Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32903/zs.67.1.1
INSTRUCTIONAL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP SCENARIOS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CROATIAN HIGH SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS
Vesna Kovač
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Rijeka
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted on a sample of high school principals in
Croatia. The study has focused on the description and understanding of instructional school leadership
(ISL) characteristics as well as certain specific circumstances that could, according to principals’ opinion,
affect ISL practice. In order to set research questions, a basic qualitative interpretative approach has
been chosen. Data was gathered using a written interview that encompassed a purposive sample of
16 high school principals in Croatia. Thematic content analysis was conducted while an inductive ap-
proach was used in order to identify two key thematic categories and associated themes, subthemes,
and their variations in practice. The first category reveals characteristics of ISL priority activities focused
on strengthening students, teachers, and schools’ capacities, which can also reflect characteristics of
either principals’ development-competitive or prevention-corrective instructional activities. The second
category reveals circumstances that can affect ISL characteristics which are referred to as those that can
leave an impact on either school or education policy level. The results of this study describe and explain
in more detail several instructional school leadership scenarios present in Croatian high schools that can
be used in order to understand and interpret circumstances that can affect the development of various
ISL characteristics.
Keywords
instructional school leadership; qualitative research; principals; school efficiency
Hrčak ID:
273698
URI
Publication date:
3.10.2021.
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