<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In this article I reflect on research relating to school leadership and the use of research to support school leadership over the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms in 1989 wth its shift to school self-management saw more interest in understanding the size and nature of the principal role. More recently there has been interest among policymakers in using research to support effective school leadership, and revived attention to the place of school leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system.</p><p>This article is also intended to provide future Aotearoa New Zealand researchers into school leadership with some references they can use to chart how things change if new policy settings and supports for school leadership are introduced as a result of the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce’s recommendations.</p></abstract>

In this article I reflect on research relating to school leadership and the use of research to support school leadership over the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms in 1989 wth its shift to school self-management saw more interest in understanding the size and nature of the principal role. More recently there has been interest among policymakers in using research to support effective school leadership, and revived attention to the place of school leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system.This article is also intended to provide future Aotearoa New Zealand researchers into school leadership with some references they can use to chart how things change if new policy settings and supports for school leadership are introduced as a result of the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce’s recommendations.

What does it mean to be a principal? A policy researcher’s perspective on the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand

Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this article I reflect on research relating to school leadership and the use of research to support school leadership over the last 30 years in Aotearoa New...

What does it mean to be a principal? A policy researcher’s perspective on the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand

Article Category: article

Published Online: Nov 19, 2020

Page range: 41 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/jelpp-2020-007

Keywords
School leadership, New Zealand schooling system, Tomorrow’s Schools, principal workload; principal development

© 2020 Cathy Wylie et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

What does it mean to be a principal? A policy researcher’s perspective on the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand

Article Category: article

Published Online: Nov 19, 2020

Page range: 41 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/jelpp-2020-007

KeywordsSchool leadership, New Zealand schooling system, Tomorrow’s Schools, principal workload; principal development

© 2020 Cathy Wylie et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
School leadership, New Zealand schooling system, Tomorrow’s Schools, principal workload; principal development