A Review of Transformational School Leadership Research 1996–2005

“…about the impact on students of these two types of leadership, those reviews have not quantified the impact, and thus it has been difficult to compare them systematically against this criterion (Hallinger, 2005; Hallinger & Heck, 1998; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood, Tomlinson, & Genge, 1996).”

“…of how formal leadership from principals affects a variety of school outcomes (see Hallinger, 2003; Hallinger & Heck, 1998; Heck & Hallinger, 2009; Leithwood & Jantzi, 1999, 2000, 2005), but many others have contributed to the accumulation of evidence that principals do, in fact, make a…”

“…rarely, a few specific leadership models (e.g. Instructional, Distributed, Transformational) in detail (Bennett et al., 2003; Hallinger, 2003, 2005; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Neumerski, 2013; Tian et al., 2016), rather than trying to explore the research trends in many different leadership…”

“…46(5) Transformational leaders who provide individual consideration demonstrate confidence in individuals’ innovative capacities, share the responsibilities and risks with team members when adopting new strategies, and recognize individual contributions to the team (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“Although this proposition was tested by previous studies in education (Blase and Blase, 1999; Geijsel et al., 2003; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood and Mascall, 2008; Leithwood and Steinbach, 1991), the sources for teachers’ motivation driven by the principals’ behaviors were not tested.”

“Leithwood et al. (1990) employed a framework organized around the “nature, causes and consequences” of principal leadership.”

“…much of the early empirical research literature sought to design and test the effects of broad leadership styles, for example, transformative (e.g., Leithwood & Jantzi, 2000, 2005), distributed (e.g., Heck & Hallinger, 2009), and collaborative (e.g., Hallinger & Heck, 2010; Heck & Hallinger, 2010)…”

“The spotlight here is on transformational leadership and on organizational processes, employing effective methods to increase the team’s efficiency and productivity (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Marzano et al., 2005).”

“Of particular interest is which leadership practices were found to be most influential, given the debates around the efficacy of instructional and transformational leadership practices for school progress and student performance (Hallinger, 2005; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Robinson et al., 2008).”

“The nature of data extracted from the studies was informed by prior reviews of the literature conducted in other parts of the world (e.g. Bridges, 1982; Campbell, 1979; Hallinger, 2011a, In press; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Murphy et al., 2007).”

“Leithwood and colleagues have written extensively about transformational leadership in school settings (see Leithwood & Jantzi, 1999a, 1999b, 2005, 2006; Leithwood, Tomlinson, & Genge, 1996).”

“Setting Directions is one of the four categories of successful school leadership practices1 included in a model of school leadership developed by the second author (e.g., Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood & Louis, 2011; Leithwood, Mascall, & Strauss, 2009).”

“The first study by Leithwood and Jantzi (2005) suggested that distributing a larger proportion of leadership activity to teachers had a positive influence on teacher effectiveness and student engagement.”

“The first was Leithwood et al.’s (1996) study of 11 redesigned preparation programs (funded through the Danforth Foundation). Using surveys of a sample of their graduates’ teachers (for those who had become principals), the researchers found that the presence of several innovatively designed program features—as relate…”

“The spotlight here is on organizational processes (e.g., supporting staff)—employing effective methods for getting the school and its members (staff, students, families, community agents) to become more productive (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005).”

“Locally, setting challenging goals is a task for transformational leadership, usually from the principal or district level (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“…leadership,7 as well as the personal leadership resources8 found in the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF) (Leithwood, 2012) and a series of related articles (e.g., Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood & Riehl, 2005; Leithwood & Sun, 2012), have been used as a framework to organize this summary.”

“For example, transformational leadership research consistently shows relatively large effects on staff attitudes but negligible or weak indirect effect on students ( Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005 ).”

“This echoes what other writers on school culture have noted (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“…and transformational leadership are two independent styles often applied in organizations, and their practices are viewed as complementary in school settings (Adams et al ., 2018; Bass and Avolio, 1995; Felfe, 2006; Harazd and Van Ophuysen, 2011; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Tyssen et al ., 2014).”

