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60+ Amazing Research Topics for Educational Leadership

A dissertation or thesis is a document presented for one to be awarded a degree or professional qualification. It involves research on a given topic.

Educational leadership, on the other hand, involves identifying and nurturing talents in a school set up to meet the objectives of education.

Now let’s merge the two and see the meaning.

A dissertation topic in educational leadership is, therefore, a thesis on how pupils, teachers, and parents will work towards achieving a common goal.

Leadership dissertation topics are common nowadays attributed to the growing number of institutions, and schools were also incorporated. Education dissertation topics are hence being researched daily due to the emerging challenges in running schools.

Dissertation topics in higher education leadership are vast because of the various tertiary institutions available; vocational training institutions, colleges, and universities. Enough of the explanations, and now let’s delve into the course meal. So sit tight and belt up, this is going to be one fantastic flight you’ve ever had.

60 Research Paper Topics in Educational Leadership

• The Effects of Religion on Educational Leadership
• Analyzing Long Term and Short Term Educational Leadership Goals
• How to pass teacher’s excellence to students easily
• The role of Leadership Summits on Educational Leadership
• The Impact of leadership Training Institutions on Educational Leadership
• How To Improve Education Leadership in the Society Today
• How effective is the Youth than the Elderly in Educational Leadership?
• Evaluating Different structures of Organizational Leadership
• How Education Leadership Varies with Different Continental Settings
• The Effects of Teacher-Parent-Student Ratio in Educational Leadership
• How Public and Private Institutions Vary in Education Leadership
• Policies in Educational Leadership and Their Impact
• Analyzing Higher Education Leadership Characteristics
• Leadership in Higher Education Frames Analysis
• The Impact of Higher Education Programs Leadership Development
• The Higher education Leadership Indigenous Perspective
• Distance Education Programs and Transformational Leadership Characteristics in Higher Education
• How to Plan For an American Higher Education Leadership Crisis
• Preparing of Educational Leadership Personnel
• Evaluating Better Schools With a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership
• How is Educational Leadership in the 21st Century
• Understanding What a Masters in Educational Leadership Entails
• How Educational Leadership is Financed
• Evaluating Differences in Educational Leadership Between Profit and Non-Profit Organizations
• The Need for Effective Leadership in Education
• Analyzing Globalization in Educational Leadership
• Understanding the Different Education Leadership Styles
• When To Start Teaching Education Leadership and The Impact
• Impact of Online Courses on Educational Leadership Graduates
• How Innovative Strategies Impact Educational Leadership
• Evaluating Trends in Educational Leadership
• How Educational Leadership Contributes to Discrimination
• Analyzing Technical Terms in Educational Leadership
• What is the Impact of Subordinate Staff on Educational Leadership
• How Can we Merge Student Leadership with the Administration
• The Need to Simplify Educational Leadership
• Innovative Solutions to Educational Leadership Challenges
• Ensuring Sustainable Student-Parent-Teacher Relationship
• Demystifying Myths About Educational Leadership
• How To Initiate a Re-Birth in Educational Leadership

Also, here are additional dissertation topics for custom dissertation writing on educational leadership:

1. Understanding The Role of Women in Educational Leadership

Ladies, first am being a gentleman here. It has been one of the most researched educational leadership topics.

2. How Cultural Organizations Influence School Institutions

A set way of life defines every Society in any part of the world. These cultural aspects also imply educational leadership.

3. The Influence of Educational Leadership on Transformation

This form of organizational leadership dissertation aims to establish the impact of educational leadership in Society. For instance, how has the Society grown or depreciated as a result of the educational leadership?

4. What Role Does Educational Leadership Serve in Society?

The values and morals set by an education institution determine how the Society will be in the future. A valuable educational leadership system will thus pass on responsible, and reliable people to Society.

5. The Role of Education Leadership on the Success of the Society

Success is critical in any undertaking. If not, why engage with it in the first place? This dissertation topic, therefore, seeks to unveil how education leadership can contribute to the success of the Society.

6. The Impact of Educational Leadership in Research and Literature

Educational leadership determines decisions such as the number of resources invested in research. Thus, it will major on how various forms of educational leadership either contribute to or against study and literature.

7. How Social Media Affects Educational Leadership

The digital era has immensely contributed to the organization of various forms of leadership. Social media can either be positively or negatively impacting educational leadership. Therefore, such a dissertation topic will bring this out.

8. How Poor Leadership and Poor Results in Schools Relate

Decisions made by the parents, teacher, or the students themselves will have an impact on their results.

9. The Role of Technology in Educational Leadership

Has it improved or depreciated the value of educational leadership?

10. The Impact of the Community on Educational Leadership

It focuses on how to incorporate the community into the educational leadership and the subsequent results.

11. How Racism Impacts Educational Leadership

This leadership dissertation topic focuses on institutions with mixed races. Does this affect the running of institutions?

12. The Impact of Interdisciplinary Teams in Running of Schools

Are they effective? And if so, to what extent?

13. The Comparison between Top and Lower Performing Schools

How are the two institutions managed? Are the educational leadership systems the same?

14. How to Intertwine Certain Teaching Methods with an Efficient Organization

Can specific strategic teaching methods be incorporated into educational leadership?

15. How Leadership Wrangles Affect Students

Teachers and parents fighting for different positions in the administration can affect student performance.

16. Analyzing Characteristics of Various Teachers Handling a Certain Subject

The traits of various instructors can either have a positive or negative impact on their mode of delivery.

17. How can Students be incorporated into the Educational Leadership

Ways in which students can adequately represent in the school leadership.

18. Government Regulations on Educational Leadership

Do Government regulations promote or inhibit educational leadership?

19. How Can Special Groups Be Represented Effectively

Persons with disabilities also have an equal right in administration.

20. Evaluating the Impact of the Politics of a Country to Educational Leadership

Do politicians have a say in the running of school institutions?

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Navigating Educational Leadership: Challenges, Styles, and Impacts -A Systematic Review

2024, International Multidisciplinary Journal of Research for Innovation, Sustainability, and Excellence

The systematic review delves into the multifaceted landscape of educational leadership and management, highlighting diverse leadership styles, challenges in leadership development, impacts on teaching practices and student outcomes, and gender disparities in leadership roles. Transformational, instructional, and distributed leadership styles emerge as pivotal in shaping educational institutions, with effective practices positively influencing teaching quality and student achievement. However, challenges such as the lack of established qualifications for school leaders and gender disparities pose significant barriers to leadership development and equity. The study emphasizes the need for policymakers and stakeholders to prioritize the cultivation of effective leadership pipelines and support mechanisms to address these challenges. Initiatives to promote gender equity and empower women in leadership roles, such as scholarships and fellowships, are also advocated. Ultimately, the findings underscore the critical role of educational leadership in shaping the future of education and call for collaborative action to cultivate inclusive, effective, and visionary leadership practices that advance educational excellence and equity.

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Reframing Educational Leadership Research in the Twenty-First Century

• Open Access
• First Online: 16 June 2021

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• David NG 7  

Part of the book series: Accountability and Educational Improvement ((ACED))

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For the last three decades, reviews on instructional leadership have pointed to studies that predominantly adopted conventional social science research methodologies, specifically analytical tools, such as descriptive, causal factor, correlational and advanced modelling. These methods have constraints and limitations, which include that variable-based linear models measures are treated as ‘rigorously real’ measures of social reality, that individuals use rational deduction (ignoring the value premise of decision-making), and that individuals are treated as independent and individualized. This paper proposes and illustrates how research approaches of complexity science can be applied within the social system to address complex instructional leadership questions. Consequently, reframing instructional leadership research through the lens of complexity science provides the most viable approach to understand the adaptive processes and the dynamic system of schools.

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Theorising pedagogical dimensions of higher education leadership—a non-affirmative approach

Educational Theory: The Specific Case of Social Justice as an Educational Leadership Construct

Instructional Leadership

7.1 introduction.

Educational leadership research has come of age. From its fledgling start in 1960s under the overarching research agenda of educational administration for school improvement, the focus shifted to leadership research from the early 1990s (Boyan, 1981 ; Day et al., 2010 ; Griffiths, 1959 , 1979 ; Gronn, 2002 ; MacBeath & Cheng, 2008 ; Mulford & Silins, 2003 ; Southworth, 2002 ; Witziers, Bosker, & Kruger, 2003 ). Since then, educational leadership as a respected field began to flourish by the early 2000s (Hallinger, 2013 ; Robinson, Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008 ; Walker & Dimmock, 2000 ). From the 1980s up to the present time, the body of knowledge on educational leadership has grown tremendously to produce three distinctive educational leadership theories: Instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and distributed leadership. While it is undisputed that educational leadership research has indeed been productive, there is a sense that a narrowing labyrinth of researchable questions is approaching in particular to the first two educational leadership research theories. The evidence of this is implied in the concerted call to expand and situate educational leadership research in non-Western societies (Dimmock, 2000 ; Dimmock & Walker, 2005 ; Hallinger, 2011 ; Hallinger, Walker, & Bajunid, 2005 ). This call is valid in that there is still limited contribution to substantive theory building from non-Western societies. However, it also implies that Western societies’ focus on educational leadership has reached an optimum stage in publications and knowledge building. A more pertinent reason to rethink educational leadership research could be based on epistemological questions about the social science research paradigm that has been the foundation of educational leadership research. These questions will be expanded as the discussion proceeds on current approaches of educational leadership research.

This chapter has three goals: The first one is to map the data-analytical methods used in educational leadership research over the last thirty years (1980–2016). This investigation covers the research methodologies used in instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and distributed leadership.

Educational leadership studies are conducted in the social context of the school. This context involves complex social interactions between and among leaders, staff, parents, communities, partners, and students. In the last decade, there has been a consensus among scholars that schools have evolved to become more complex. Furthermore, there is a consensus among scholars to view complexity through increases in the number of actors and the interactions between them. The complexity of schools is evident in the rise in accountability and involvement from an expanding number of stakeholders involved, such as politicians, clinical professionals (who diagnose learning disabilities of students), communities, and educational resource providers (training and certifying institutions). The relations between stakeholders are non-linear and discontinuous, so even small changes in variables can have a significant impact on the whole system. Therefore, the second goal is to determine whether methodologies that are adequate for the assessment of complex interaction patterns, influences, interdependencies, and behavioural outcomes that are associated with the social context of the school, have been adopted over the past three decades.

The third goal is to explore potential methodologies in the study of educational leadership. These alternative methodologies are taken from more recent developments of research methodologies used in other fields. These fields, such as health, development of society, among others, have similarities with the study of educational leadership. The common link is the social contexts and the system’s influence involving the spectrum of interactions, change, and emergence. We will examine published empirical research and associated theories that look at influence, interdependencies, change, and emergence. Adopting these alternative methodologies will enable reframing educational leadership so it can move forward. Three questions guide the presentation of this paper:

What are the data sources and analytical methods adopted in educational leadership research?

