The impact of leadership on school improvement

Stern, Barbara Helen

Abstract

The last few years have produced a substantial amount of literature on leadership, school improvement and change. Some of this has been reviewed and discussed with reference to general education. There is a paucity of research in this country on leadership in Jewish Supplementary Education, although some important studies have been done in North America and Canada to discover how current practice and recent innovations have impacted the field. There is currently no research which specifically looks at the impact of leadership on Jewish Supplementary Schools. The aim of this research is to discover more about the impact of leadership on school improvement with reference to Jewish Supplementary Schools. The study focuses on leadership teams from five different Jewish Supplementary Schools, attached to Synagogues in the Greater London area.

Rabbis, Head Teachers and Chairs of Education Committees were interviewed in each of the communities to learn more about: how they work together to effect change; the impact of each of their leadership roles on the improvement that they have tried to bring about; and the role of parents and other stakeholders as lay leaders. The transcripts from semi structured interviews were analysed with reference to the literature review and the research questions.

The findings show that each individual interviewed had high leadership competencies and this did impact school improvement in terms of surface change. They had the potential to effect deep change but due to power, control and communication issues their leadership impact was diminished. Each of the schools has been through a change process in order to improve teaching and learning as well as to increase parental involvement. This research shows the importance of each role within the leadership team, both separately and collectively on school improvement.

The study concludes with some recommendations as to how leadership could create a deeper impact on Jewish Supplementary School improvement.

Citation

Stern, B. H. The impact of leadership on school improvement. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4215609

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Apr 29, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2023
• Keywords: Education
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4215609
• Additional Information: Centre for Educational Studies, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Aug 1, 2013