Making Distributed Leadership Visible – A Futile Exercise? First Results From A Multimethod Study Into Educational Leadership In Switzerland

Abstract

In the wake of changing steering mechanisms in education and public administration around the turn of the millennium, most cantons in Switzerland introduced formal school leaders (Hangartner & Svaton, 2013). Despite the empirically supported relevance of school leadership and its distribution in the context of the organization and development of schools (Ärlestig et al., 2016), there is only little empirical evidence in Switzerland on how leadership is exercised and distributed in practice. Research on school leadership in Switzerland tends to be regionally limited and predominantly focusing on the position of formal leaders, although findings imply the importance of school staff beside the formal leaders for shaping and developing schools (Harris & DeFlaminis, 2016; Hallinger & Heck, 2009; Spillane et al., 2004). These research gaps are what this contribution aims to address: In a cross-cantonal research project, investigating school leadership practice as a process of interaction in mutual influence across actors. Not only the leadership practices of formal school leaders but also teachers’ involvement and participation in the management and development of schools as well as the relationships between stakeholders are focal point of the study. In a first explorative phase, two schools each in the canton of Argovia and in the canton of Vaud were examined using shadowing-type observations over the period of several weeks, during which school leaders and meetings between teachers were observed. In addition, document analyses and interviews with principals and teachers were conducted. The analysis of the data is carried out in an iterative procedure according to the grounded theory principles (Corbin & Strauss, 2015), allowing a gradual construction of theories. In the present time, investigations are being carried out in additional schools in both cantons. Over the duration of the study, 12 schools are to be investigated. Preliminary findings suggest that factors such as school size, organizational structure, and the prevailing school culture may influence teachers' assumptions of responsibility for leadership-related tasks. Differences in the perception of leadership and its distribution also seem to exist due to previous professional experiences of school leaders and teachers, partly due to their experiences prior to the introduction of principals. Relationships and levels of trust between formal leaders and the teaching staff, as well as between individuals appear to play a significant role in shaping leadership processes and the involvement of stakeholders across the schools. Some markers of leadership distribution can be identified but appear to be contextually bound.