What is the current landscape of schooling and how does it challenge current educational leadership research methodologies?

What are some possible alternative research methodologies and how can they complement current methodologies in educational leadership research?

This chapter proposes to reframe educational leadership studies in view of new knowledge and understanding of alternative research data and analytical methods. It is not the intent of the paper to suggest that current research methodologies are no longer valid. On the contrary, the corpus knowledge of current social science research methodologies practiced, taught, and learned through the past three decades cannot be dismissed lightly. Instead of proposing to reframe educational leadership studies, the main purpose of this paper is to explore and propose complementary research methodologies that will open up greater opportunities for research investigation. These opportunities are linked to the functions of adopting alternate analytical research tools.

7.2 What Are the Dominant Methodologies Adopted in Educational Leadership Research?

Educational leadership research adopts a spectrum of methods that conform to the characteristics of disciplined inquiry. Cronbach and Suppes ( 1969 ) defined disciplined inquiry as “conducted and reported in such a way that the argument can be painstakingly examined” (p. 15). What this means is that any data collected and interpreted through reasoning and arguments must be capable of withstanding careful scrutiny by another research member in the field.

This section looks at the disciplined inquiry methods adopted and implemented in the last thirty years that have contributed to the current body of knowledge on educational leadership and management. The pragmatic rationale to impose a time frame for the review is that instructional leadership was conceptualized in the 1980s, followed by transformational leadership and in recent years, distributed leadership. The purpose of this review is to identify, if possible, all quantitative and qualitative methods adopted. The next section provides a broad overview of the three educational leadership theories/models. This will anchor the discussion on alternate research methodologies that will reframe and expand the research on these theories/models.

7.2.1 Instructional, Transformational, and Distributed Leadership

Instructional leadership became popular during the early 1980s. There are two general concepts of instructional leadership – one is narrow while the other is broad (Sheppard, 1996 ). The narrow concept defines instructional leadership as actions that are directly related to teaching and learning, such as conducting classroom observations. This was the earlier conceptualization of instructional leadership in the 1980s, and it was normally applied within the context of small, poor urban primary schools (Hallinger, 2003 ; Meyer & Macmillan, 2001 ). The broad concept of instructional leadership includes all leadership activities that indirectly affect student learning, including school culture, and time-tabling procedures by impacting the quality of curriculum and instruction delivered to students. This conceptualization acknowledges that principals, as instructional leaders, have a positive impact on students’ learning, but that this influence is mediated (Goldring & Greenfield, 2002 ; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2000 ; Southworth, 2002 ). A comprehensive model of instructional leadership was developed by Hallinger and Murphy ( 1985 , 1986 ). This dominant model proposes three dimensions of the instructional leadership construct: defining the school’s mission, managing the instructional program, and promoting a positive school-learning climate. Hallinger and Heck ( 1996 ), in their comprehensive review of research on school leadership, concluded that instructional leadership was the most commonly researched. The authors’ focused review found that over 125 empirical studies employed this construct between 1980 and 2000 (Hallinger, 2003 ). In the last decade, instructional leadership has regained prominence and attention in part because of the lack of empirical studies in non-Western societies. This can also be inferred from the notion that leadership in curriculum and instruction still matters and remains the core business of schools.

Transformational leadership was introduced as a theory in the general leadership literature during the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. Bass, 1997 ; Howell & Avolio, 1993 ). Transformational leadership focuses on developing the organisation’s capacity and commitment to innovate (Leithwood & Duke, 1999 ). Correspondingly, transformational leadership is supposed to enable change to occur (Leithwood, Tomlinson, & Genge, 1996 ). Amongst the leadership models, transformational leadership is the one most explicitly linked to the implementation of change. It quickly gained popularity among educational leadership researchers during the 1990s in part because of reports of underperforming schools as a result of top-down policy driven changes in the 1980s. Sustained interest during the 1990s was also fuelled by the perception that the instructional leadership model is a directive model (Hallinger & Heck, 1996 ). In a pointed statement of the extent of instructional leadership research, Hallinger ( 2003 , p. 343) emphatically notes that “The days of the lone instructional leader are over. We no longer believe that one administrator can serve as the instructional leader for the entire school without the substantial participation of other educators.” From the beginning of the 2000s, a series of review studies comparing the effects of transformational leadership and instructional leadership, the ‘over-prescriptivity’ of findings, the limited methodologies adopted, and a lack of international research contributed to the waning interest in transformational leadership (Robinson et al., 2008 , Robinson, 2010 ).

Interest in distributed leadership took off at around 2000. Gronn ( 2002 ), and Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond ( 2004 ) are leading the current debate on distributed leadership as observed by Harris ( 2005 ). Gronn’s concept of distributed leadership is a “purely theoretical exploration” (p. 258) while Spillane’s and his various colleagues’ work is based on empirical studies that are still ongoing. When Gronn and Spillane first proposed their concepts of distributed leadership, what was revolutionary was a shift from focusing on the leadership actions of an individual as a sole agent to analyzing the ‘concertive’ or ‘conjoint’ actions of multiple individuals interacting and leading within a specific social and cultural context (Bennett, Wise, Woods, & Harvey, 2003 ; Gronn, 2002 , 2009 ; Spillane, 2005 ; Woods, 2004 ). In addition, Spillane, Diamond, and Jita ( 2003 ) explicitly relate their concept of distributed leadership to instructional improvement, which, therefore, catalyzes the interest among researchers to explore the constructs in school improvement and effectiveness. From 2000 to 2016, a focused search for empirical studies that employed the constructs of distributed leadership yielded over 97 studies.

7.2.2 Assessment of the Dominant Methodologies in Educational Leadership Research and Courses

The purpose of this review is to identify, if possible, all the quantitative and qualitative methods adopted. This review is based on a combined search for the three educational leadership theories in schools using the following search parameters:

Keywords in database search: “instructional leadership” OR “transformational leadership” OR “distributed leadership”

Limiters: Full Text; Scholarly (Peer-reviewed) Journals; Published Date: 1980–2016

Narrow by Methodology: quantitative study

Narrow by Methodology: qualitative study

Search modes: Find all search terms

Interface: EBSCOhost Research Databases

Database: Academic Search Premier; British Education Index; Education Source; ERIC

The search yielded over 672 empirical studies employing the constructs of instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and distributed leadership. As the purpose of the review is to identify all quantitative and qualitative methods adopted, only that information was extracted. The researchers carefully read the relevant sections of the 672 studies pertaining to methodologies and extracted that information. An overview of the results is given in Tables 7.1 and 7.2 .

The range of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and analytical tools found in the review was categorized as follows:

Quantitative Analyses:

Univariate Analysis:

The analysis refers to a single variable represented by frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation.

Bivariate Analysis:

This type of analysis examines how two variables are related to each other, represented by ANOVA, Pearson product moment correlations, correlation and regression.

Multivariate Analysis:

These are statistical procedures that are used to reach conclusions about associations between two or more variables. Representations of inferential statistics include regression coefficients, MANOVA, MANCOVA, two-group comparison (t-test), factor analysis, path analysis, hierarchical linear modelling, and others.

Qualitative Analyses:

Content Analysis:

Content analysis is the systematic analysis of the text by adopting rules that can separate the text into units of analysis, such as assumptions, effects, enablers and barriers. The text is obtained through document search, artifacts, interviews, field notes, or observations. The transcribed data are converted into protocols followed by categories. Coding schemes are then applied to determine themes and their relations.

Hermeneutic Analysis:

With this type of analysis, researchers interpret the subjective meaning of a given text within its socio-historic context. Methods adopted extend beyond texts to encompass all forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal. An iterative analyses method between interpretation of text and holistic understanding of the context is adopted in order to develop a fuller understanding of the phenomenon.

Grounded-theory Analysis:

This is an inductive technique of interpreting recorded data about a social phenomenon. Data acquired through participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, narratives of audio/video recordings, and documents are interpreted based on empirical data. A systematic coding technique involving open coding, axial coding, and selective coding is rigorously applied. These coding techniques aim to identify key ideas, categories, and causal relations among categories, finally arriving at a theoretical saturation where additional data and analyses do not yield any marginal change within the core categories.

On the one hand, these results show that a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are applied and that the field is open to a lot of diversity in methodologies, but, on the other hand, the results also show that complexity methodology is missing completely.

One of the purposes of this paper is to identify current research methodologies that have been adopted for the past decades. The following review is to ascertain whether current research methodologies adopted are also reinforced and transmitted by the research courses offered by top universities. A search was conducted that specifically looked at graduate research courses taught in educational leadership and management. The following search parameters were used:

Identify the top 20 universities that offer graduate courses in educational leadership and management.

QS ranking of universities is chosen over Times ranking because QS ranking is sorted by subject: Education and searchable by educational leadership.

Representation of Western and Eastern universities in order to provide a representation of universities globally.

The findings are presented in Table 7.3 . This table is remarkably similar to Tables 7.1 and 7.2 but with more details of the topics in educational leadership research methodologies. The previously presented findings of the methodologies used in educational leadership research strongly suggest that the research methodologies currently adopted in educational leadership studies are reinforced by research courses taught at the top universities. Indeed, the transmission and application of research skills is a critical and essential component of graduate programmes. This transmission of knowledge and practice is strengthened by the enshrined supervisor-supervisee relationship where cognitive modelling takes place through discourse, reflection, guidance, and inquiry. The one-to-one supervision has the very powerful effect of instilling expectations, cultivating habits, and shaping practices that contribute to a competent researcher identity. It is noteworthy that the transmission-based form has emanated from and is continued in the paradigm of social science. Table 7.3 presents the research courses that are currently taught at the top 20 universities offering educational leadership research.

7.3 Limitations of the Dominant Methodologies in Educational Leadership Research and Courses

The range of methodologies and analytical tools reviewed above are disciplined inquiry methods in social science. Social sciences are the science of people or collections of people, such as groups, firms, societies, or economies, and their individual or collective behaviours; social sciences can be classified into different disciplines, such as psychology (the science of human behaviours), sociology (the science of social groups), and economics (the science of firms, markets, and economies). This section is not intended to wade into epistemological and ontological debates within the social sciences. It is also not possible to have an in-depth discussion on social science methodologies within the constraints of this paper. To highlight ongoing discussions about limitations of social science research is the focus of this paper.