“This shortcoming is manifest in the field of educational administration, where works synthetizing findings about transformational school leadership indicate that moderators are seldom theorized or explored directly (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Sun and Leithwood, 2012).”

“This report sought to provide a comprehensive assessment of the reliability of the PIMRS, one of the most widely used survey instruments in the field of educational leadership and management (Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Robinson et al., 2008).”

“Teacher leadership also shares some features of transformational leadership such as individualised consideration / support, intellectual stimulation, modelling key values and practices, helping to build collaborative cultures, and creating structures to foster collaboration (Leithwood and Jantzi 2005).”

“In their review, Leithwood and Jantzi (2005) found a consistent pattern of results suggesting that leadership effects can be enhanced or augmented by higher levels of prior pupil achievement, family educational culture, organisational culture, shared school goals, and coherent plans and policies.”

“…change management strategy used by the National Board of Education (Finnish National Board of Education, 2015) could be seen as an attempt to control the tensions inevitably present in a large-scale educational reform (e.g. Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Hargreaves et al., 2009; Sahlberg, 2011a).”

“Individual studies of the relationship between transformational leadership and student outcomes have yielded very mixed results (Leithwood and Jantzi 2005) with meta-analyses showing the average effect size is small (Robinson et al. 2008; Sun and Leithwood 2012).”

“…significant research on the relationship between effective leadership practices and school improvement efforts and outcomes (Leithwood et al., 2004; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Waters et al., 2003) and growing research on principals’ practices that affect teacher development and teacher retention…”

“Our conceptualization of transformational leadership builds off the recent work by Leithwood and colleagues (see Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood et al., 2004; Leithwood & Riehl, 2003), who described transformational leadership in a nuanced and complex way.”

“This is consistent with other studies that have indicated teacher turnover rates are lower in schools with a transformational leader (Griffith, 2004; Hallinger, 2003; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005).”

“To be a learning‐centered leader necessitates knowledge and understanding of standards‐based reform, instruction monitoring, and data‐based decision making (Goldring & Berends, 2008 ; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005 ).”

“The literature search began with the eight English-language journals which are widely regarded as the primary outlets for educational leadership and management research (Gümüş et al., 2020; Hallinger and Chen, 2015; Hallinger, 2013; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005).”

“Thus, considerable evidence is put forward by researchers that transformational leadership have long been seen as successful under the same conditions basically as those encountered by schools selected for reform and change (Hallinger, 2003; Korkmaz, 2006; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“Numerous studies on transformational leadership in educational settings have demonstrated positive relationships between transformational leadership and various school and teacher organizational conditions (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood and Sun, 2009).”

“Reviews of research have found transformational leadership to be inconclusive with regard to direct or indirect impact on student achievement (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005), and have found that transformational leadership in studies using direct effect designs had “small but positive and practically…”

“…leadership (Bossert, Dwyer, Rowan, & Lee, 1982); leadership in general (Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010); transformational leadership (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005); restructuring schools (Murphy, 1991); comprehensive school reform (Herman & Stringfield, 1997); effective use of data…”

“Reviews synthesizing evidence about transformational school leadership show that transformational behaviors have significant effects on promoting organizational effectiveness and student outcomes (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood and Sun, 2012).”

“Some scholars have suggested that instructional focus is one other dimension of transformational behaviors (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005); the present work is more aligned with a description of instructional professionalism as a logic used by transformational leaders.”

“It has also become the most studied and empirically tested form of leadership in mainland China These studies reported similar results as those reported in previous reviews [16,28] and those in the North American context, and have emphasized TL having strength to influence teachers’ emotions and their work engagement.”

“Transformational school leadership was repeatedly found to be positively associated with multiple desired school outcomes, among them teachers’ OC (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood and Sun, 2012).”

“This emphasis on creating a learning environment for teachers and students is also supported by previous research (Gurr et al., 2003; Jacobson et al., 2005; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005).”

“The persistent problem, however, has been the difficulty in linking key leadership constructs associated with transformational leadership to academic outcomes for students ( Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005 ).”

