Exploring the Nature and Extent of Leadership Distribution in Elementary Schools

• Main Author: Yashkina, Ganna Victorivna
• Other Authors: Leithwood, Kenneth
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: distributed leadership; leadership; elementary school; collaboration; quantitative; multi-level modeling; HLM; school leadership; educational leadership; teacher leadership; 0514; 0524
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/32056

This study explored forms of distributed leadership in schools and the relationship between these forms and various personal and organizational factors. Though all empirical constructs used in this study were carefully grounded in the existing literature on the topic, the organization and empirical investigation of these constructs in a systemic manner is a distinct contribution of the study. The research was conducted in one large Ontario district that had been promoting distribute leadership for years. The evidence consisted of the surveys of 92 principals, 52 vice-principals, and 2190 teachers from the district’s elementary schools. Various statistical analyses, including descriptive, correlation, regression, and multi-level modeling analyses, were used to analyze the gathered data. In the study schools, administrators and teachers perceived leadership for high-priority school initiatives being mostly distributed in an egalitarian and coordinated manner. They also associated this coordinated way of distribution with wider distribution of leadership. At the same time, teachers often experienced leadership being distributed by principals in an authoritative manner as well. This finding indicates that principal delegation remains a dominant form of leadership and should be studied alongside more egalitarian distributed forms. This research brings to light the differences in principals’, vice-principals’, teacher-leaders’, and classroom teachers’ experiences with distributed leadership. It is recommended for researchers to take into account these differences in their studies of school leadership. District and school leaders should also consider staff’s varied leadership experiences while developing distributed leadership forms in schools. The study also suggests that school conditions have more effect on the way leadership gets distributed in schools than personal beliefs and experiences of principals, vice-principals, and teachers do. This implies that in order to develop extensive and coordinated distributed leadership forms, which are believed to be more productive, school administrators should devote considerable effort to encourage teachers’ engagement in leadership activities, build cultures of trust and collaboration, develop structures supporting shared decision making, ensure staff’s commitment to shared goals and provide incentives and relevant resources.