Characteristics of Outstanding Leadership Practice :Transnational Perspectives from England, India and South Africa

Our research focuses on outstanding leadership in different national and local education contexts and draws on theory, research and policy literature in the field of educational leadership and management. In Europe and internationally leadership has been identified as a key factor in educational effectiveness and achievement (Huber & Muijs 2010; Hallinger & Huber 2012; Pashiardis & Johansson 2016) and studies have sought to identify features of successful school leadership (Leithwood et. al 2008; Day et. al 2010). Some research has been driven by moral purpose and some by aggressive political agendas focussed on school improvement but all aims to find ways of providing the highest quality and standards of education for all. However, studies have tended to focus on one age phase of education, for example primary schools (Matthews et al 2014) or in a specific national context (NCSL 2007). Our interest is in learning about outstanding leadership across contexts (Tamkin et. al 2014). The importance of context for leadership development and practice in education is reflected in recent publications (Hallinger 2018) and we believe that the role of context needs further investigation. In this study, we focus on a range of stakeholder perspectives of outstanding leadership across age phases of education in different types of schools and colleges in three countries.