“The concept of transformational leadership combines different roles and behaviors that are associated with organizational conditions that foster individual and collective teacher learning and school improvement (Leithwood and Jantzi 2005; Thoonen et al. 2011).”

“There is a plethora of literature on effective educational leadership both within national systems and across several different countries (Day and Leithwood, 2007; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood et al., 1996; Moos and Johansson, 2009; Walker and Cheng, 2009).”

“…to embrace transformational leadership in teaching tourism (or sustainable tourism) at the higher education level is always mediated by external factors such as institutional support and culture, educational market factors, and political imperatives (Hallinger, 2003; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“…et al., 2000; Geijsel, Sleegers, Van den Berg, & Kelchtermans, 2001; Ibarra, 2008; Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008); changed teacher practices (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, & Krüger, 2009); organizational learning (Silins, Mulford, & Zarins, 2002); organizational…”

“With its aforementioned promises and strengths, TL has soon gained an image of ideal leadership practice in schools [4,9], and been promoted by the leading scholars of the educational administration field [3].”

“The nature of data extracted from the studies was informed by prior reviews of the literature conducted in other parts of the world (e.g., Bridges, 1982; Campbell, 1979; Hallinger, 2011a; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Murphy et al., 2007).”

“Nevertheless, the research on school administration has largely neglected the work-related behavior of school principals, aside from leadership practices (e.g., Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“For example, Leithwood and his colleagues (Leithwood, 1992, 1994; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood, Jantzi, & Dart, 1990) have steadily expanded what is known about transformational leadership in schools for nearly two decades.”

“Fourth, the relationships between leadership behaviors and teacher outcomes have been well documented in the literature (e.g. Collie, Granziera, and Martin 2018; Leithwood and Jantzi 2005), however, few studies examined the mechanisms and processes through which leadership impacts occur.”

“…Transformational Leadership for Parental Involvement Questionnaire (TLPIQ), which was mainly based on the 4Is introduced by Avolio et al. (1991) and the transformational leadership model developed by Leithwood and associates (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood et al., 1999; Leithwood & Sun, 2012).”

“…of transformational leadership, both its original form (Burns 1978) and its educational appropriation (Leithwood, Jantzi, and Steinbach 1999; Leithwood and Jantzi 2005), in the literatures of educational leadership by demonstrating that instructional leadership had a greater effect on…”

“Effective school leaders not only manage the organization, they also stimulate serious intellectual interaction around issues of school reform; in learning organizations, the leader crosses boundaries to challenge the organization’s culture, detect its dysfunctional features, and promote its transformation ( Leithwood…”

“Similarly, findings from various studies point to a connection between transformational leadership and the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of teachers (Bogler, 2001; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“…with different school and teacher conditions, such as teacher satisfaction and organizational commitment, participation in decision-making, and motivation to 13 The implement accountability policies (e.g. Geijsel et al. , 2003; Griffith, 2004; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005; Leithwood and Sun, 2009).”

“Leadership practices are mainly derived from two dominant leadership styles: instructional leadership (IL) and transformational leadership (TL) (Hallinger, 2003, 2011; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“In the course of turbulent situations, the transformational leader creates a sense of direction for employees and provides them the support needed to act determinedly despite uncertainty (Kim, Jinyoung, & Ho Shin, 2021; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).”

“Educational leadership research has, over time, lacked longevity of research foci (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005), which leaves a significant area for future study.”

“This includes expertise in areas such as standards-based reform, monitoring instruction for improvement, data-based decision making, and others—knowledge not isolated to any specific subject matter taught in schools but essential for leaders to improve teacher instruction and student achievement in their schools as a…”

“are challenging but achievable (Cotton, 2003; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005) and apply to all students (Murphy, 1990; Louis and Miles, 1991).”

“Lastly, Leithwood and Jantzi (2005) have found that transformational leadership can lead to changed classroom practices, collective teacher efficacy, enhanced organizational learning, and an overall improved quality of teaching and learning.”