Educational Leadership in Developing Countries and in Post-New War Countries

Abstract

While only a limited amount of research has been undertaken on education in conflict-affected societies, even less has been undertaken on leadership at the individual school level in such contexts. Certainly, a wide range of research projects on educational leadership has been conducted, but much of it has concentrated on well-established and relatively stable contexts (Bush, Educ Manag Adm Leadersh 42(6):787–791, 2014; Nawab, Int J Acad Res Bus Soc Sci 1(3):181–189, 2011; Oplatka, Comp Educ 40(3):427–448, 2004). The main investigations have been on issues relating to school improvement and effectiveness (Bush, Leadership and management in education. Sage, Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore, 2008; Educ Rev 61(4):375–389, 2009; Comp J Comp Int Educ 41(6):785–800, 2012; Rhodes and Brundrett, Educ Rev 61(4):361–374, 2009), school leadership and student learning achievement (Jacobson and Ylimaki, Comparative perspectives: an overview of seven educational contexts. In: Ylimaki RM, Jacobson SL (eds) US and cross-national policies, practices, and preparation: implications for successful instructional leadership, organisational learning, and culturally responsive practices. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 1–16, 2011; Leithwood et al., Leadership and other conditions which foster organisational learning in schools. In: Leithwood K, Lousis KS (eds) Organisational learning in schools. Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp 67–92, 1998; Leithwood and Massey, Developing leadership to improve student outcomes. In: Davies B, Brundrett M (eds) Developing successful leadership. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 77–98, 2010; Louis et al., Sch Eff Sch Improv 21(3):315–336, 2010), school leadership and change (Cravens and Hallinger, Peabody J Educ 87(2):157–161, 2012; Fullan, Leading in a culture of change. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2001; Hargreaves and Fullan, Understanding teacher development. Continuum International Publishing, New York, 1992), and school leadership and culture (Dimmock and Walker, Comp J Comp Int Educ 30(3):303–312, 2000; Sch Leadersh Manage 20(2):143–160, 2000; Hargreaves, Sch Eff Sch Improv 6(1):23–46, 1995). However, there are very few empirical studies that can be drawn upon in an attempt to understand the context and nature of school leadership in post-conflict settings at an international level (Clarke and O’Donoghue, The case for studying educational leadership at the individual school level in post-conflict societies. In: Clarke S, O’Donoghue T (eds) School level leadership in post-conflict societies: the importance of context. Routledge, London/New York, pp 1–8, 2013).

This chapter provides further contextualisation to the study reported later by providing an overview of the related academic literature. It begins with an overview of the literature on educational leadership and management generally, with a focus on theories of educational leadership and management, and on models of educational leadership. It goes on to examine the literature on educational leadership in developing-country contexts. The literature concerning educational leadership in post-conflict nations is then considered. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the small amount of literature that exists pertaining to educational leadership in post-conflict Cambodia.