Definitions of leadership are not fixed. They evolve in line with wider societal shifts.
For example, trait theory was dominant up to the 1940s, when leaders were seen to have physical traits and abilities that distinguished them from non-leaders. The following decades brought a focus on behaviours and a recognition that context matters in leadership.
More recently there has been an emphasis on leaders as managers of meaning, through the establishment of vision and values, and a move away from heroic, individualised models.
Research into educational leadership has seen similar shifts and debates, but the core consensus has been remarkably consistent.
This argues that successful school leadership combines transformational (vision and values), instructional (improving the quality of teaching and learning) and distributed (collective efficacy) approaches.
The most recent articulation of this formula was the (2024), which argued that leaders should address four areas: setting expectations, focusing on learning, fostering collaboration and developing people.
School leadership in a rapidly changing world
(together with colleagues ) into sustainable school leadership across the UK asks whether this still holds true in a rapidly changing world, and focuses on how England, Scotland and Northern Ireland can recruit, train and retain school leaders.
We published a broader in September and will publish national case study reports and a final report in the coming months.
One reason for questioning the global consensus on school leadership is the sheer pace of change in today’s societies. Of course, change has always been the one true constant, but there is an argument that we are now in an era of “polycrisis”.
Edgar Morin and Anne-Brigitte Kern coined the term “polycrisis” in their 1993 book Terre-Patrie.
Their aim was to reflect how many global challenges - whether ecological, economic, social or political - are not isolated but interconnected and mutually reinforcing, arguably creating a systemic planetary crisis.
Most recently argued that the world is currently experiencing a polycrisis, due to a raft of ongoing and interlinked crises including the “lingering health, social and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic” as well as “political instability and civil unrest in countries both rich and poor” and “frequent and devastating weather events generated by climate heating”.
Increasing pastoral responsibilities
Many of these issues are global in scale and stretch beyond standard education policy and practice. But these developments are reshaping children’s lives and the families and communities they live in.
As a result, school leaders are already having to respond to these issues in many different ways each day. For example by:
- Helping to integrate a child whose family are refugees and have been rehoused in the area.
- Organising a breakfast club for children from families that struggle to afford a full and healthy diet.
- Talking to the parent or carer of a child who suffers from anxiety and refuses to attend school.
- Trying to access support from social services for a child facing neglect or violence at home.
- Dealing with a bullying incident resulting from an overnight online argument.
- Trying to identify a substitute cover/supply teacher because - in a bid to enhance staff retention at a time of serious recruitment shortages - the school’s new flexible-working policy allows staff to work from home one morning a week.
Some of these are more connected to global developments than others, but the point is that as societies change, so, too, do the roles that schools play and the leadership needed to support this.
However, across the UK we have seen degradations in the capacity of schools over the past 15 years, as a result of austerity policies and cuts to wider services for children and families.
As a result, the capacity of schools to respond to the changing needs of children has been reduced, even as they have become the last universal service in many communities.
Time for a rethink?
Schools have always played a pastoral role in supporting children’s wellbeing and overall development, beyond the strictly “educational”.
For schools in the most deprived contexts, this wider care role has always been essential, supporting the health and wellbeing of pupils so they can learn. Similarly, schools have long been expected to be inclusive and to meet the needs of children with additional needs.
Our research shows that as the polycrisis continues to impact - and as the wellbeing, care and inclusion needs of children continue to expand - schools in all contexts are having to respond.
This is placing intense pressure on school leadership, who receive limited support and resources while being held accountable for a relatively limited range of educational outcomes.
In response, we ask whether it is time to rethink the global consensus on school leadership - not to remove the focus on education and instructional leadership, but to recognise that in a polycrisis world leadership is about an ethic of education and care together.
If so, then we need to rethink what schools are accountable for, how leaders and their teams are trained and supported, and the resources they need to deliver this wider role successfully.
Toby Greany is professor of education in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham
He will be talking about research into sustainable school leadership and the challenges for schools in turbulent times at the .
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