Perceptions towards Distributed Leadership in School Improvement

Abstract

In spite of the sizable growth in the number of empirical studies tackledthe distributed form of leadership over the past decade, the bulk of this research isa case study. Relatively few published studies have investigated the impact of distributed leadership on school improvement; therefore, the current paper attempts to investigate TESOL teachers'perceptions towards distributed leadership and school improvement. The theoretical framework for this study is grounded on the multifactor transformational/transactional leadership model (Bass, 1985, 1990; Bass & Avolio, 2000). Two TESOL teachers from two different schools, in Pulau Penang, were interviewed regarding this phenomenon, which is still in its infancy stage. The study encourages a distributed leadership perspectivethat assists in building the academic capacity of schools as a means of improvement. Besides, it argues that the distributed perspective proposes an important theoretical lens through which leadership practiceswithin a school can be reconfigured and reconceptualised.The findingsshow that there are two different applied forms of leadership in the two schools. On the one hand, the first interviewee reveals her approving perceptions towards the distributed form of leadership as she praises the principal's characteristics, whilst the second interviewee, on the other hand, expresses her disapproving perceptions towards the control form of leadership through criticising the current principal's characteristics. A further finding exposes that the prevailingdistributed form of leadership does contribute to the school improvement. On the contrary, the current control form of leadership in the other school produces school's deterioration. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]