The UCEA Center for the Study of School Site Leadership

Introduction | Australia | Canada | Denmark | Hong Kong | Norway | Sweden | UK | USA

Introduction

The International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) is a ‘multi-perspective’ research project designed to identify the qualities, characteristics, competences and other mediating influences of educational leaders who have been successful in primary and secondary schools in different socio-economic circumstances in eight participating countries – Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), England, Norway, Sweden, USA.  Through its work, ISSPP has sought to determine whether there are a set of generic core qualities, characteristics and competences that can be identified within and across national, regional and local policy and cultural contexts.

The ISSPP's investigation has developed through several phases:

1. A comprehensive literature search on school leadership concurrent with the design of a common interview protocol;
2. Multi-perspective country case studies conducted and analysed according to an agreed upon analytical framework and baseline data;
3. A survey of head teachers and principals in each country based on the case study findings;
4. The production of digital case studies;
5. Continuous dissemination of research findings and reports through publications and presentations at major international conferences.

Access to Reports:

Successful leadership in times of challenge - Report on the ISSPP/National College/University of Nottingham International seminar 20 and 21 May 2010

ISSPP International Coordinator:
Christopher Day, Professor and Director
Centre for Research in Teacher and School Development,
School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK.
web site

National Co-directors:

Australia
Bill Mulford, Professor and Director,
Leadership for Learning Research Group,
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania.
web site

David Gurr, Senior Lecturer
Centre for Organizational Learning Research Group
Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne.
web site

Canada
Kenneth A. Leithwood, Professor
Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE),
University of Toronto.
web site

Denmark
Lejf Moos, Associate Professor and Director,
Research Programme on Professional Development and Leadership, Danish University of Education, Copenhagen.
web site

Hong Kong
Kam-Cheung Wong, Associate Professor and Director,
Centre For Educational Leadership,
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong.
web site

Norway
Jorunn Møller, Associate Professor,
Department of Teacher Education and School Development, University of Oslo.
web site

Sweden
Olof Johansson, Associate Professor in Political Science,
Chair of the Centre for Principal Development and Director of the National Head Teachers’ Training Programme,
Faculty of Education, Umeå University.
web site

UK
Christopher Day, Professor and Director
Centre for Research in Teacher and School Development,
School of Education, University of Nottingham.
web site

USA
Stephen L. Jacobson, Professor and Associate Dean,
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Graduate School of Education,
University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
web site

The international team holds regular meetings and is pledged to provide interim dissemination actively involving school principals.

Project reports have been presented at the following conferences:

‘Successful School leadership: An International Research Project’. A symposium presented at Commonwealth Conference on Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM),
Umeå, Sweden, 23-25 September 2002.

‘Successful School Principals in the UK: Early case study findings’, Day and Naylor. P. Paper presented at the First Invitational Conference, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, UK, 16-18 October 2002.

‘Successful School Leadership: An International Research Project’. A symposium proposal for the ICET Conference, Melbourne, July 2003.

‘International Perspectives on Successful School Leadership’, Leithwood, K. and Day, C. AERA, Chicago, IL. April 2003.

UCEA, Portland, OR. November 2003
UCEA, Kansas City, MO. November 2004
UCEA, Nashville, TN. November 2003
UCEA, San Antonio, TX. November 2006

AERA, San Diego, CA. April 2004
AERA, Chicago, IL. April 2005
AERA, San Francisco, CA. April 2006

A symposium presented at Commonwealth Conference on Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM),
Nicosia Cyprus, October 2006.