Educational leadership is not a discipline by itself, but a field of study that involves events, factors, phenomena, organizations, topics, issues, people, and processes related to leadership in educational settings. This field of study adopts social science inquiry methods. The review of research methodologies, as depicted in Tables 7.1 and 7.2 , strongly suggests that educational leadership research subscribed to the functionalist paradigm (Bhattacherjee, 2012 ). The functionalist paradigm suggests that social order or patterns can be understood in terms of their functional components. Therefore, the logical steps will involve breaking down a problem into small components and studying one or more components in detail using objectivist techniques, such as surveys and experimental research. It also encompasses an in-depth investigation of the phenomenon in order to uncover themes, categories, and sub-categories.

Educational leadership studies, using quantitative methods, aim to minimize subjectivity. Hence, the constant advocacy of good sampling techniques and a large sample size in order to represent a population where the sample is reported by mean, standard deviation, and normal distribution, among others. Qualitative methods rest upon the assumption that there is no single reality for events, phenomena, and meaning in the social world. Adopting a disciplined analytical method based on dense contextualized data in order to arrive at an acceptable interpretation of complex social phenomena is advocated. The following section will discuss several common limitations of social science research.

7.3.1 Population, Sampling, and Normal Distributions

Based on the review, quantitative and qualitative methods of social science in educational leadership research can be inferred to subscribe to the goals of identifying and analyzing data that can inform about a population. Researchers aim to collect data that either maximize generalization to the population in the case of quantitative methods or provide explanation and interpretation of a phenomenon that represents a population in the case of qualitative methods. In most cases, definitive conclusions of a population are rarely possible in social sciences because data collection of an entire population is seldom achieved.

Therefore, researchers apply sampling procedures where the mean of the sampling distribution will approximate the mean of the true population distribution, which has come to be known as normal distribution. This concept has set the parameters as to how data has been collected and analyzed over many years. It has become widely accepted that most data ought to be near an average value, with a small number of values that are smaller, and the other extreme where values are larger. To calculate these values, the probability density function (PDF), or density of a continuous random variable, is used. It is a function that describes the relative likelihood for this random variable to take on a given value.

A simple example will help to explain this: If 20 school principals were randomly selected and arranged within a room according to their heights, one would most likely see a normal distribution: with a few principals who are the shortest on the left, the majority in the middle, and a few principals who are the tallest on the right. This has come to be known as the normal curve or probability density function.

Most quantitative research involves the use of statistical methods presuming independence among data points and Gaussian “normal” distributions (Andriani & McKelvey, 2007 ). The Gaussian distribution is characterized by its stable mean and finite variance (Torres-Carrasquillo et al., 2002 ). Suppose that in the example above the shortest principal is 1.6 m. Given the question, “What is the probability of a principal in the line being shorter than 1.5m?”, the answer would be ‘0’. From the total number of principals in the room, there is no probability to find someone who is shorter than 1.6 m. But if the question were, “What is the probability of a principal in the line being 1.7m?”, then the answer could be 0.2 (i.e. 10%, or 2 persons). Hence, this explains the finite variance, which is dependent upon the sample size. Normal distributions assume few values far from the mean and, therefore, the mean is representative of the population. Even largest deviations, which are exceptionally rare, are still only about a factor of two from the mean in either direction and are well-characterized by quoting a simple standard deviation (Clauset, Shalizi, & Newman, 2009 ). This property of the normal curve, in particular the notion that extreme ends of variance are less likely to occur, has significant implications as will be discussed.

Is the normal distribution the standard to determine acceptable findings in educational research? One possible answer is a study done by Micceri ( 1989 ). His investigation involved obtaining secondary data from 46 different test sources and 89 different populations, and that included psychometric and achievement/ability measures. He managed to obtain analyzed data from 440 researchers; he then submitted these secondary data to analysis and found that they were significantly non-normal at the alpha.01 significance level. In fact, his findings showed that tail weights, exponential-level asymmetry, severe digit preferences, multi-modalities, and modes external to the mean/median interval were evident. His conclusion was that the underlying tenets of normality-assuming statistics appear fallacious for the psychometric measures. Micceri ( 1989 , p. 16) added that “one must conclude that the robustness literature is at best indicative.”

In another well-cited article in the Review of Educational Research, Walberg, Strykowski, Rovai, and Hung ( 1984 , p. 87) state that “considerable evidence shows that positive-skew distributions characterize many objects and fundamental processes in biology, crime, economics, demography, geography, industry, information and library sciences, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and the production and utilization of knowledge.” Perhaps the most pointed statement made by Walberg et al., that “commonly reported univariate statistics such as means, standard deviations, and ranges – as well as bivariate and multivariate statistics […] and regression weights – are generally useless in revealing skewness” is worthy to note.

What are the implications and limitations of the normal distribution in the population? There are at least two limitations. First, reliance on normal distribution statistics puts a heavy burden on assumptions and procedures. The procedures of randomness and equilibrium have powerful influences on how theories are built and also determine how research questions are formulated. In other words, findings may be rejected that could otherwise be informative because they do not meet the normal distribution litmus. The explanation of the normal distribution suggests that any events or phenomena at both (extreme) ends of the normal curve are highly unlikely – consequently, we typically reject those findings. Research on real-world phenomena, e.g. social networks, banking networks, and world-wide web networks, has established that events in the tails are more likely to happen than under the assumption of a normal distribution (Mitzenmacher, 2004 ). Many real-world networks (world-wide web, social networks, professional networks, etc.) have what is known as long-tailed distribution instead of normal distribution.

Second, independent variables contributing to a normal distribution assume that the variables are static. The reality is that in education (and educational leadership) the variables are dynamic. This dynamic function comes from past and even future environmental and individual influences. An example is that of being fortunate to have initial advantages, such as enrolling in a university study (past influence), working with eminent researchers (preferential attachment), obtaining well-funded research projects, and having publication opportunities (environmental influence), combine multiplicatively over time and accumulate to produce a highly skewed number of publications. The distribution would not conform to the normal curve for researchers when past influence, preferential attachment, and environmental influences are taken into consideration. At the moment, the large majority of reviewed studies, using inferential statistics of mean and standard deviations, does not account for such dynamic influences upon the variables. Is there an alternative that could complement this limitation?

7.3.2 Linearity in a Predominantly Closed System

The dominant analytical tools adopted in educational leadership research involve relational and associational analyses of the effects of leadership actions and interventions in schools. The focus is on identifying variables, factors, and their associations in providing explanations of successful practices. The central concept of relations is based on the assumption of linearity. Linearity means two things: Proportionality between cause and effect, and superposition (Nicolis, Prigogine, & Nocolis, 1989 ). According to this principle, complex problems can be broken down into simpler problems, which can be solved individually. That is, the effects of interventions can be reconstructed by summing up the effects of the single causes acting on the single variable. This, then, allows establishing causality efficiently.

However, this assumption forces researchers to accept that systems are in equilibrium. The first implication is that the number of possible outcomes in a system is limited (because of the limited number of variables within a closed system). The second implication is that moments of instability, such as through an intervention from the school leader, are brief, whereas the duration of the stability of the final outcome is long. In that case, one can measure effects or establish relations, and accept its data value as a true indication of the cause of intervention. For this to be true, however, the many variables in the school (as a closed system) must be assumed to be independent. Other possibilities to this assumption are to have interdependence, mutual causality, and the occurrence of possible external influences in the larger system (e.g. political or economic change).

The goal of school leadership is to improve student achievement. Student achievement is demonstrable, even though there are considerable differences of opinion about how to define improvement in learning or achievement (Larsen-Freeman, 1997 ). This is because much research assumes that the classroom is a closed system with defined boundaries, variables, and predictable outcomes. This mechanistic linear view neglects students as active constructors of meaning with diverse views, needs, and goals (Doll Jr, 1989 ). It is debatable to draw the association directly that teachers’ pedagogy results in learning. Luo, Hogan, Yeung, Sheng, and Aye ( 2014 ) found that Singapore students attributed their academic success mainly to internal regulations (effort, interest, and study skills), followed by teachers’ help, teachers’ ability, parents’ help, and tuition classes. While the study appears to support linearity and attribute students’ academic success to identified variables, there is still much less certainty about other aspects, such as the interaction effects among the variables. The use of generalized linearity cannot account for the interactions among students – how they motivate each other, how they compete, and how they derive the drive to perform. Researchers studying student achievement tend to seek to reduce and consolidate variables in order to discover order while denying irregularity.

Due to its simplicity, linearity became almost universally adopted as the true assumption along with its corresponding measures in educational leadership research. School improvement, student learning, staff capacity, and efficacy are much more complex than directly assigned proportionality between factors and outcomes, and identifying superposition. Cziko ( 1989 , p. 17) asserted that “complex human behaviour of the type that interests educational researchers is by its nature unpredictable if not indeterminate, a view that raises serious questions about the validity of quantitative, experimental, positivist approach to educational research.” In general, school improvement ought to include a notion of and methodology for describing non-linear cognitive systems or processes and to accept that research questions cannot be simplified to find answers from regression models alone, particularly research questions that involve non-specified outcome variables. For instance, school success, in addition to internal variables and factors, simultaneously includes influence by changes in government policies and conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders (e.g. economic and society-related stakeholders). Relying only on the linearity within a closed system will limit any understanding of such interdependencies and mutual influences. Therefore, a holistic and more complete understanding of social phenomena, such as why some school systems in some countries are more successful than others, requires an appreciation and application of research methods that include the elements of open and closed systems. The alternative to linearity – non-linearity, emergence, and self-organization – as an alternate view of reality shall be discussed in the fourth part of this chapter.

7.3.3 Explanatory, Explorative, and Descriptive Research

One of the research aims in social science is the understanding of subjectively meaningful experiences. The school of thought that stresses the importance of interpretation and observation in understanding the social situation in schools is also known as ‘interpretivism.’ This is an integral part of qualitative research methodologies and analytical tools adopted in educational leadership research. The interrelatedness of different aspects of staff members’ work (teaching, professional development), interactions with students (learning, guidance, etc.), cultural factors, and others, form a very important focus of qualitative research. Qualitative research practice has reflected this in the use of explanatory, explorative, and descriptive methods, which attempt to provide a holistic understanding of research participants’ views and actions in the context of their lives overall.

Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, and Ormston ( 2013 ) provide clear explanations for the following research practices: Exploratory research is undertaken to explore an issue or a topic. It is particularly useful in helping to identify a problem, clarify the nature of a problem or define the issues involved. It can be used to develop propositions and hypotheses for further research, to look for new insights or to reach a greater understanding of an issue. For example, one might conduct exploratory research to understand how staff members react to new curriculum plans or ideas for developing holistic achievement, or what teachers mean when they talk about ‘constructivism,’ or to help define what is meant by the term ‘white space.’

