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- Principal`s leadership on students' outcomesPublication . Pina, Raul; Cabral, Ilídia; Matias Alves, JoséThis study aims to explore, in a sample of Portuguese schools, if there is an impact of school leadership, particularly of the principal, on students` outcomes. The study adopts mixed-methods, combining the analysis of national examination, questionnaire surveys (from LOLSO, Leithwood, Mulford & Silins, 2004), structured open-ended interviews and focus groups to the principals of 6 school groupings, heads of department, teachers and students. This study reports results from the interviews analyses of the principals, and the focus group of the head of departments and students. By means of content analysis, we make inferences from data to the context, providing knowledge and new insights on the object of the study. A preliminary analysis of data identifies some contradictions between what principals claim to do and the perceptions of heads of department and students in categories like Building a shared vision through the school project and communicating that vision; High performance expectations to students and teachers and Providing individual support (mainly in schools over 1000 students). In the interviews and in the questionnaires principals, head of departments and students say that the students` outcomes promote changes in school organization and in the leadership practices of the principal.
- Strategy and strategic leadership in education: a scoping reviewPublication . Carvalho, Marisa; Cabral, Ilídia; Verdasca, José Lopes; Alves, José MatiasStrategy and strategic leadership are critical issues for school leaders. However, strategy as a field of research has largely been overlooked within the educational leadership literature. Most of the theoretical and empirical work on strategy and strategic leadership over the past decades has been related to non-educational settings, and scholarship devoted to these issues in education is still minimal. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant research regarding strategy and strategic leadership, identifying any gaps in the literature that could inform future research agendas and evidence for practice. The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework of Arksey and O’Malley. The results indicate that there is scarce literature about strategy and that timid steps have been made toward a more integrated and comprehensive model of strategic leadership. It is necessary to expand research into more complex, longitudinal, and explanatory ways due to a better understanding of these constructs.
- Giving voice to problems faced by school leaders in PortugalPublication . Espuny, Mireia Tintoré; Cunha, Rosário Serrão; Cabral, Ilídia; Alves, José MatiasWorldwide, leadership stories are narratives of principals facing very different problems. The purpose of this study was to identify the current problems faced by Portuguese school principals, through these actors’ voice. Nineteen public school Portuguese principals participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, coded, and categorised using Nvivo11 Pro. The analysis revealed that Portuguese principals have the same problems as their colleagues worldwide, but there are problems specifically related to the Portuguese educational system: problems from the process of school clustering and the leader-centred system of school management of this country. A framework to analyse the emerged problems and practical recommendations are proposed for school leaders, researchers, and policymakers to improve educational leadership
- School leadership practices of Portuguese principals: matching perceptions of principals and teachersPublication . Cabral, Ilídia; Silva, Maria da Conceição Andrade; Cunha, Rosário Serrão; Alves, José MatiasThis paper presents a study on teachers' and principals' perceptions of school leadership practices in Portuguese schools. Using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, perceptions about transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership practices and its consequences on leadership outcomes (followers' extra-effort, leaders' effectiveness and followers' satisfaction with leader) were collected from representative samples of Portuguese teachers (N = 21,082) and principals (N = 122). Results point to differences in the perceptions on leadership practices between principals and teachers: teachers tended to rate principals lower than the latter rate themselves in all transformational and transactional dimensions of leadership; most teachers did not perceive a dominant leadership style in their principals, whereas most principals see themselves as predominantly transformational. Also, for teachers, leadership practices have a higher impact on leadership outcomes than for principals. These results and their practical implications are discussed in the last sections of the paper.
- A scoping review of problems and challenges faced by school leaders (2003–2019)Publication . Tintoré, Mireia; Cunha, Rosário Serrão; Cabral, Ilídia; Alves, José Joaquim MatiasThe purpose of this scoping review is to analyse the literature concerning principals’ problems and challenges, beginning in 2003 and ending in 2019. The research team conducted an extensive search to locate relevant academic literature, comprising 17 years of research, and a total of 153 documents were analysed.According to the findings,most of the documents (71%) correspond tothe last six years (2014– 2019), and most are studies from Anglo-Saxon countries (55%). The results point to eight main categories related to thecomplex nature of the job (themanagement challenge, the complexity challenge and the learning challenge), and interactions with different stakeholders (problems with educational authorities and educational policy; the staff and teaching process; the students; the families and the school community; and the society). Although the importance given to each category varies from one context to another, problems concerning the complex nature of the job andwith the educational authorities and the educational policy are the most recurrent. A significant increase in the number and complexity of problems andchallenges throughout the timeswasnoticed,whichseemstoenhancetheneedfor changes in educational policies and the careful design and implementation of leadership training programmes.