School principal preparation in Europe

This article centres on Cypriot, English, Greek and Swedish selection and training of principals. This was part of a 2001-2003 European Union (EU) funded study which created a distance learning CD ROM for principals. We analysed and compared national education systems and principals’ selection and training using documents, focus groups, principals’ interviews and an international seminar. The most centralised systems of Greece and Cyprus had less principal preparation, and more government involvement in principal selection, than the less centralised Sweden and England. The extent of training was perceived to matter less in successful principalship than selecting the right people although it was felt that even a good leader can be improved through training and principals were concerned about their lack of formal training

Leadership and organisational performance: from research to prescription?

Purpose: in this paper we intend to give an overview of research on the impact of leadership on student outcomes, the main leadership activities related to these outcomes, and strengths and weaknesses in the research base.Design: this paper is a literature review of key papers addressing the relationship between leadership and student outcomes. Key authors and journals in the field were consulted.Findings: leadership has a significant indirect impact on student outcomes, though the role of contingency and school context in shaping leadership is important. There is some evidence for impact of transformational, distributed and instructional leadership. The evidence base for an impact of leadership development is limited, however. The research base suffers from significant weaknesses, such as dualism, over-prescriptivity, lack of international research, limited methodologies, and poor measurement.Value: this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the evidence and points to ways in which research in the field can be improved to develop our knowledge base further<br/