A significant number of qualitative studies reviewed in this paper are about description as well as exploration – finding the answers to the Who? What? Where? When? How? and How many? questions. While exploratory research can provide description, the purpose of descriptive research is to answer more clearly defined research questions. Descriptive research aims to provide a perspective for social phenomena or sets of experiences.

Explanatory research addresses the Why questions: Why do staff members value empowerment? Why do some staff members perceive the school climate negatively and others do not? Why do some students have a high self-motivation and others do not? What might explain this? Explanatory, in particular qualitative research assists in answering these types of questions, which allows ruling out rival explanations, guidance to come to valid conclusions, and developing causal explanations.

An obvious limitation of explanatory, explorative, and descriptive educational leadership research is that this is done after an intervention; another limitation constitutes the mere focus on outcomes. If research tapped into this process before interventions were implemented, then two reasonable questions would be:

Will an intended school vision or policy have the desired positive reception among staff members?

How can one predict the kind of reception or perception staff members might have?

The answers would be useful for school leaders in order to initiate intervention measures before serious damage occurs. It would be most useful to be able to extrapolate those answers to the larger system, where policy makers are interested in predicting likely outcomes of the policy prior to its implementation. An example of this kind of research is the development of models known as simulations. Computer simulation is known as the third disciplined scientific methodology. This concept will be discussed in the latter section on alternative methodologies.

A summary of the limitations of current methodologies in educational leadership is concisely captured by Leithwood and Jantzi ( 1999 , p. 471): “Finally, even the most sophisticated quantitative designs used in current leadership effects research treat leadership as exogenous variable influencing students, sometimes directly, but mostly indirectly, through school conditions, moderated by student background characteristics. The goal of such research usually is to validate a specific form of leadership by demonstrating significant effects on the school organization and on students. The logic of such designs assumes that influence flows in one direction – from the leader to the student, however tortuous the path might be. But the present study hints at a far more complex set of interactions between leadership, school conditions, and family educational culture in the production of student outcomes.”

7.4 The Current Landscape of Schooling

7.4.1 complexity of schools: systems and structures.

Murphy ( 2015 ) examined the evolution of education from the industrial era in the USA (1890–1920) to the post-industrial era of the 1980s. He concluded that post-industrial school organizations have fundamentally shifted in roles, relationships, and responsibilities. The shift is seen in the blurring of distinctions between administrators and teachers; general (expanded) roles instead of specialization, where specialization is no longer held in high regard, as compared to the industrial era, with greater flexibility and adaptability. In terms of structures, the traditional hierarchical organizational structures are giving way to structures that are flatter.

This shift in roles, relationships, and responsibilities has (also) contributed to the increasing complexity of schools. The direct and indirect involvement between and among a growing circle of stakeholders within the school and between government, employers, and communities clearly support the view that schooling is no longer seen as a closed system. It is both a closed and open system (Darling-Hammond, 2010 ; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009 ; Leithwood & Day, 2007 ). Leithwood and Day ( 2007 ) state that “Schools are dynamic organizations, and change in ways that cannot be predicted,” as they reviewed leadership studies from eight different countries. Open systems are “a system in exchange of a matter with its environment” (Von Bertalanffy, 1968 , p. 141). Schools as an open system are therefore seen as part of a much larger network rather than an independent, self-standing entity.

Thus, to understand the processes still existing within the schools, it is critical to study the interrelations between those entities and their connections to the whole system. The interrelationships among stakeholders are non-linear and discontinuous, so even small changes in variables can have a significant impact on the whole system. This notion of small change leading to global change is reflected in the example of the current ‘world-class education system’ movement. From countries as diverse as the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and the United States of America, a common theme found in education reform documents is the term “world-class education.” This term has become widely associated with comparative results on international tests, such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which purports to measure certain aspects of educational quality. Indeed, the term is frequently used by countries that have attained high scores in these international tests as a strong indicator of being world-class. This seemingly small aspect of change (i.e. the comparing of achievements in Mathematics and Science) has impacted developing and developed nations in reforming their education system and in calling their ongoing education reforms as moving towards a ‘world-class education system.’

Thus, interrelationships in an open system require sophisticated analyses of their systemic nature. A reductionist and linear sequential relationship investigation would not be sufficient in order to bring about further change. To remain of value with the current trends, educational leadership researchers, who adopt complexity methodology, would help practitioners shaping the future by creating an environment of valid knowledge.

7.4.2 Shared and Distributed Leadership

The idea of distributed leadership connects well with the trend towards greater decentralization (since the 1980s) and school autonomy through which school leaders are expected to play a greater role in leadership beyond the school borders and requires them to make budgetary decisions, foster professional capacity development, and play a role in the design of school buildings, and many more aspects (Glatter & Kydd, 2003 ; Lee, Hallinger, & Walker, 2012 ; Nguyen, Ng, & Yap, 2017 ; Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2001 ).

A core function of leadership – distributed leadership included – is decision-making. The most popular discussion of decision-making of the twenty-first century emanates from the concept of decentralization. Decentralization includes delegating responsibilities, practice of distributed leadership, and practice of distributed or shared instructional leadership (Lee et al., 2012 ; Nguyen et al., 2017 ; Spillane et al., 2001 ).

Glatter and Kydd ( 2003 ) identified two models of decentralization, which have important implications for school leaders, namely local empowerment and school empowerment. In local empowerment, the transfer of responsibilities takes place from the state to the districts, including schools with reciprocal rights and obligations. Therefore, school leaders are expected to play a greater role in leadership beyond school borders. Within the context of school empowerment or autonomy, decision-making by the school has been a consistent movement since the 1980s. The increase in autonomy required the school leaders to make budgetary changes, promote professional capacity development, rethink the design of school buildings, and consider many more aspects.

How might national and state policy frameworks (including curriculum and assessment, school quality and improvement) successfully engage and interact with key activities and characteristics of the school (including learning focus, structure, culture, and decision-making capacity)? What considerations must be taken when formulating policies of curriculum and implementation of policies within the classroom (class size, teaching approaches, and learning resources)? How does one optimize the capacity and work of school leaders to influence and promote effective learning? How might one be informed of the processes of influence beyond relying on interpretive and explanatory qualitative studies? Indeed, any attempt to design and carry out a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which leaders influence and promote successful outcomes through their decision-making will require specific methods and procedures beyond the traditional research methods (Leithwood & Levin, 2005 ). In particular, distributed leadership research stands to gain the most if relevant research methodologies were adopted that could be informative of the workings/actions of school leadership.

7.5 What Are the Alternatives to Current Social Science Methodologies for Educational Leadership?

As stated earlier, it is important to ensure that any alternative research methodologies proposed must adhere to the characteristic of disciplined inquiry. To further expand on this characteristic, Cronbach and Suppes stated that “Disciplined inquiry does not necessarily follow well-established, formal procedures. Some of the most excellent inquiry is free-ranging and speculative […] trying what might seem to be a bizarre combination of ideas and procedures…” (Cronbach & Suppes, 1969 , p. 16).

Drawing from the statement by Cronbach and Suppes, there are two other important points about disciplined inquiry that must be addressed here. Disciplined inquiry is not solely focussed on establishing facts. The methods of observation and inquiry are critical in defining which selection of facts of a phenomenon are found. Establishing facts can be done through a selection of observations and/or data collection methods. This point is not meant to raise the philosophical argument of positivism and post-positivism although it may be implied. Rather, from a pragmatic perspective, and to adhere to the characteristic of disciplined inquiry, one should be open to different types of observations and data collection methodologies, and thus different types of facts, as long as the definition of disciplined inquiry is adhered to. To further support this view, it must be understood that the field of educational leadership is not a discipline by itself. As in any field of study, one should not be limited to a single discipline to dictate and direct the focus and forms of studies. Instead, procedures and perspectives of different disciplines, such as biology, chemistry, economics, geography, politics, anthropology, sociology, and others might bear on the research questions that can be investigated.

7.5.1 Brief Introduction to Complexity Science from an Educational Leadership Perspective

Complexity science appeared in the twentieth century in response to criticism of the inadequacy of the reductionist analytical thinking model in helping to understand systems and the intricacies of organizations. Complexity science does not refer to a single discipline; like in social science, a family of disciplines (psychology, sociology, economics, etc.) adopt methodologies to study society-related phenomena. Complexity science includes the disciplines of non-linear dynamical systems, networks, synergetics, and complex adaptive systems, and others.

The cornerstone concept of complexity science is the complex system. Complex systems have distinctive characteristics of self-organization, adaptive ability, emergent properties, non-linear interactions, and dynamic and network-like structures (Bar-Yam, 2003 ; Capra, 1996 ; Cilliers, 2001 ). By looking at the complex system of an organization, leadership should, consequently, be viewed in a different light. A complex system is a ‘functional whole,’ consisting of interdependent and variable parts. In other words, unlike a conventional system (e.g. an aircraft), the parts need not have fixed relationships, fixed behaviours, or fixed quantities. Thus, their individual functions may also be undefined in traditional terms. Despite the apparent tenuousness of this concept, these systems form the majority of our world, and include living organisms and social systems, along with many inorganic natural systems (e.g. rivers). The following is a brief introduction of key concepts of complexity science. These concepts are also the methodological assumptions for complexity science.

7.5.2 Emergence

Emergence is a key concept in understanding how different levels are linked in a system. In the case of leadership, it is about how influence happens at the individual, structural, and system levels. These different levels exist simultaneously, and one is not necessarily more important than the other, rather they are recognized as co-existing and linked.

Each level has different patterns and can be subjected to different kinds of theorization. Patterns at ‘higher’ levels can emerge in ways that are hard to predict at the ‘lower’ levels. The challenge (long-acknowledged in leadership research) is to understand how different levels interact and affect school outcome or school improvement. This question of the nature of ‘emergence’ has been framed in a variety of ways, including those of “macro-micro linkage,” “individual and society,” the “problem of order,” and “structure, action and structuration” (Giddens, 1984 ). In this paper, Giddens’ explanation of emergence as the relationship between the different levels through the “structure and agency” is adopted.

Giddens stated that the term “structure” referred generally to “rules and resources.” These properties make it possible for social practices to exist across time and space and that lends them ‘systemic’ form (Giddens, 1984 , p. 17). Giddens referred to agents as groups or individuals who draw upon these structures to perform social actions through embedded memory, called memory traces. Memory traces are, thus, the vehicle by which social actions are carried out. Structure is also, however, the result of these social practices.

7.5.3 Non-linearity

Non-linearity refers to leadership effects or outcomes that are more complicated than being assigned to a single source or single chain of events. Influence and outcome are considered linear if one can attribute cause and effect. Non-linearity in leadership, however, means that the outcome is not proportional to the input and that the outcome does not conform to the principle of additivity, i.e. it may involve synergistic reactions, in which the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts.

