An exploration of distributed leadership in Irish post-primary schools

Distributed leadership is a model of school leadership which employs a much broader perspective of leadership, spread across leaders, followers, and the situation (Spillane et al. 2001). Education ministries now encourage schools to embrace a distributed leadership model globally (Harris 2011), and Ireland is no exception. Currently, little remains known about if and how distributed leadership is enacted in Irish post-primary schools and whether its practice is congruent with national policy. Even less is known about the impact of this new model of leadership on school life.

This doctoral work is the outcome of my investigation into the prevalence and influence of distributed leadership in Irish post-primary schools. An interpretivist approach was adopted in this mixed-methods study. While interpretivism is typically associated with qualitative research, it can also be used for mixed methods research (McChesney and Aldridge 2019). Qualitative methods were deemed suitable for this study as it is difficult to quantify complex phenomena in the social sciences (Nigar 2020) such as leadership. Additional quantitative elements were also included as they add “more precision and a clearer understanding of the phenomenon of interest than qualitative data (Bhattacherjee 2012, pp.103-104). The study comprised three phases, namely a scoping review of international empirical literature on distributed leadership in post-primary schools, an online survey with post-primary school personnel (n = 363), based on an adapted version of the Distributed Leadership Inventory (Hulpia et al. 2009a), and semi-structured interviews with post-primary school principals and deputy principals (n = 15).

The outcome of this study is an overview of distributed leadership studies conducted with post-primary school teachers and leaders internationally, highlighting research trends and implications. Secondly, varying interpretations of distributed leadership were identified. Differences were identified regarding what is shared, who it is shared with, and how it is shared. Varying degrees and models of distributed leadership enactment in Irish post-primary schools were also identified. Challenges were reported regarding the culture of leadership in schools, the complexity of relationships among staff, variations in the enactment of teacher leadership, and the threat of “tick-the-box” distributed leadership. Finally, school leaders described several challenges to the sustainability of their role including administrative overload, policy proliferation, and the complexity of the role. Distributed leadership was described as a tool to aid challenges to the sustainability of their roles.

The thesis concludes with an overview of implications for research, policy, and practice as well as recommendations for future research. The need to replicate existing research using new methodologies or in new contexts and build on the rigour of this research was identified. A framework for enacting distributed leadership from a teacher empowerment lens is presented with the identified need to consider context and situation. Other implications include the need to further conceptualise the culture required for distributed leadership to flourish, the way in which labour is divided, and the use of distributed leadership as a sustainable practice. The need to rethink the role of school leadership, and to create further collaboration between policy makers and school leaders was also identified.