Reflections of school staff on headteacher leadership and how it is practiced in their state, boys' selective school

It has been said that of the various possible school-based factors, it is the headteachers’ leadership that has the second greatest impact on student outcomes. If that is the case, it is not surprising that a great deal of research has focused on headteacher leadership. There has been very little research, however, that focuses on the leadership of selective schools. This study, therefore, considers headteacher leadership in four state, boys’ selective schools. \n \nThe study considers the interaction of three issues – what it is the headteachers say they are doing (their declared conceptualisations of leadership), what their staff expect of them (the staff’s conceptualisations of leadership) and the perceptions and judgements made by the staff of their headteachers. \n \nThe study generates four models of headteacher leadership, three from the data and one from the literature. The three are perspectival in origin, although one of them is abstracted beyond its original perspective. Three of the areas considered in relation to perceptions and judgments are: headteacher ‘success’, communication, and conflict. The subsequent discussion leads to the development of new models and frameworks, plus the extension of two concepts in new ways and also recommendations for both practice and research. \n