One way to understand non-linearity is about how small events lead to large scale changes in systems. Within the natural sciences, the example often cited (or imagined) is that of a small disturbance in the atmosphere in one location, perhaps as small as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, tipping the balance of other systems, leading ultimately to a storm on the other side of the globe (Capra, 1997 ).

7.5.4 Self-Organization

Self-organization happens naturally as a result of non-linear interactions among staff members in the school (Fontana & Ballati, 1999 ). As the word describes, there is no central authority guiding and imposing the interactions. Staff members adapt to changing goals and situations by adopting communication patterns that are not centrally controlled by an authority. In the process of working towards a goal (e.g. solving a leadership problem), self-organizing staff members tend to exhibit creativity and novelty as they have to quickly adapt and to find ways and means to solve the problem and achieve the goal.

This particular phenomenon is best observed in distributed leadership (Ng & Ho, 2012 ; Yuen, Chen, & Ng, 2015 ). As a result of interactions among members, the emergence of new patterns in conversation happens. This is an important aspect of self-organization. When there are no new patterns in conversations, there are no new ideas and no novel ways to solve problems. It must be noted that new patterns of conversation depend upon the responsiveness of its members towards each other and their awareness of each other’s ideas and responses. As a result of the behaviour of interacting members, learning and adaptation, i.e. novel ways of solving problems emerge.

As stated earlier, complexity science is interdisciplinary and as such, there are multiple methods and ways to study complexity phenomena. It is nearly impossible to delve into these methodologies in a meaningful manner within the scope of one paper.

The intention with this paper is to propose alternative social science methodologies and analytical tools to perform educational leadership research. The following section will highlight one of the methods used in complexity science research that provides an alternative to the limitations identified in current research methodologies in educational leadership research.

7.6 Social Network Analysis as an Alternative to Normal Distribution and Linearity

Social Network Analysis (Scott, 2011 ; Wasserman & Faust, 1994 ) focuses on relational structures that characterize a network of people. These relational structures are represented by graphs of individuals and their social relations, and indices of structure, which analyze the network of social relationships on the basis of characteristics such as neighbourhood, density, centrality, cohesion, and others. The Social Network Analysis-method has been used to investigate educational issues, such as teacher professional networks (Baker-Doyle & Yoon, 2011 ; Penuel, Riel, Krause, & Frank, 2009 ), the spread of educational innovations (Frank, Zhao, & Borman, 2004 ), and peer influences on youth behaviour (Ennett et al., 2006 ). Table 7.4 provides examples of the types of data collected, and the analytical methods and analytical tools used in social network analysis.

In network analysis, indicators of centrality identify the most important vertices within a graph. Two separate measures of degree centrality, namely in-degree and out-degree, are used. In-degree is a count of the number of ties directed to the node (agent/individual) and out-degree is the number of ties that the node (agent/individual) directs to others. When ties are associated to positive aspects, such as friendship or collaboration, in-degree is often interpreted as a form of popularity and out-degree as a form of gregariousness.

For example, the study of Bird and colleagues (Bird, Gourley, Devanbu, Gertz, & Swaminathan, 2006 ) introduces social network analysis and the evidence of long-tailed distribution, which is a distinctive digression from the traditional social science study and the normal distribution associated with it. The evidence from social network measures in this research suggests that “developers who actually commit changes, play much more significant roles in the e-mail community than non-developers” (Bird et al., 2006 , p. 142). What this conclusion alludes to is that knowledgeable and active developers who demonstrate their ability by actively responding and making changes (out-degree) based on feedback are more often contacted by e-mail queries from other users.

7.6.1 How Does Social Network Analysis Contribute to Educational Leadership Research?

The usefulness of social network analysis is reflected in a study (co-conducted by the author) on instructional leadership practices in primary schools in a centralized system where hierarchical structures are in place (Nguyen et al., 2017 ). It is noteworthy that the hierarchical structure’s inherent reliance on a ‘supreme leader’ is greatly mitigated by the emergence of heterarchical elements. In brief, hierarchical structures, on the one hand, are vertical top-down control and reporting structures. Heterarchical structures, on the other hand, are horizontal. The findings revealed that at the teachers’ and other key personnel’s horizontal levels of hierarchy, spontaneous interactions and collaborations take place within a group and amongst groups of teachers. Through these horizontal professional interactions, individuals exert reciprocal influences on one another, with the minimal effects of authority power. In this structure, distributed instructional leadership appears to be deliberately practiced. Key personnel and teachers work in collaborative teams and are supported by organizational structures, initiated by the principals. This is where various instructional improvement programmes and strategies are initiated, implemented, and led by staff members. This would be highly impossible, if the principal practices were heavily based on hierarchical instructional leadership.

This study implies that decision-making on instructional improvement programmes is rigorously and actively practiced by teachers at the heterarchical level. Decision-making involves getting support for resources and approval from authorities over the teachers. In an organizational hierarchical structure, it would be the authority immediately above the teachers - the Head of Department, followed by the Vice Principal, and finally the Principal. Typically, such a reporting and resource seeking structure would be ineffective in creating instructional improvement programmes. If one was to redo the study and adopt social network analysis measures, how would the findings be presented? The figures below are hypothetically generated to provide a possible way to interpret hierarchical and heterarchical structures: Fig. 7.1 shows a social network representation, which provides an alternative way to represent hierarchy. The central (purple dot) represents the Principal, while the connected red dots to the Principal are the Head of Departments. The Head of Departments then oversees Subject Heads and finally teachers. Implying from our study, where heterarchical elements are exhibited, social network representation will most plausibly provide the means to represent the elements in Fig. 7.1 .

Expected and actual reporting and decision-making pathways in managing teaching and learning

Note: In B, T1 = perceived authority for immediate action (e.g. allocation of resources, ability to act); T2 = perceived trust; T3 = pilot curriculum project

What is immediately evident, is that the representation provides a more realistic way to look at social interactions involving decision-making. The connected dots among teachers could reveal who they interact most with. In addition, what would be most revealing is the emergence of how teachers in hybrid hierarchical and heterarchical structures make decisions. Specifically, the emergence of by-passing the constraints of a typical top-down hierarchical structure by directly getting support from centrality – the principal, who controls and provides resources and who also approves final decisions.

In summary, the discussion on one of the complexity science methodologies/social network analysis presents opportunities to reframe educational leadership research. It is now possible to ask research questions that are not bound by the constraints of current social science methodologies. Here are a number of questions using Social Network Analysis alone:

What is the local (indigenous) knowledge base of instructional leadership and how does it emerge?

How do different level leaders (Ministry of Education, Superintendents, Principals, etc.) shape the perception of curriculum policies in schools? (And – for specific local understanding – who are the influential personnel impacting curriculum and policy implementation?)

Examination of ties among school departments that affect school improvement: What are the implications for long-term strategy processes for school improvement in light of the complex and adaptive nature of departments?

What does engagement in decision-making look like?

How do aspects of relations within the network: structural (pattern of interaction, face-to-face interaction), affective (benevolence and trust), and cognitive (mutual knowledge about each other’s skills and knowledge, and shared systems of meaning) affect professional development and learning?

Will an intended school vision/policy enjoy the desired positive reception among staff members?

7.7 Conclusion

This chapter contains the review that social science methodologies and analytical tools have been consistently and almost universally adopted in educational leadership research for the last three decades. This paper also highlights a number of limitations of current social science methodologies. The alternative complexity science research methodologies proposed are not merely alternative or novel ways of examining the problems or issues encountered. What is more valuable is that these alternative methodologies bring with them their contrasting disciplinary roots and their corresponding (new) questions. The interest in the effects of educational leadership on school improvement can now be investigated by asking different research questions. One could, indeed, go deeper, wide-angle or zoom-in, and even make predictions by revisiting the basic question of “What do we wish to know about school improvement that we do not yet know enough about?”

By being open to alternative methodologies, one has nothing to lose but everything to gain in the scholastic pursuit of knowledge in the field of educational leadership and management. Researchers must avoid being educational leadership researchers who see the world merely from the perspectives that they have lived in; they should also avoid accepting these perspectives as the only perspectives without questions. The choice of research method or combination of methods affects the type of research questions asked (although, in practice, the questions are also often shaped by the researchers’ training and area of expertise). Ideally, one should not be constrained by methods before asking research questions. Research questions are the primary drivers of the quest for knowledge. This is the basis from which the most relevant methodologies are found that can answer research questions and provide researchers with the findings that can contribute to theory formation, knowledge building, and translation into practice. The author, therefore, proposes the following implications for practice and for research:

Introduce complexity science (and also other disciplines) as additional graduate research courses. One can still tap on the transmission-form of knowledge transfer and supervisor-supervisee platform.

Partner with established experts in the discipline of complexity science to leverage and speed up transfer of learning and research skills among educational leadership professors.

Engage in epistemological and ontological discussions (including generalizability of findings) on complexity theory – to deepen our understanding of the advantages and limitations of complexity science disciplined inquiries.

Expand educational leadership journals to accept findings and research that do not necessarily conform to social science methodologies alone.

Finally, reframing educational leadership research is an imperative in the light of diminishing researchable aspects due to the limitations of current methodologies. I, the author, want to reiterate that I do not advocate replacing existing social science methodologies. I acknowledge that social methodologies are still essential and vital. The full spectrum of social science research methodologies is needed to continue contributing to theory development in educational leadership and management. However, one also needs alternatives and complementary approaches to social science, such as complexity science methodologies for both theory development and theory building. The important thing to remember is that the questions come first and the methods follow.

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NG, D. (2021). Reframing Educational Leadership Research in the Twenty-First Century. In: Oude Groote Beverborg, A., Feldhoff, T., Maag Merki, K., Radisch, F. (eds) Concept and Design Developments in School Improvement Research. Accountability and Educational Improvement. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69345-9_7

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Research Topics & Ideas: Education

170+ Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Dissertation, Thesis Or Research Project

I f you’re just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas , including examples from actual dissertations and theses..

