Can principals' emotional intelligence matter to school turnarounds?

Through the literature review, the study aims to explore the relationship between the emotional intelligence (EI) of principals and the turnarounds of low‐performing schools and generate some hypotheses regarding this issue. Rigorous, empirical studies published in the last 15 years are selected and reviewed around three relevant topics: the variables associated with EI, the problems facing low‐performing schools and the effective leader behaviours to turn around struggling schools. Special attention is paid to the EI models and measures employed by these studies, as well as the consistency of their findings. It is hypothesized that a principals' EI might be linked to some variables relevant to school turnarounds. Future studies that test these hypotheses may have implications for principal selection and leadership development at low‐achieving schools.