Follow the leader" Capturing the perspectives of post primary principals in the Irish voluntary school sector on
implementing a distributed leadership framework
O'Rourke, Maree
(2022)
Follow the leader" Capturing the perspectives of post primary principals in the Irish voluntary school sector on
implementing a distributed leadership framework.
Doctor of Education thesis, Dublin City University.
This study investigates the perspective of voluntary secondary school principals undertaking the
implementation of the Department of Education (DE) CL003/2018 on Leadership and Management
within the voluntary school sector. The research question asks: What is the experience of school
principals in the implementation of distributed leadership in the voluntary secondary school?
The researcher conducted a thematic review of relevant peer-reviewed literature on leadership and
seminal work in distributed leadership for this study. The concepts of power, motivation, and
accountability emerge from the review of both policy texts and form the sub-questions within the
research. The sub-questions are:
1. Does the implementation of the Department of Education (DE) CL003/2018 change the
principal's role within the school's leadership framework?
2. Does the micropolitics of a school impact the implementation of a distributed leadership
framework?
3. What are the strategies employed by principals to motivate staff when implementing the
Department of Education (DE) CL003/2018?
4. Can distributed leadership exist without distributed responsibility and accountability?
The researcher took a pragmatic approach to the research methodology, adopting a case study
methodology within a mixed-method sequential quantitative > qualitative research design. The
quantitative research instrument was an online survey distributed to a census population of voluntary
secondary school principals in Ireland. Using Zoom, semi-structured interviews with ten voluntary
secondary school principals informed the qualitative research. The findings are examined and
interpreted within the context of the literature review. The researcher presents the findings from the
semi-structured interviews and online survey acknowledging the implications and limitations of the
study.
The research identifies recommendations on continuous professional development for principals to
develop sustainable leadership capacity within the voluntary secondary school sector, the essential
time to hold strategic leadership team meetings and the consideration of a generic leadership title for
posts of responsibility with recommendations for further research and policy development.
Metadata
Item Type:
Thesis (Doctor of Education)
Date of Award:
November 2022
Refereed:
No
Supervisor(s):
O'Brien, Shivaun and McNamara, Gerry
Uncontrolled Keywords:
school leadership; distributed leadership; school leadership Ireland