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Education Research Topics

• How to find a research topic (video)
• List of 50+ education-related research topics/ideas
• List of 120+ level-specific research topics 
• Examples of actual dissertation topics in education
• Tips to fast-track your topic ideation (video)
• Where to get extra help

Education-Related Research Topics & Ideas

Below you’ll find a list of education-related research topics and idea kickstarters. These are fairly broad and flexible to various contexts, so keep in mind that you will need to refine them a little. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

• The impact of school funding on student achievement
• The effects of social and emotional learning on student well-being
• The effects of parental involvement on student behaviour
• The impact of teacher training on student learning
• The impact of classroom design on student learning
• The impact of poverty on education
• The use of student data to inform instruction
• The role of parental involvement in education
• The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom
• The use of technology in the classroom
• The role of critical thinking in education
• The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom
• The use of differentiated instruction in the classroom
• The use of gamification in education
• The effects of teacher burnout on student learning
• The impact of school leadership on student achievement
• The effects of teacher diversity on student outcomes
• The role of teacher collaboration in improving student outcomes
• The implementation of blended and online learning
• The effects of teacher accountability on student achievement
• The effects of standardized testing on student learning
• The effects of classroom management on student behaviour
• The effects of school culture on student achievement
• The use of student-centred learning in the classroom
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on student outcomes
• The achievement gap in minority and low-income students
• The use of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom
• The impact of teacher professional development on student learning
• The use of project-based learning in the classroom
• The effects of teacher expectations on student achievement
• The use of adaptive learning technology in the classroom
• The impact of teacher turnover on student learning
• The effects of teacher recruitment and retention on student learning
• The impact of early childhood education on later academic success
• The impact of parental involvement on student engagement
• The use of positive reinforcement in education
• The impact of school climate on student engagement
• The role of STEM education in preparing students for the workforce
• The effects of school choice on student achievement
• The use of technology in the form of online tutoring

Level-Specific Research Topics

Looking for research topics for a specific level of education? We’ve got you covered. Below you can find research topic ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary-level education contexts. Click the relevant level to view the respective list.

Research Topics: Pick An Education Level

Primary education.

• Investigating the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of mindfulness practices in primary school classrooms
• Examining the effects of different teaching strategies on primary school students’ problem-solving skills
• The use of storytelling as a teaching strategy in primary school literacy instruction
• The role of cultural diversity in promoting tolerance and understanding in primary schools
• The impact of character education programs on moral development in primary school students
• Investigating the use of technology in enhancing primary school mathematics education
• The impact of inclusive curriculum on promoting equity and diversity in primary schools
• The impact of outdoor education programs on environmental awareness in primary school students
• The influence of school climate on student motivation and engagement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of early literacy interventions on reading comprehension in primary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student achievement in primary schools
• Exploring the benefits of inclusive education for students with special needs in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of teacher-student feedback on academic motivation in primary schools
• The role of technology in developing digital literacy skills in primary school students
• Effective strategies for fostering a growth mindset in primary school students
• Investigating the role of parental support in reducing academic stress in primary school children
• The role of arts education in fostering creativity and self-expression in primary school students
• Examining the effects of early childhood education programs on primary school readiness
• Examining the effects of homework on primary school students’ academic performance
• The role of formative assessment in improving learning outcomes in primary school classrooms
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on academic outcomes in primary school
• Investigating the effects of classroom environment on student behavior and learning outcomes in primary schools
• Investigating the role of creativity and imagination in primary school curriculum
• The impact of nutrition and healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on primary school students’ well-being and academic performance
• The role of parental involvement in academic achievement of primary school children
• Examining the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior in primary school
• The role of school leadership in creating a positive school climate Exploring the benefits of bilingual education in primary schools
• The effectiveness of project-based learning in developing critical thinking skills in primary school students
• The role of inquiry-based learning in fostering curiosity and critical thinking in primary school students
• The effects of class size on student engagement and achievement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of recess and physical activity breaks on attention and learning in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of outdoor play in developing gross motor skills in primary school children
• The effects of educational field trips on knowledge retention in primary school students
• Examining the effects of inclusive classroom practices on students’ attitudes towards diversity in primary schools
• The impact of parental involvement in homework on primary school students’ academic achievement
• Investigating the effectiveness of different assessment methods in primary school classrooms
• The influence of physical activity and exercise on cognitive development in primary school children
• Exploring the benefits of cooperative learning in promoting social skills in primary school students

Secondary Education

• Investigating the effects of school discipline policies on student behavior and academic success in secondary education
• The role of social media in enhancing communication and collaboration among secondary school students
• The impact of school leadership on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of technology integration on teaching and learning in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of interdisciplinary instruction in promoting critical thinking skills in secondary schools
• The impact of arts education on creativity and self-expression in secondary school students
• The effectiveness of flipped classrooms in promoting student learning in secondary education
• The role of career guidance programs in preparing secondary school students for future employment
• Investigating the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student autonomy and academic success in secondary schools
• The impact of socio-economic factors on educational attainment in secondary education
• Investigating the impact of project-based learning on student engagement and academic achievement in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of multicultural education on cultural understanding and tolerance in secondary schools
• The influence of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior and academic engagement in secondary education
• The influence of teacher professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of extracurricular activities in promoting holistic development and well-roundedness in secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models on student engagement and achievement in secondary education
• The role of physical education in promoting physical health and well-being among secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of gender on academic achievement and career aspirations in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of multicultural literature in promoting cultural awareness and empathy among secondary school students
• The impact of school counseling services on student mental health and well-being in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of vocational education and training in preparing secondary school students for the workforce
• The role of digital literacy in preparing secondary school students for the digital age
• The influence of parental involvement on academic success and well-being of secondary school students
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on secondary school students’ well-being and academic success
• The role of character education in fostering ethical and responsible behavior in secondary school students
• Examining the effects of digital citizenship education on responsible and ethical technology use among secondary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of educational technology in promoting personalized learning experiences in secondary schools
• The impact of inclusive education on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities in secondary schools
• The influence of parental support on academic motivation and achievement in secondary education
• The role of school climate in promoting positive behavior and well-being among secondary school students
• Examining the effects of peer mentoring programs on academic achievement and social-emotional development in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and achievement in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement among secondary school students
• The impact of educational policies on educational equity and access in secondary education
• Examining the effects of homework on academic achievement and student well-being in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of different assessment methods on student performance in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of single-sex education on academic performance and gender stereotypes in secondary schools
• The role of mentoring programs in supporting the transition from secondary to post-secondary education

Tertiary Education

• The role of student support services in promoting academic success and well-being in higher education
• The impact of internationalization initiatives on students’ intercultural competence and global perspectives in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of active learning classrooms and learning spaces on student engagement and learning outcomes in tertiary education
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning experiences in fostering civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education
• The influence of learning communities and collaborative learning environments on student academic and social integration in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research experiences in fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry skills
• Investigating the effects of academic advising and mentoring on student retention and degree completion in higher education
• The role of student engagement and involvement in co-curricular activities on holistic student development in higher education
• The impact of multicultural education on fostering cultural competence and diversity appreciation in higher education
• The role of internships and work-integrated learning experiences in enhancing students’ employability and career outcomes
• Examining the effects of assessment and feedback practices on student learning and academic achievement in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty-student relationships on student success and well-being in tertiary education
• The impact of college transition programs on students’ academic and social adjustment to higher education
• The impact of online learning platforms on student learning outcomes in higher education
• The impact of financial aid and scholarships on access and persistence in higher education
• The influence of student leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities on personal development and campus engagement
• Exploring the benefits of competency-based education in developing job-specific skills in tertiary students
• Examining the effects of flipped classroom models on student learning and retention in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of online collaboration and virtual team projects in developing teamwork skills in tertiary students
• Investigating the effects of diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus climate and student experiences in tertiary education
• The influence of study abroad programs on intercultural competence and global perspectives of college students
• Investigating the effects of peer mentoring and tutoring programs on student retention and academic performance in tertiary education
• Investigating the effectiveness of active learning strategies in promoting student engagement and achievement in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models and hybrid courses on student learning and satisfaction in higher education
• The role of digital literacy and information literacy skills in supporting student success in the digital age
• Investigating the effects of experiential learning opportunities on career readiness and employability of college students
• The impact of e-portfolios on student reflection, self-assessment, and showcasing of learning in higher education
• The role of technology in enhancing collaborative learning experiences in tertiary classrooms
• The impact of research opportunities on undergraduate student engagement and pursuit of advanced degrees
• Examining the effects of competency-based assessment on measuring student learning and achievement in tertiary education
• Examining the effects of interdisciplinary programs and courses on critical thinking and problem-solving skills in college students
• The role of inclusive education and accessibility in promoting equitable learning experiences for diverse student populations
• The role of career counseling and guidance in supporting students’ career decision-making in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty diversity and representation on student success and inclusive learning environments in higher education

Education-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in education, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses in the education space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of education-related research projects to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• From Rural to Urban: Education Conditions of Migrant Children in China (Wang, 2019)
• Energy Renovation While Learning English: A Guidebook for Elementary ESL Teachers (Yang, 2019)
• A Reanalyses of Intercorrelational Matrices of Visual and Verbal Learners’ Abilities, Cognitive Styles, and Learning Preferences (Fox, 2020)
• A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district (Barabas, 2020)
• Instructor formative assessment practices in virtual learning environments : a posthumanist sociomaterial perspective (Burcks, 2019)
• Higher education students services: a qualitative study of two mid-size universities’ direct exchange programs (Kinde, 2020)
• Exploring editorial leadership : a qualitative study of scholastic journalism advisers teaching leadership in Missouri secondary schools (Lewis, 2020)
• Selling the virtual university: a multimodal discourse analysis of marketing for online learning (Ludwig, 2020)
• Advocacy and accountability in school counselling: assessing the use of data as related to professional self-efficacy (Matthews, 2020)
• The use of an application screening assessment as a predictor of teaching retention at a midwestern, K-12, public school district (Scarbrough, 2020)
• Core values driving sustained elite performance cultures (Beiner, 2020)
• Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum (Dwiggins, 2020)
• How female principals nurture adult learning opportunities in successful high schools with challenging student demographics (Woodward, 2020)
• The disproportionality of Black Males in Special Education: A Case Study Analysis of Educator Perceptions in a Southeastern Urban High School (McCrae, 2021)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

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If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic within education, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

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Yale announces $150 million to support leadership in ai.

(Photo by Dan Renzetti)

Yale will commit more than $150 million over the next five years to support faculty, students, and staff as they engage with artificial intelligence (AI), the university announced today.

The investment will help the community develop, use, and evaluate AI and apply it to deliver breakthrough research at an unprecedented speed and scale, Yale Provost Scott Strobel wrote in a message to the Yale community . It will support key areas, including compute infrastructure, community access to secure generative AI tools, targeted faculty hires, seed grants, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

“ Yale has long been at the forefront of AI development and research, and our leadership continues to be necessary as this technology evolves and endures,” Strobel said. “To fulfill the university’s mission to improve the world and prepare the next generation of society’s great leaders and thinkers, we must explore, advance, and harness AI for its benefits while providing ethical, legal, and social frameworks to address the challenges it poses.”

The commitment will benefit all of campus while contributing to school- and unit-specific AI strategies, including curricular, research, and recruitment goals that each dean has identified for the coming year, he said.

