The DOI matches its Crossref record; 109 of the 109 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership
Abstract
Research on educational leadership and management has resulted in the accumulation of increasingly persuasive findings concerning the impact school leadership can have on school performance. Indeed, there is a growing consensus that there exists a generic set of leadership practices (e.g. goal setting, developing people) which must be adapted to meet the needs and constraints that describe different school contexts. However, to date, researchers have yet to develop a theory or report comprehensive findings on this challenge. This paper explores several types of school contexts (institutional, community, socio-cultural, political, economic, school improvement) and what we have learned about how they shape school leadership practice. The analysis leads to several conclusions and recommendations. First, it affirms, elaborates and extends the assertion made by scholars of the importance of examining leadership in context. Second, the need to contextualize leadership highlights deficiencies in modal research methods that focus on mean effects and either ignore context effects or relegate them to the shadows. Finally, the field needs to refine current research methods and explore new approaches that enable us to better study how successful leadership responds and adapts to different contexts.
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“Research on student outcomes suggests that the school principal has an indirect, but significant effect on educational outcomes, second only to the classroom teacher (Hallinger, 2018; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008; Robinson & Gray, 2019).”
From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Hallinger, 2018
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Metadata
- Authors
- Hallinger, P.
- Corresponding author
- Hallinger, Philip
- ORCID
- Hallinger, Philip
- Venue
- Educational Management Administration & Leadership
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-12-02
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-24
- ISSN
- 1741-1432 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-1440
- OpenAlex
- W2558050610
- Cited by
- 755
- References
- 109
- Citations by year
- 2026: 145 · 2025: 105 · 2024: 94 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 81 · 2020: 83 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 131.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Educational Management Administration & Leadership (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Bộ Giáo dục và Ðào tạo
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Leadership and Practices
- Social Sciences › Education › School Leadership and Teacher Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
- Keywords
- school leadership, leadership context, academic performance, leadership practices, goal setting, school improvement, institutional environment, community context, sociocultural context, political context, economic environment
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