Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2012, Qupperneq 28

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 21(1) 201228
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working with school members, he was in many respects in the high leadership phase.
This particularly applied to how he co-operated with other members of the school
leadership team, teachers and students; although he also worked with them in the
transactional phase. He worked mostly with parents and support staff, according to
the instructive phase, however. The head teacher’s use of formal authority was in
the transactional phase, which could be seen by the way he insisted on professional
development, teamwork and inquiry and how he paced improvement work. The
working methods of high leadership capacity were constantly being developed within
the school.
The findings showed that the head teacher remained personally important for
school improvement. The future development of school’s leadership capacity depends
on how well he manages to involve all groups and individuals (parents, support staff,
new teachers etc.) in the improvement of the school and develop the distribution of
leadership even further.
The findings indicated the importance of the head teacher in building the leadership
capacity of a school. They also indicated the existence of what Gronn (2008, 2010)
describes as leadership hybridity in schools, where both hierarchical and heterarchical
leadership styles are simultaneously existent in the school.
Keywords: School management, school leadership, school leadership capacity, head
teacher’s behaviour, school improvement
aBOut tHE autHOrs
Sigridur Margret Sigurdardottir (sigridurs@unak.is) is an adjunct at the Faculty of
Education, University of Akureyri. She graduated from The Necessary Teacher
Training College in Denmark in 1998 and completed an M.Ed. degree with emphasis
on school management in 2009 from the University of Akureyri. Her research area
has been in the field of school leadership and management and school improvement.
Runar Sigthorsson (runar@unak.is) is a professor of education at the Faculty of
Education, University of Akureyri. He finished his B.Ed. degree from the Iceland
University of Education in 1978, an M.Phil. in School Development from the
University of Cambridge in 1996, and holds a Ph.D. in Education from the Iceland
University of Education. His recent research is in the fields of curriculum, teaching
organisation, assessment, and learning, the conditions of school improvement, and
the development of classroom practice and student learning.