a conscious personal and professional growth by the individual over time through relevant experiences, shrewd choices, and an underlying strong sense of knowing where one is going. All of which the principal in this study demonstrated as having done, and was continuing to do.
Conclusion
The results indicated that the principal’s capabilities to effectively lead (and manage) the independent school community enabled the school to grow its capacity to successfully meet student learning needs, nurture school culture and identity, and strengthen school traditions. In the teaching and learning environment nurtured by the principal, each student had opportunities to achieve beyond what they hoped to achieve. At the wider face of society, the quality of this principalship, directly and indirectly, contributed to the positive growth of social, human capital to meet the demands of a global society experiencing increasing change.
One participant in the parent group effectively summarised the qualities of the principal’s school leadership:
‘I think he leads by example. I think he’s not an ivory tower kind of principal. He is out there, amongst it and he’ll have a bat at cricket, if he’s out there and cheers them on in their sport. I think his leadership style is hands on, by example, open door. He is also a person who is celebratory. He celebrates achievement and endeavour. I mean everything is just enthusiastic with him’.
Discuss presentationReferences
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ms Joy Doherty is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Organisational Learning and Leadership, at The University of Melbourne, in Parkville, Victoria, Australia.