African Educational Research Journal - Vol. 6(4) - Review - Distributed leadership in education, contemporary issues in educational leadership

Oct 15, 2026

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The paper reviews conceptual and empirical literature on distributed leadership (DL) in educational leadership, tracing origins and clarifying major arguments, strengths, and weaknesses. DL is treated as a collective social process emerging from interactions among multiple actors, with rapid growth in school management amid decentralization. Findings indicate that effective principals orchestrate structural, cultural, and agential conditions for DL, and evidence links DL with organizational improvement and learner achievement, while highlighting areas for strengthening leadership through collective engagement and revisiting traditional models.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Distributed leadership in education (DL) and decentralization

Conceptual foundation of DL as a collective social process

Review scope: origins, arguments, strengths and weaknesses

Impact on organizational goals and student/learner achievement

Areas for future leadership improvement and collective engagement

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 6(4), pp. 279-287, December 2018 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.64.18.097 ISSN: 2354-2160 Review Distributed leadership in education, contemporary issues in educational leadership G. N. Shava* and F. N. Tlou Faculty of Science and Technology Education, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Accepted 21 November, 2018 | ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, the concept of distributed leadership (DL) in the educational landscape has gone from strength to strength and has made substantial inroads into particular areas of theory and practice. DL has thus become a popular concept in educational leadership and is conceived as a collective social process emerging through the interactions of multiple actors. In particular DL is a notion and strategy that has seen a rapid growth in the management of schools in the context of decentralization of education systems. The aim of this paper is to review conceptual and empirical literature on the concept of DL in order to identify its origins, major arguments, its strengths and weaknesses and areas for further work. Consideration is given to the impact of DL in enhancing the achievement of organizational goals. The findings indicate that effective principals orchestrate the structural, cultural and agential conditions in which DL is more or less likely. Contemporary evidence from the study supports a positive relationship between DL, organizational improvement and student achievement. The paper highlights a number of areas for improving leadership in schools and the need for mobilizing collective engagement and challenging or reinforcing traditional forms of leadership in schools. This article provides an in depth description of how leadership can be distributed in schools to improve learning outcomes.
Keywords: Distributed leadership, education leadership, leadership, learner achievement. | | --- | | *Corresponding author. E-mail: [gnshava@gmail.com](gnshava@gmail.com). | INTRODUCTION Technological advancement and the seemingly ever changing environmental pressures suggest an imperative for educational leaders to review their leadership practices. Changes that are taking place in the educational leadership landscape require leadership in schools to discover and articulate forms of leadership appropriate for the demands of the 21st century. In recent years educational organizations have begun to be led by more sharing, participation by members and democratic principles. This has seen the school based leadership approach accelerated during the decentralization period in education which has resulted in spreading leadership throughout the school context. School leadership is changing and it is imperative that school leaders need to reflect on these changes and adapt to enhance the achievement of school goals. Leithwood and Jantzi (2000) show that it is clear that effective school leaders exercise an indirect but powerful influence on the effectiveness of the school and on the achievement of learners. In other words, the impact of school leadership upon school effectiveness and school improvement is significant (Gronn, 2002, 2000; Harris, 2013, 2012; Kruger, 2009; Leithwood et al. , 2008; Lumby, 2013; Shava, 2015; Spillane et al. , 2004) . Harris (2012) echoes the need to embrace effective leadership in the way principals lead schools towards future success. She argues that schools of the future are likely to require multiple rather than individual leaders if they are to achieve organizational goals. DL is one form of leadership that is prominent in the current educational discourse. It means mobilizing expertise at all levels in the school in order to generate more opportunities for change and to build the capacity for improvement. Harris (2012:9) argues that, “as school organizations become more complex, diffuse and networked, various forms of direction and influence will be required to respond to quickly shifting

FAQs

What does distributed leadership mean in the paper?

Distributed leadership is described as a collective social process emerging through interactions among multiple actors, mobilizing expertise at different levels in the school to create opportunities for change and improvement.

What is the main purpose of the paper?

The paper aims to review conceptual and empirical literature on distributed leadership in order to identify its origins, major arguments, strengths and weaknesses, and areas needing further work.

How does distributed leadership affect organizational goals and learner achievement?

The findings indicate that effective principals enable the conditions under which DL is likely to work better, and contemporary evidence supports a positive relationship between DL, organizational improvement, and student or learner achievement.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley