An Applied Approach to Transformational Leadership for Whole School Communities: Perspectives of Primary School and System Leaders

Abstract

This paper examines the vision, strategy and leadership support structures for Irish primary schools where leadership is specifically referenced, with focus on links to transformational and distributed school leadership. Of particular interest is how transformational and distributed leadership models could aid effective and sustainable leadership enactment in times of exceptional change. This article offers new insights into primary school and system leaders’ perceptions of transformational school leadership and the factors that facilitate and/or inhibit transformational school leadership for the whole school community with a qualitative study. The overarching research question comprised: what are the perceptions of primary school and system leaders relating to the facilitating and inhibiting factors affecting the implementation of transformational school leadership, and is this model perceived to build relations with parents and the wider school community? The data highlight several factors that transcend both transformational and distributed leadership and, with previous research by these authors, inform the construction of a synthesised model of transformational and distributed school leadership for the whole school community aligned with the most recent Irish primary school policy document—‘Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework for Primary Schools and Special Schools (LAOS)’. The authors also accompany this model with a roadmap that may support approaches to school leadership practice for the whole school community, at the primary and post-primary levels, in Ireland.

1. Introduction

Transformational school leadership is an approach suited to the demands and responsibilities of adapting to societal change and turbulence [1,2]. Distributed leadership is a form of shared leadership involving interactions between school leaders and staff [3], maintaining a focus on school improvement [4], supporting practices that enable school leaders to effect change [5]. Navigating unprecedented levels of societal change [6,7] inevitably impacts on education [8,9,10] and calls for supportive school leadership. Therefore, the introduction of a synthesised model of transformational and distributed school leadership could arguably provide schools with a construct for sustainable educational leadership, as both approaches have much to offer school leaders and, in many instances, may indeed overlap. The OECD’s 2007 Irish Background Report for Ireland advised the Department of Education to ‘articulate a rich national understanding of school leadership as a construct that is agreed by all stakeholders in the system’ [11] (p. 53). The intervening years have seen the explicit adoption of distributed leadership as the espoused leadership approach in Irish national policy [12,13,14], in line with other jurisdictions [15,16,17]. Looking at ‘Our School—A Quality Framework for Primary and Special Schools (LAOS) 2022’ [18] is the most recent Irish school policy document outlining learning and teaching, leadership and management best practice in the Irish school system, with effective leadership acknowledged to increase school effectiveness and the creation of a positive and inclusive school culture. LAOS 2022 is advised to be enacted through the school self-evaluation process, with explicit reference to the adoption of a distributed leadership model [14,19]. Analysis of the policy also yields many examples whereby the application of components of transformational leadership could also achieve successful policy enactment [2]. To endeavour to create a new sustainable, inclusive school leadership model for the whole school community, the authors set out to examine transformational school leadership and distributed leadership practice, to provide a practical and synergistic approach to conceptualising school leadership in Ireland as advocated by the OECD [11]. To base this work in the real experience in schools, data from interviews with Irish primary school and system leaders gathered for a previous research study by these authors were examined further to understand more deeply school and system leaders’ perspectives on the factors affecting the enactment of transformational school leadership, and how it is perceived to build relations with parents and the wider school community. Analysis yielded positive aspirations regarding transformational school leadership for the whole school community, with strong overtones of aspirations towards distributed leadership also, and widespread recommendations for various forms of combined leadership approaches. This further underpinned our emerging conceptualisation of transformational school leadership remaining as an effective leadership model. The current trajectory in practice is that it is influenced and supported by distributive leadership practices, and that both together can enhance leader sustainability and leadership capacity building in schools.

1.1. Transformational and Distributed School Leadership

1.1.1. Transformational School Leadership

Historically, the emphasis in the leadership literature has been on leadership positions and why leaders do what they do, with the focus on leaders’ traits [20,21]. In many cases, these traits have been related to leaders’ effectiveness [22,23,24], with Anderson and Sun assessing that the volume of literature on leadership styles in the early 2020s resembles that of leadership personality in the late 1980s [25]. From the mid-1980s there were increased societal demands put on school systems internationally to raise standards, in tandem with critical observation of school leadership linked to effectiveness and accountability [26,27]. Along with this movement, an increased research focus on measuring the impact of school leadership has emerged, with shared leadership, teacher leadership, distributed leadership and transformational leadership emerging as popular, indicating a broader dissatisfaction with the limitations of an instructional leadership model, which many believed focused too much on the principal holding expertise, power and authority [28]. Burns’ seminal work remains widely credited with being the inspiration behind the conceptualisation of transformational leadership as understood for the following decades [27,29,30,31,32]. Burns used the term transforming leadership, defining it as a ‘process through which one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality’ [33] (p. 20). This was further enhanced by Bass, who used the term transformational leadership and developed the four I’s: idealised influence (charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration [34]. Transformational leadership was adapted to education by such as Leithwood, Podsakoff and their associates, with leadership and school improvement the common policy options to reform education [35,36]. Countries were troubling approaches in local contexts, with change, reform and improvement the primary motivations [37,38,39,40,41,42]. In this period, many researchers moved from focusing on leadership personality to leadership behaviours [43,44,45]. This is the lens chosen to look at transformational and distributed leadership, examining transformational school leadership behavioural components and distributed leadership practices for the whole school community (WSC). Through previous international research highlighted in the recent research studies on transformational school leadership by these authors [2,46], featured further in this section, the four I’s of transformational leadership devised by Bass [34], idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and inspirational motivation, have had two more I’s added to underscore the application to sustainable and inclusive transformational leadership in education: inclusive culture and improved offering. These authors’ systematic literature review studies found the impacts of transformational leadership on school culture to be seismic, with improved offering principles strongly evident across the international research [46]. These two additional I’s complete the principles required for a transformational school leadership model, as in the following section, appropriate to current educational leadership demands and evidenced in the international literature.

