7.4 Juxtaposing Interpretations of Research on School Principalship

Abstract

Research evidence suggests that the idea of leadership as a panacea for all the functional ills of schooling is unfounded, however convenient the notion has been for policy-makers. Good leadership is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good schooling, and we now know that principals successful in one school context cannot always operate with equal efficacy in a different setting. Research on school leadership has likewise suffered from the tension between evidencing and delivering improvement, and challenging and informing policy, most obviously in the dearth of research on quantifying the impact of leadership on pupil outcomes. This chapter sifts through a range of research from developed and developing countries to get an overview of interpretations away from the hegemony of ‘Western’ contexts, interrogating findings in terms of how they relate to method and interpretation. The link between interpretation and methodology is theory, in the absence of which the researcher cannot be sure what has been found. The appropriateness of the latter affects the legitimacy of the former, and ultimately the usefulness of the research. Our review suggests that good research, from whatever cultural tradition, goes beyond the folk-knowledge of anecdote to the theoretically constructive.