Abstract
A basic assumption underpinning this book is that the approach taken to leadership within in any context can be informed by the nature of that context. To put it another way, leadership needs to be understood through considering how individual differences and actions are influenced by the context within which leaders operate (Gronn and Ribbins, Educ Adm Q 32(3):452–473, 1996; Vroom and Jago, Am Psychol 62(1):17–24, 2007). This is to say that leadership can be context-bound and needs to be understood from the ‘inside out’ (Clarke and Wildy, J Educ Adm 42(5):555–572, 2004). To put it another way, context can be seen as being “the vehicle through which the agency of particular leaders may be empirically understood” (Gronn and Ribbins, Educ Adm Q 32(3):454, 1996). Thus, leadership practice, in this view, can be seen to be the result of individual interactions and negotiations in specific contexts. On this, O’Donoghue and Clarke (Leading learning: process, themes and issues in international contexts. Routledge, London/New York, 2010) also argue that having an understanding of leadership in complex and diverse contexts can be of assistance in helping leaders be able to respond effectively to the problems and challenges encountered by them in their schools.
Consideration of the assumptions outlined above prompted the present authors to focus on an investigation of the relationship between context and leadership in post-conflict Cambodia. This post-colonial and low-income country was rocked by civil war and genocide between the 1960s and the 1990s. Accordingly, it is not surprising that it is faced with a number of challenges as it engages in the process of national rehabilitation and reconstruction, especially in relation to the education system, which was severely damaged. The specific focus of the investigation reported in this book was to generate understandings on leadership at the primary school level in post-conflict Cambodia with a particular emphasis on the historical background to primary school leadership, on recent developments in primary school leadership, and on current concerns of primary school leaders.
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Kheang, T., O’Donoghue, T., Clarke, S. (2018). Introduction. In: Primary School Leadership in Cambodia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76324-8_1
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