School leadership in the United Arab Emirates:A scoping review

Global research identifies school leadership as a critical factor in school success and effectiveness, especially in an educational reform environment with an ever-increasing number of schools working within public–private partnerships, a feature that characterises the United Arab Emirates. To aid leadership development and practices in a fast-moving education context and to underpin future empirical research, this scoping review of the literature from across three databases provides practitioners and policymakers with an understanding of school leadership for the public–private sector in the United Arab Emirates. Our search yielded 38 publications for analysis. Findings indicate that over the last 20 years, school leadership research in the United Arab Emirates has mainly focused on four themes: (1) context: leaders’ roles and school reform; (2) competency: hiring and professional development of school leaders; (3) characteristics: leadership styles and (4) capacity building: teacher leadership. We conclude with recommendations for research, including exploring cultural, relational, and compassionate school leadership through indigenous paradigms. We also provide recommendations for policy and practice, including the need to modify recruitment methods, equip school leaders to lead reform through advanced models of leadership to suit the collectivist United Arab Emirates culture, and align professional development with the professional standards

School leadership in the United Arab Emirates:A scoping review

Global research identifies school leadership as a critical factor in school success and effectiveness, especially in an educational reform environment with an ever-increasing number of schools working within public–private partnerships, a feature that characterises the United Arab Emirates. To aid leadership development and practices in a fast-moving education context and to underpin future empirical research, this scoping review of the literature from across three databases provides practitioners and policymakers with an understanding of school leadership for the public–private sector in the United Arab Emirates. Our search yielded 38 publications for analysis. Findings indicate that over the last 20 years, school leadership research in the United Arab Emirates has mainly focused on four themes: (1) context: leaders’ roles and school reform; (2) competency: hiring and professional development of school leaders; (3) characteristics: leadership styles and (4) capacity building: teacher leadership. We conclude with recommendations for research, including exploring cultural, relational, and compassionate school leadership through indigenous paradigms. We also provide recommendations for policy and practice, including the need to modify recruitment methods, equip school leaders to lead reform through advanced models of leadership to suit the collectivist United Arab Emirates culture, and align professional development with the professional standards

Going beyond creativity:Primary headteachers as social intrapreneurs?

This article presents the details and findings of a mixed-methods study that explored Scottish primary sector headteachers’ enactment of creativity through a Complexity Leadership Theory lens. Although policymakers emphasise the importance of headteachers and their impact on school improvement, there is a growing need for headteachers to enact and effectively nurture school-wide creativity if they are to overcome complex challenges brought about by today's political, social and economic environments. In response to the research question ‘To what extent do primary headteachers perceive their role as being creative?’, this article reports on 23 surveys and 11 semi-structured interviews undertaken as part of a larger study. Whilst our findings suggest that creativity is enacted to some extent by the headteachers, the evidence goes beyond this and identifies social intrapreneurship emerging. The concept of social intrapreneurship within education appears to be unique to this study. We identify social intrapreneurs as individuals who demonstrate creativity, resourcefulness, collaboration and determination and are growth-oriented within bureaucratic constraints. We conclude by discussing how social intrapreneurship is a valuable concept for headteachers and policymakers alike

Conceptualising Creativity and Innovation in the Role of Primary Sector Headteachers

Schools and policy makers face common challenges driven by external affairs such as economic uncertainty, globalisation, and advances in technology. Rapidly changing educational, societal, and political systems require school leaders to adopt creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn) as an integral feature of their leadership. To understand what Cr&Inn means to those in primary sector headteacher positions, this conceptual paper explores the following questions: How is Cr&Inn defined regarding headteachers within the primary sector? What are the key characteristics of Cr&Inn regarding primary sector headteachers? We incorporate a systematic literature review along with definitions from primary sector headteachers drawn from interview data. Whilst Cr&Inn remain conceptually complex, we provide clarity by proposing a succinct definition and recognising the key characteristics involved which in turn, has the potential to strengthen effective leadership to improve learner outcomes through overcoming unusual challenges. We conclude with a discussion of how misconceptions may negatively influence creative and innovative practices, yet we recognise that Cr&Inn have much to offer those in such dynamic and accountable roles, globally, particularly in times of uncertainty. Through our identification of the characteristics, we provide school leaders and policy makers with a framework to understand what Cr&Inn entails

Complexity Leadership Theory and its application in higher education:using duoethnography to explore enabling leadership during a time of uncertainty

This study explores how Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) can advance the understanding of academic leadership in HE during a time of crisis and uncertainty. A qualitative methodology was applied to address the research question, ‘How do academic leaders in higher education understand leadership during a crisis?’ We used duoethnography to garner data through recorded conversations and other artifacts about our leadership experiences as associate deans for learning and teaching. Drawing from the three CLT leadership strands (operational, entrepreneurial, enabling) for analysis, we show enabling leadership as critical to doing operational and entrepreneurial leadership. Additionally, we demonstrate that enabling leadership, beyond its functional role, is suffused with emotion work and care. Uniquely, our findings suggest the need to extend CLT’s enabling leadership to integrate compassionate leadership for personal wellbeing and to support others during challenging times. Moreover, the study contributes to existing CLT knowledge by providing useful insights to extend the concept of enabling leadership by incorporating ways of thinking and approaching leadership practices relevant to the current higher education context

Learning for Sustainability:young people and practitioner perspectives

This report is based on research conducted by a team at the University of Dundee into the understanding and implementation of Learning for Sustainability amongst young people aged 14+ in school and community learning and development settings and the practitioners responsible for their education

Conceptualising Creativity and Innovation in the Role of Primary Sector Headteachers

Schools and policy makers face common challenges driven by external affairs such as economic uncertainty, globalisation, and advances in technology. Rapidly changing educational, societal, and political systems require school leaders to adopt creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn) as an integral feature of their leadership. To understand what Cr&Inn means to those in primary sector headteacher positions, this conceptual paper explores the following questions: How is Cr&Inn defined regarding headteachers within the primary sector? What are the key characteristics of Cr&Inn regarding primary sector headteachers? We incorporate a systematic literature review along with definitions from primary sector headteachers drawn from interview data. Whilst Cr&Inn remain conceptually complex, we provide clarity by proposing a succinct definition and recognising the key characteristics involved which in turn, has the potential to strengthen effective leadership to improve learner outcomes through overcoming unusual challenges. We conclude with a discussion of how misconceptions may negatively influence creative and innovative practices, yet we recognise that Cr&Inn have much to offer those in such dynamic and accountable roles, globally, particularly in times of uncertainty. Through our identification of the characteristics, we provide school leaders and policy makers with a framework to understand what Cr&Inn entails