The $150 million commitment responds to the report of the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence . During the spring, the 18-member group of faculty and campus leaders engaged with dean-led faculty panels and university experts in education, collections, clinical practice, and operations to review AI activity already underway and develop a vision for Yale’s leadership in the future.

The task force recommendations guide the following commitments:

Expanding research infrastructure

Over the next several years, Yale will build a portfolio of approximately 450 graphics processing units (GPUs) — advanced processors that have become foundational to modern AI development — invest in cloud-based GPU access, and hire new computational research support analysts.

When paired with high performance computing clusters and advanced GPUs, AI enables processing and analysis of big data sets, advanced simulations, and more, Strobel said. This allows investigators to conduct research on and with AI in ways not possible using traditional computers alone. Such research can enable drug discovery, enhance understanding of biological and physical systems, track migration patterns, and reconstruct historical sites, among many other innovative applications.

To facilitate these complex AI computations, the task force advised that the university invest in several hundred GPUs, enable cloud access to additional GPUs through technology providers, and explore partnerships with other institutions seeking to share compute resources, Strobel said.

The new commitment will support:

A portfolio of GPUs : The university will stagger purchases of the approximately 450 GPUs “to naturally track with the anticipated rapid evolution of GPU technology,” Strobel said.

Most of these new GPUs will be installed on clusters maintained by the Yale Center for Research Computing (YCRC) and located at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) , a LEED Platinum certified data center and joint venture between Yale and several other universities. To supplement these resources, the university will also invest in cloud-based GPU access, expanding capacity for research that demands a very large number of GPUs for short periods of time.

Computational research support analysts: To support researchers across campus as they access this new AI infrastructure, the YCRC will hire new computational research support analysts to join its existing research support team. These professionals will offer training and assist members of the community as they advance their research using new GPU-intensive compute resources.

Delivering secure access to generative AI

If the Yale community is to shape how AI is developed, experiment with its possibilities, and evaluate its role in society, the AI task force concluded, it must have equitable access to generative AI , Strobel said.

Specifically, he said, the task force recommended that Yale procure or develop secure generative AI tools capable of protecting individual and university data and adapting to new innovations over time. In response, the university will launch the Clarity platform , which will provide faculty, students, and staff with secure access to robust AI tools.

The Clarity platform : In its initial phase, Clarity offers an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o. Importantly, Clarity provides a “walled-off” environment; its use is limited to Yale faculty, students, and staff, and information entered into its chatbot is not saved or used to train external AI models.

Clarity is appropriate for use with all data types, including high-risk data , provided that all security standards are observed, Strobel said. Its chatbot is capable of content creation, coding assistance, data and image analysis, text-to-speech, and more. Over time, the platform may expand to incorporate additional AI tools, including other large language models . Clarity is designed to evolve as generative AI develops and the community offers feedback. (Before using the Clarity AI chatbot, Strobel said, members of the Yale community should review training resources and guidance on appropriate use .)

Additional AI tools : In addition to Clarity, the university will also offer faculty, students, and staff access to other AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot Enterprise and Adobe Firefly. More information about these tools, including instructions and training material, is available on the AI at Yale website , a new and evolving hub of information about AI at the university. Additional details on AI tools will be shared with the community soon.

Building expertise to support research and education

In addition to offering secure AI tools, Yale will broaden and deepen its expertise in AI to advance research, scholarship, and education, Strobel said. These will include:

Faculty positions: While meeting with faculty and leaders across campus, the task force observed the breadth of Yale’s engagement with AI. Many of the university’s researchers and scholars have been developing, utilizing, and analyzing AI for years. Their breakthroughs and insights — from using AI to produce faster medical diagnoses to examining AI’s impact on human labor — are producing knowledge that impacts lives around the world, Strobel said. In addition, faculty are increasingly engaging with AI in their teaching, using it as a tool and a phenomenon to study and critique.

To further expand Yale’s capacity for AI-related research, teaching, and learning, the university expects to recruit more than 20 faculty whose scholarship centers on AI technology. In the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), and the School of Medicine, deans are allocating positions, some recently created through the expansion of the FAS and SEAS faculty , to supplement existing capabilities in AI research, application, and development, Strobel wrote.

Spread across campus, these targeted positions will support field-specific approaches to AI while creating opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

“ Additional faculty expertise will strengthen Yale’s depth of knowledge and enhance the learning environment for students, who will be expected to understand, navigate, and make decisions about AI technologies throughout their lives and careers,” Strobel said.

Seed grants for reviewing curricula in the context of AI: Addressing the need to prepare Yale’s graduates to lead and thrive in a future infused with AI, the task force acknowledged Yale’s “opportunity to serve as a model by adapting its curricula.” Deans and faculty are already implementing innovative changes to coursework and offering answers to questions about what it means to teach and train in this new age, Strobel said.

To aid their work, the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning will pilot curriculum review grants this year, assisting schools and departments as they examine their programs and disciplines in the context of AI. These grants will facilitate pioneering approaches to curriculum review and design. The learning opportunities that result will give students the range of skills needed to shape AI and its role in their professions and communities.

The Poorvu Center will share more information about these grant opportunities later this year, Strobel said.

Facilitating innovation and collaboration

Though the task force noted “rich disciplinary distinctions” in school and unit approaches to AI, it also remarked on the critical contributions Yale makes by “draw[ing] on expertise from the full breadth of its diverse community…” The task force members encouraged the university to create “catalysts for collaboration” that exploit Yale’s strength in cross- and inter-disciplinary research and scholarship, Strobel said.

To leverage Yale’s wide-ranging expertise and perspectives on AI, Strobel said, the university will offer opportunities for innovation and collaboration across schools, units, departments, and disciplines. This academic year, Yale will host a campus-wide research symposium on AI, inviting faculty, students, and staff to present research, share ideas, and establish connections across intellectual boundaries.

To offer a variety of ways to engage, the university will also sponsor interdisciplinary AI prompt-a-thons, seminars, and a research seed grant program, he said. Additionally, the Yale University Library will play a key role in facilitating research and educational innovation throughout the community, offering support and AI-powered tools to improve access to digitized collections and unlock new research possibilities. Details will be posted to the AI at Yale website .

“ Whether you are studying, teaching, researching, or working at Yale, I encourage you to explore the resources available now and engage with the opportunities to come,” Strobel wrote in his message. “Members of our community — from Information Technology to the Library to deans’ offices — continue to work diligently to implement these investments.”

Strobel expressed gratitude to Jenny Frederick, associate provost for academic initiatives and executive director of the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, for her work in “orchestrating AI investments across campus.”

“ As we advance Yale’s leadership in AI, let us embrace one of the fundamental tenets of a university: curiosity,” he added. “Our willingness to share — with each other and with the world — various perspectives, ideas, evaluations, and analyses will be critical to our success.

“ Our efforts will equip society and the next generation with the tools and frameworks necessary to positively shape a world continuously transformed by technological innovation.”

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Bridget Terry Long, A.M. ’97, Ph.D. ’00, announced on Thursday that she will step down as dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

Long’s leadership service to the Ed School spans 10 years — four as academic dean and six as dean. A renowned scholar of the economics of higher education, she will remain on the School’s faculty following a sabbatical next year.

In Long’s message to the Ed School community, she said, “It is with a deep sense of gratitude and admiration for this remarkable community that I write today to share the news that I have decided to step down as Dean at the end of this academic year. This decision was not an easy one, but I believe this is the right time for me to embark on my next chapter — and the school is well-positioned to embark on its own next chapter, too.”

In his message to the School community, Interim President Alan Garber praised Long for her steadfast leadership.

“Since her appointment in 2018, and throughout her earlier tenure as academic dean, Bridget has served HGSE with distinction, guided always by an unwavering commitment to the School’s mission of preparing leaders and innovators who expand opportunities and improve outcomes for learners everywhere,” Garber said. “I am deeply grateful for her leadership.”

Garber added that he will share information about the search for a new dean in the coming weeks.

“Her insights into the factors that influence educational opportunity and student success in higher education have helped us advance a central aspect of Harvard’s mission.” Alan Garber, interim president

Long led the Ed School through the pandemic, as schools, teachers, and administrators sought new methods of teaching and learning. Under her leadership, the Ed School redesigned its master’s degree program, including through the creation of the Foundations curriculum, and opened doors to new students by creating an online master’s degree program that has served as a model for the University. She also launched the Social Impact and Lifelong Learning unit, which integrates alumni relations, career services, and professional education into a single hub to provide professional development.

Recognizing the importance of external engagement, Long oversaw the launch of Education Now , a webinar series and newsletter in which experts discuss challenges in the field, and refined the Askwith Education Forum . She created the Dean’s Education Fellows , an initiative that matched Ed School grads with school districts around the country to provide support during the COVID crisis. She also launched the Principals’ Network , a space for leaders to cultivate relationships and share resources and knowledge with leading faculty.

“Beyond her service to the School, Bridget has been an invaluable partner to her fellow deans and to me,” Garber said. “Her insights into the factors that influence educational opportunity and student success in higher education have helped us advance a central aspect of Harvard’s mission.”

Long joined the Ed School faculty in 2000 and has devoted much of her research and scholarship to improving educational opportunities. Her research has examined the effectiveness of financial aid policies and support programs on educational attainment. She has been the recipient of various research awards, including from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation. She is also a recipient of the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Long is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the National Academy of Education, and a fellow of the International Academy of Education. She was also appointed to the National Board for Education Sciences, having served as vice chair and chair.

In her note to the community, Long expressed enthusiasm for the next chapter of her career.

“I look forward with excitement to how the school will continue to grow and advance its mission over the next 10 years as it confronts the many new questions, and new challenges, that are at the forefront of our field and our society. I’ll be vigorously addressing those challenges myself, as I return to active scholarship, using my expertise, research, and voice to address some of the larger debates about higher education that are now unfolding.”

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Leadership Lessons from a NASA Tragedy

Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson offers a window into NASA’s organizational challenges.

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In early 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

This was not the first NASA mission to end in disaster, and it inspired Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson to write a business case about what went wrong.

Edmondson studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Her most recent book is Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well .

In this episode, she breaks down the organizational challenges within NASA that contributed to the Columbia tragedy, offering a window into the organization’s leadership. Edmondson also shares lessons for all leaders about the dangers of unyielding hierarchy and of failing to listen to dissenting voices.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, organizational culture, operations and supply chain management, NASA, hierarchy, science.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original Cold Call episode: The Space Shuttle Columbia’s Final Mission (2016)
• Find more episodes of Cold Call
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Leadership – case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock the best in those around you.

In early 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed. This was not the first NASA mission to end in disaster. And it inspired Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson to write a business case about what went wrong.

