Understanding successful principal leadership: progress on a broken front

Purpose To synthesize the results of the seven country reports covered in the special issue of JEA on successful school principalship. Design/methodology/approach Presents the main themes of the articles with their main implications and benefits. Examines the different models. Findings The country reports provide encouraging signs of progress in addressing this limitation. Such progress seems primarily due to the development of multiple cases, over time, within each country. This allows for ongoing refinement of ideas and data collection techniques, eventually resulting in the cross‐case reports appearing in this issue. These reports provide some indication, as well, that researchers are beginning to learn from their colleagues in other countries. Originality/value Summarizes multiple case studies of successful principal leadership in seven countries.