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June 22, 2026School Leadership and Management

Beyond the school principal: collaborative leadership as relational practice in school improvement

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Authors

NKNicos KeravnosAKAntonios Kafa

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Overview

Qualitative multiple-case study reveals relational mechanisms of collaborative leadership in primary school staff, highlighting how collective interaction drives school improvement.

Key Points

  • To examine how collaborative leadership operates as an everyday relational process rather than a formal division of administrative roles within centralized educational systems.
  • Employed an interpretivist qualitative multiple-case study design across 18 primary schools in Cyprus.
  • Sampled N=108 participants, including school principals, middle leaders, and teachers.
  • Generated evidence via semi-structured interviews alongside document analysis, evaluated through thematic analysis.
  • Collaborative leadership operated through three interdependent relational mechanisms: participatory engagement, relational interaction, and collective sensemaking and problem-solving.
  • These interactional mechanisms mobilized professional knowledge, built internal trust, and enabled coordinated collective action despite systemic administrative constraints.

Cite This Study

Keravnos et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a709d845d37378ac1ddbd83https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2026.2693571
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Explore Principals’ and Teachers’ Leadership Experiences in School Improvement2025
  2. 2Cultivating collective human capital: leadership mechanisms for sustainable instructional reform in centralised school systems2026
  3. 3An investigation into the lived experiences of primary school principals in Ireland: The role of relational leadership2026
  4. 4Contemporary leadership models and collaboration in primary schools: a mixed-methods study on school quality2026
  5. 5Study on Principals Using Transformative Leadership to Promote School Collaborative Culture: A Qualitative Study of Primary School in Taiwan2024