Edmondson studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Her most recent book is Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well . In this episode, Edmondson breaks down the organizational challenges within NASA that contributed to the Columbia tragedy, offering a window into the organization’s leadership. Edmondson also shares lessons for all leaders about the dangers of unyielding hierarchy and of failing to listen to dissenting voices.

This episode originally aired on Cold Call in September 2016. Here it is.

BRIAN KENNY: The Space Shuttle Columbia launched for the first time on April 12th, 1981: the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Over the next 22 years, it completed 27 missions.

On February 1st 2003, as its 28th mission neared an end, the shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members.

Today we’ll hear from Professor Amy Edmondson about her case, entitled Columbia’s Final Mission. I’m your host, Brian Kenny, and you’re listening to Cold Call .

SPEAKER 1: So, you’re all sitting there in your classroom.

SPEAKER 2: Professor walks in, and-

SPEAKER 3: And they look up and you know it’s coming.

SPEAKER 4: Oh, the dreaded cold call.

BRIAN KENNY: Professor Edmondson teaches in the MBA and doctoral programs here, as well as the executive education program. Her areas of expertise include leadership, teams, innovation and organizational learning. And perhaps you could add rocket science to that list after having written this case. Amy, welcome.

AMY EDMONDSON: Thank you. Glad to be here.

BRIAN KENNY: So, I thought we would start just by asking you to set up the case. This opens in a pretty dramatic fashion, due to the nature of the subject.

AMY EDMONDSON: It certainly does. My colleague Mike Roberto came to me right after this terrible accident and said, “Let’s write a case on it.”

Now, Mike and I had done several projects together and we both shared an interest in crisis and failure. So, I said, “Yes, let’s do it.”

Of course, we had to then wait for about six months before the official accident report was done by the Columbia Accident Investigation Team. So, we needed those data before we could do our work.

BRIAN KENNY: What inspired you to take on this particular topic?

AMY EDMONDSON: We expected that it would be a very rich story: that the causes of the accident would be multiple, that they would not be simple, that there would be a rich organizational story behind it. And we were right.

And we were particularly interested in the fact that NASA had experienced a prior catastrophic failure in its Shuttle Program back in 1986, with the Challenger launch disaster. And so we were interested in whether this was different or the same.

Clearly we expected; and we were right; that it would not be a purely technical malfunction, that it would be an organizational malfunction. And that’s what we wanted to understand.

BRIAN KENNY: How is this case different from others in terms of how students prepare? I know you have this paper case, there’s a multimedia version of this, and you teach it in both ways.

AMY EDMONDSON: Yes. First we wrote the paper case. We wanted to make sure it stood up to the test of teaching, and it did. We still use the paper case, especially sometimes if we’re teaching abroad, and it’s just easier than the complexity of the multimedia case.

BRIAN KENNY: Right.

AMY EDMONDSON: But the multimedia case, it has all of the same data and more. And its distinctive value is that there are six different perspectives from which it can be read. And each student is assigned to just one of them.

The six perspectives, three of them are relatively senior managers at NASA, and three of them are working engineers. They each have access to their own emails that they had at that time, to the conversations that they were a part of; but of course, not to the conversations that they were not a part of.

So when the students come into the classroom, they each have about 80% of the same data as everyone else, which means about 20% unique data, unique only to their role: which is of course, much more like real life than an ordinary conversation.

So when I teach the case, I remind people of that reality. And I say, “It’s going to be required for you to ask each other questions when you hear something that’s puzzling, that you haven’t read before.”

BRIAN KENNY: Can you talk a little bit about the evolution of the culture at NASA? Because you go back in some historical detail about Apollo missions, and it seemed like there was a different culture at that time. And it changed over time.

AMY EDMONDSON: All organizations, when they’re new, go through a period of great energy and excitement and innovation and openness as they are working to figure out what’s going to work, to figure out their replicable formula for success. Once they get that established, complacency can set in. So let’s call this Phase 2.

And in Phase 2, there’s a growing sense of confidence; “We know what we’re doing.” Less openness to dissenting views, perhaps less humility, less of an innovation mindset, than often that period of usually relative success. But also complacency will often come to an end with a failure.

BRIAN KENNY: So, in the Apollo years, it sounded like they were able to do some rapid problem-solving when they got into issues. You talk about the fire in the capsule, and how they were able to resolve that on the fly. What changed between that time and when the Shuttle Program came into being?

AMY EDMONDSON: Well, I think the one-word answer is “leadership.” I’ve already said things about the culture and greater complacency and greater confidence. It’s leadership’s role to combat that very natural tendency.

It’s leadership’s role to do as Gene Kranz did in the Apollo 13 mission and say, “Failure’s not an option. And I’m absolutely confident that between your engineering training and our collaborative abilities, we’ll solve this problem.”

That spirit was no longer there in the mission leadership at the time of Columbia.

BRIAN KENNY: Is there a difference between the way engineers would approach these kinds of organizational challenges and say, managers that have other kinds of backgrounds?

AMY EDMONDSON: I wish I could say simply the answer is, “Yes.” The reason it’s more complicated than that is that most of these managers at NASA, very senior managers, had engineering backgrounds.

In fact, there’s a very famous line in the Challenger launch disaster where one manager says to another, “Bob, take off your engineer’s hat and put on your management hat.”

The subtext of that comment seems to be, “Realize that we’ve got a very serious contract at stake here, and we don’t want to upset our customer. So please be supportive of what our customer wants.” Clearly not the best advice that was ever given to anybody.

But I think it’s a real syndrome where managers think that their job is different than the problem-solving that engineers take for granted.

BRIAN KENNY: There was a very pronounced hierarchical structure at NASA. And I’m curious about whether or not you feel that the learnings that came out of the Challenger disaster somehow didn’t stick. It didn’t penetrate the organization deeply enough for them to have a different outcome when Columbia happened.

AMY EDMONDSON: I think that’s an accurate statement. I believe one of the things they may have inadvertently learned from Challenger was that launch is dangerous.

And I suspect that every time there was a successful launch in the aftermath of Challenger, engineers throughout the organization, and managers, had a deep sigh of relief: “We survived the launch,” and forgot to realize there’s every bit as big a risk upon re-entry.

So, they learned the technical lessons well. I don’t think the organizational lessons were learned as well until later.

BRIAN KENNY: The incident that happened when the Columbia took off was a piece of foam; I’m going to get the science wrong here; but a piece of foam broke off one part of the ship and damaged another part of the ship.

AMY EDMONDSON: It actually broke off the solid rocket booster: the large booster rocket that the shuttle vehicle is attached to to get into the launch. And then the booster rocket falls away, and the Columbia keeps on going.

So a big piece of insulating foam came off the solid rocket booster, and hit the leading edge of Columbia’s left wing.

BRIAN KENNY: And there was a lot of disagreement among the team as the days unfolded about how significant the damage was, and whether or not it was going to cause any problems.

As you saw the case unfold, as you were doing the research, what became clear to you about what was happening within the team?

AMY EDMONDSON: What we do in the classroom is we try to unpack the causes of the failure. We unpack them at organizational, group, and individual levels of analysis. And it’s multi-causal indeed, as Mike Roberto suspected when we went into it.

BRIAN KENNY: I’m curious about when you do the role-playing version of this versus the paper case. How do students react in that situation? What surprises you about things?

AMY EDMONDSON: It’s wonderful to see the students actually take on the role. Now, many people find themselves appalled to be in one role or another. I mean, they don’t like their character, and that’s fine.

And other times students have more empathy for that character than they would if they were just reading it as an objective document, if they hadn’t been asked to occupy their shoes.

BRIAN KENNY: Because there are clearly bad guys and good guys; there’s a hero sort of character.

AMY EDMONDSON: Not necessarily.

BRIAN KENNY: No?

AMY EDMONDSON: I don’t think so. I think there’s only humans who are up against challenges that are quite ordinary. I don’t mean the technical side of things is ordinary, but the human and organizational side of things is very ordinary.

So they do what most ordinary humans in the absence of really superb leadership would do with the ambiguity they face, and the various pressures that they face in their different roles.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. If we ratchet this down, take it out of that scenario, and say, “It’s not a life or death situation:” but if I’m a manager listening to you describe this case right now, are there lessons that can be applied across other types of industries?

AMY EDMONDSON: Absolutely. To be very literal, anytime you’re going to launch something, meaning a product launch, an initiative launch, a culture change launch, you want to be thinking very carefully about it.

You want to be hearing the quiet voices. You want to be thinking about it from all angles. So that’s one obvious application, is how easily similar dynamics play out in organizations that are quite far removed from the space program.

And even separate from a product launch or a new initiative, every organization faces the kinds of hierarchical and group and cognitive issues that we see here.

I would like to describe it really as an organizational learning dysfunction that is quite common in organizations.

BRIAN KENNY: After you wrote the case, did you face any kind of fallout from NASA? Was there any sort of public reaction to the case?

AMY EDMONDSON: Initially, I don’t think NASA would’ve known about it because we did this with public data. We wrote it. We’re teaching in our wonderful classrooms here at HBS. It’s not exactly front-page news.

But many years into it, maybe six or eight years; I’m not sure exactly; I did get a call from NASA. It came through, I picked up the phone in my office, and essentially this wonderful gentleman said his name and said he was a senior manager at NASA. He said, “We know what you’re doing.”

And I thought, “Uh-oh.”

And he said, “And we think it’s great.”

BRIAN KENNY: Really?

AMY EDMONDSON: Yeah. And-

BRIAN KENNY: So maybe they’re learning something from this too.

AMY EDMONDSON: Absolutely. I think they learned. I think they were learning even without my help. He asked me to come and talk there, and I did. And it was really quite a terrific experience.

BRIAN KENNY: Have they ever come to the class when you’ve discussed it with the class?

AMY EDMONDSON: Once.

BRIAN KENNY: How was that?

AMY EDMONDSON: It was fabulous. It was fabulous. It was very, very humbling and moving. Rodney Rocha came to class and someone else who was not part of the story.

BRIAN KENNY: Great. Amy Edmondson, thank you for joining us today.

AMY EDMONDSON: My pleasure.

HANNAH BATES: That was Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson in conversation with BRIAN KENNY on Cold Call .

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about leadership from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues. And follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

And when you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, you’ll find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Anne Saini and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor; music by Coma-Media. Special thanks to Maureen Hoch, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Nicole Smith, Anne Bartholomew, and you, our listener. See you next week.

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Leadership Education for Social Responsibility

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Leadership involves one having the ability to encourage, guide, and inspire others in achieving a goal or carrying out a mission. While this is the accepted definition, the concept is often viewed from a Western, traditional perspective. Leadership education programs (whether institutionalized or not) have ...

Keywords : social responsibility, learners, leadership education, Afro-centric, marginalized population(s)

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