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“Leadership is increasingly seen as a process of influence rather than a position of authority” (Bush & Glover, 2014, p. 556).

Bush & Glover (2014) review several key leadership models:

Instructional Leadership: Focuses on teaching and learning as the core purpose of leadership. Leaders are expected to guide curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.

Transformational Leadership: Emphasizes vision, inspiration, and change. Leaders motivate staff and students to exceed expectations.

Distributed Leadership: Leadership is shared across roles and individuals, promoting collaboration and collective responsibility.

Moral/Authentic Leadership (aligned with ethical leadership): Centers on values, integrity, and ethical decision-making.

Managerial Leadership: Prioritizes efficiency, planning, and resource management—often linked to accountability frameworks.

These models contribute to our understanding by offering multiple lenses through which leadership can be enacted, depending on context, goals, and stakeholder needs.

How Leadership Models Inform Decision-Making and Development

Strategic Planning: Instructional and managerial models help leaders set clear goals and allocate resources effectively.

Staff Development: Transformational and distributed models support professional growth and team cohesion.

Ethical Governance: Moral leadership guides decisions that reflect school values and community needs.

Contextual Adaptation: Leaders can blend models depending on the situation—e.g., using managerial leadership during inspections, and distributed leadership during curriculum redesign.

Reflection:

These models offer complementary insights. I’ve found transformational and instructional leadership especially relevant in module design, where vision and pedagogy must align. In my own role as a module leader, I’ve found that combining transformational vision with instructional clarity and ethical transparency creates a more inclusive and effective learning environment.

Bush, T. and Glover, D., 2014. School leadership models: What do we know?. School Leadership & Management, 34(5), pp.553–571.

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“Successful principals are those who adapt their leadership to suit the school’s context and challenges” (Gurr, 2015, p. 140).

1. Comparison with My Understanding of Effective Leadership

The article’s findings align closely with my evolving understanding of educational leadership. Gurr emphasises that successful school leadership is contextual, relational, and multi-dimensional—not just about individual charisma or technical skill. This resonates with my experience, where effective leadership often involves navigating complex stakeholder relationships, adapting to institutional pressures, and fostering a shared vision.

What stood out was the emphasis on interventions in teaching and learning, school capacity building, and engagement with the wider context. These dimensions mirror the challenges I face in module leadership—balancing curriculum innovation with staff development and external accountability.

2. Leadership Models Identified in the Case Study

Gurr’s model integrates several leadership theories:

1. Instructional Leadership

Principals actively shape teaching and learning practices to improve student outcomes.

2. Transformational Leadership

Leaders inspire change through vision, motivation, and innovation.

3. Distributed Leadership

Leadership is shared across teams, with collaboration and capacity building at the core.

4. Ethical Leadership

Principals demonstrate integrity, fairness, and responsiveness to community needs.

These models are not presented as isolated frameworks but as part of a portfolio approach, where leaders draw on multiple strategies depending on context and need.

3. Implications for Leadership Development and Decision-Making

Leadership development should be grounded in real-world practice, not abstract theory. Gurr advocates for evidence-informed improvement, which encourages leaders to use data, feedback, and reflection to guide decisions.

The model supports adaptive leadership, where principals respond to shifting demands with flexibility and strategic thinking.

It also highlights the importance of networking and partnerships, which I’ve found invaluable in cross-departmental collaboration and external engagement.

Reflection:

Gurr’s findings validate my belief that leadership is dynamic. I often shift between instructional and distributed leadership depending on the team’s needs. In my own role, I’ve begun to see leadership less as a fixed style and more as a responsive, evolving practice—one that requires emotional intelligence, strategic clarity, and a commitment to learning.

Gurr, D., 2015. A model of successful school leadership from the international successful school principalship project. Societies, 5(1), pp.136–150

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“Ethical leadership is shaped by sensitivity, critique, and care in navigating dilemmas” (Arar & Saiti, 2022, p. 130).

