This thesis draws on socialisation theory and the stage theory of headship to explore the professional and organisational socialisation experiences of new Cypriot primary headteachers. The study examines the ways in which new heads have been prepared for headship and formed their professional identity as heads. It also offers insights into novice headteachers’ socialisation in schools, the challenges they encountered upon assuming headship, as well as their progression through stages of headship during their early years in post. The study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach comprised of unstructured face-to-face interviews, a survey of all 90 novice primary headteachers appointed during 2009-2010, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 novice headteachers and follow-up interviews with ten of them two years later to shed further light on the issues under examination. The overall findings portray Cypriot headteachers’ preparation for headship through formal and informal leadership development opportunities and provide empirical evidence of the complex process of their socialisation in schools and the challenges they encountered during early headship. Findings from this study contribute towards theory regarding headteachers’ transition through stages of headship that could be used to develop practice and enhance understanding of how the professional and organisational socialisation experiences help shape the professional identity of headteachers. Empirical evidence from this thesis has important implications for policy makers, training providers and researchers with regards to headship preparation and induction in Cyprus and internationally. The findings also suggest several important directions for future research, most importantly in professional identity formation and leadership styles; gender issues in pathways to headship; the importance of ‘people’ as socialisation agents for new heads; and the need for longitudinal studies on transition through stages of headship within the Cypriot educational context.

This study explores the influences of female under-representation in senior leadership positions in community secondary schools in rural Tanzania. Key issues include factors contributing to women under-representation in leadership, the perceptions of members of school communities of women leaders and the challenges facing current women leaders that deter other women teachers from taking leadership posts. The empirical study included interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires and involved 259 participants at schools and district level in one district in rural Tanzania. Twenty schools were involved and included 20 heads of schools, teachers, members of school boards, parents and a District Educational Officer. The empirical study found that, at the individual level, familial responsibilities and rejecting the post due to poor social services in rural areas deterred women from taking leadership posts. At the organisational level, the lack of transparent procedures for recommending, recruiting and appointing heads also contributed to poorer access by women. At the societal level, negative perceptions and stereotypes of female leaders, conservative expectations of women in the private domain rather than in professional and public roles, and deep-seated beliefs in some rural areas pertaining to issues such as witchcraft, at times resulted in physical risk and exploitation of female leaders. These proved to be strong barriers to leadership succession and resulted in on-going, significant challenges for incumbent female leaders. Overall, the study concludes that female under-representation in school leadership in rural Tanzania is influenced by a number of interrelated factors at the individual, societal and organisational level (Fagenson, 1990a), with dominant social norms and values having a cross-cutting influence on the access, experience and perceptions of female school leaders. The study thus suggests a number of measures for improving female representation in community secondary school leadership in Tanzania at the professional and personal development level, recruitment level and policy level.

Leadership and how it is developed have become a top priority for almost all organisations, particularly schools and business organisations, to survive and secure growth (Bolden, 2004). Equally, the concept of partnership has become a panacea for solving complex and ‘wicked’ problems in diverse organisations (Armistead, 2007). This study therefore investigates how school-business partnerships could serve as alternative means for organisational leadership development. The study is principally influenced by earlier work in the leadership development field by Day (2000) and Allen and Hartman (2008). Following a review of literature on leadership and partnership, four main sub-questions were formulated. An explanatory multi-case mixed-methods research design (Yin, 1984) was adopted to answer these questions, using qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection – interviews and survey questionnaire – in two schools and two banks in the South-East of England. Data analysis was carried out in two stages – within-case and cross-case analyses (Yin, 1994) – and the data combined to provide composite research findings. The key finding and main original contribution of this study to knowledge is that school-business partnership activities that promote experiential leadership learning experiences can support organisational leadership development. The study identifies twenty-five (25) different learning approaches which enable members of the organisation to develop four main experiential leadership learning experiences: spiritual, emotional, academic and practical leadership competencies. Some of these learning approaches are found in existing literature on leadership development including leadership apprenticeship, job placement, job mixing, degree programmes as well as online learning, action learning and reflections. Other leadership learning approaches such as recitals, records of enlightenment, counselling, reflections, story-telling and themes from the Bible are found to be new to literature in the leadership development field.

Concerns have been raised about the tendency to associate leadership with ascribed authority and position and confining school leadership to the leadership of the principal. Distributed leadership has been proposed and one approach to the distribution of leadership in schools is teacher leadership. Teacher leadership recognises the important contribution of teachers to school improvement and brings to the fore the emergence of excellent teachers who have demonstrated leadership capabilities at the same time. Using an adaptation of the framework of York-Barr and Duke (2004) which linked teacher leadership to student learning, this study explored teacher leadership in public schools in the Philippines. The important role of context in the development and practice of teacher leadership was considered by investigating the contextual conditions that either enabled or constrained teacher leadership practice. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with principals and focus-group interviews with teacher leaders and other teachers from seven public schools in the Philippines. The study found that teacher leadership was a meaningful concept in Philippine public schools even if the term ‘teacher leadership’ has not been introduced formally. Teacher leadership consists of actions undertaken by teachers who respond positively to opportunities to improve teaching and learning. These teachers possess a strong sense of moral purpose and requisite pedagogic and leadership competencies. They help create conditions that support teaching and learning, often in challenging circumstances, in collaboration with colleagues and the school’s leadership. Recommendations from this study include recognising teacher leadership in the country’s education reform agenda, encouraging teacher leaders to accept leadership work and giving attention to development programmes for teacher leaders and principals.