1. Strategies and Principles for Fostering Ethical Leadership

Based on the article and my own experience, the following strategies are essential:

Ethic of Care: Prioritizing empathy, fairness, and the wellbeing of students and staff.

Transparency in Decision-Making: Clearly communicating the rationale behind decisions to build trust.

Cultural Sensitivity: Recognizing diverse backgrounds and values when resolving dilemmas.

Reflective Practice: Encouraging leaders to examine their own biases and assumptions.

Collaborative Ethics: Involving stakeholders in ethical discussions to ensure shared values guide decisions.

Arar & Saiti (2022) found that ethical leadership positively influences how administrators interpret social values and navigate moral dilemmas, especially when guided by principles like sensitivity, critique, and care.

Content:

Strategies: Ethic of care, transparency, cultural sensitivity, reflective practice.

Example: Granting a compassionate extension to a student in hardship.

Systemic Impact: Builds trust, prompts policy reform, fosters inclusive culture.

3. Implications for the Education System

Systemic Trust: Ethical leadership fosters transparency and accountability, which strengthens institutional credibility.

Inclusive Culture: By embracing ethical principles, schools become safer and more inclusive spaces for diverse communities.

Policy Reform: Ethical dilemmas often expose rigid or inequitable policies, prompting necessary reforms.

Leadership Development: Embedding ethics into leadership training ensures future leaders are equipped to navigate complexity with integrity.

Arar & Saiti’s comparative analysis shows that ethical leadership transcends cultural boundaries and is universally linked to improved decision-making and school climate.

Reflection:

As a Module Leader, I once faced a dilemma involving a student who missed multiple deadlines due to personal hardship. The policy was clear—no extensions without formal documentation. However, applying the ethic of care, I initiated a conversation with the student, verified their situation informally, and collaborated with the assessment board to grant a compassionate extension.

This decision balanced policy integrity with human empathy, and it reinforced a culture of trust and fairness among students and staff.

Ethical leadership is foundational. I’ve learned that fairness must be balanced with empathy, especially in student support.

Arar, K. and Saiti, A., 2022. Ethical leadership, ethical dilemmas and decision making among school administrators. Equity in Education & Society, 1(1), pp.126–141.

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Leadership in networks is about enabling collective agency rather than exercising control” (Azorín et al., 2020, p. 115).

. Differences Between Distributed and Networked Leadership

Distributed Leadership focuses on how leadership is shared across roles and individuals within a school or organization. It emphasizes collaboration, shared responsibility, and contextual adaptation.

Networked Leadership, as described by the authors, extends this concept beyond the boundaries of a single institution. It involves inter-school and cross-system collaboration, where leadership is exercised across Professional Learning Networks (PLNs).

Key difference: Distributed leadership is internal and structural, while networked leadership is external and relational, emphasizing connectivity across schools and systems.

Role of Leadership in Effective Networking and Collaboration

Leadership is the catalyst for building and sustaining PLNs.

Effective leaders:

Facilitate trust and shared purpose among network members.

Broker relationships and resources across schools.

Encourage innovation and reflective practice.

Navigate complexity by adapting leadership styles to diverse contexts.

The article stresses that leadership in PLNs is not about control but about enabling collective agency and system-wide improvement.

Reflection:

As a Module Leader, I’ve participated in several collaborative initiatives that mirror the authors’ description of PLNs:

Cross-departmental curriculum design: Working with colleagues from Business and English to embed employability skills across modules.

Inter-institutional benchmarking: Collaborating with other universities to align assessment standards and share best practices.

Staff development networks: Engaging in communities of practice focused on inclusive pedagogy and digital learning.

These experiences reflect the horizontal leadership structures and shared learning ethos described in the article. Like the authors suggest, I’ve found that trust, openness, and shared goals are essential for meaningful collaboration.

Azorín, C., Harris, A. and Jones, M., 2020. Taking a distributed perspective on leading professional learning networks. School Leadership & Management, 40(2–3), pp.111–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1647418