Table 1. Transformational leadership principles for application to education.

Idealised Influence (a) Modelling best practice (b) Moral, ethical & social regard (c) Capacity & values (d) Creativity & innovation (e) Active engagement	2.  Inspirational Motivation (a) Shared vision & group goals (b) Setting direction (c) Proactive, energising & optimistic (d) Commitment & collaboration (e) Human-centred & passionate	3.  Individualised Consideration (a) Reciprocal relationships & trust (b) Psychological safety & reflexivity (c) Empowering & developing (d) Respect & empathy (e) Advising & supporting
4.  Intellectual Stimulation (a) Challenging the process (b) Building capacity for change (c) Develop innovation & autonomy (d) High-performance expectations (e) Problem-solving processes	5.  Inclusive Culture (a) Ownership & belonging (b) Neurodiversity consideration (c) Individualised education planning (d) Developing leadership skills (e) Participation	6.  Improved Offering (a) Student outcomes & school improvement (b) School restructuring (c) Leading change in learning & teaching (d) New paradigms for governance (e) Communication

reflects the range of principles of transformational leadership and transformational school leadership identified over the past five decades by eminent researchers and practitioners, with the most frequently recurring in the literature, as ranked and triangulated by these authors, represented here. As this model of leadership has been researched intensely, many of these principles can be attributed to several researchers. However, in this study, the authors have assigned each principle to just one reference, as follows—(1a) Modelling best practice, (6a) Student outcomes and school improvement: Leithwood [47]; (1b) Moral, ethical and social regard: Trevino et al. [48]; (1c) Capacity and values, (3c) Empowering and developing: Bass [34]; (1d) Creativity and innovation: Nir and Piro [49]; (1e) Active engagement, (3b) Psychological safety and reflexivity: Carmeli et al. [50]; (2a) Shared vision and group goals, (4d) High-performance expectations: Podsakoff et al. [51]; (2b) Setting direction: Anderson [52]; (2c) Proactive, energising and optimistic, (3e) Advising and supporting: Antonakis et al. [53]; (2d) Commitment and collaboration, (3a) Reciprocal relationships: Leithwood and Jantzi [39]; (2e) Human-centred: Printy et al. [54]; (3d) Respect and empathy, (4a) challenging the process: Leithwood [55]; (4b) Building capacity for change, (6d) New paradigms for governance: Chirichello [56]; (4c) Develop innovation and autonomy: Jung et al. [57]; (4e) Problem-solving processes: Leithwood et al. [36]; (5e) Participation, (6b) School restructuring; Leithwood et al. [58]; (5a) Ownership and belonging, (5c) Individualised education planning: Lambrecht et al. [59]; (5b) Neurodiversity consideration: Kaaria and Karemu [60]; (5d) Developing leadership skills: Warrick [61]; (6c) Leading learning and teaching change: Hallinger [28]; (6e) Communication: Bennis and Nanus [62].

1.1.2. Distributed Leadership

While there is no widespread agreed definition of distributed leadership [63,64], Tian and associates define it as a process comprised of organisational and individual possibilities, with leadership as a resource and an agency, both considered to emerge and exist at all organisational levels [65]. Spillane provides what can arguably be the most accepted definition of distributed leadership as being a practice involving the interactions between leaders, followers and their environment, with an emphasis on the importance of situation. For educational context, Spillane subdivides distributed leadership into (i) ‘leader-plus’, involving school leaders with formal leadership positions and those who take on leadership roles without a formal leadership position and (ii) ‘practice’, a relationship of social influence and product of the interactions of school leaders, followers and their situations [3]. Hickey et al. acknowledge that distributed leadership has been praised for its positive relationship with organisational commitment and school improvement [66], and leadership is understood to be distributed horizontally within schools and vertically across the education system and sector [67].

Spillane views distributed leadership as primarily about leadership practice rather than leaders, positions, roles, functions, routines, systems and structures [3], where the change of perspective from individual leaders or leader groups to a web of leadership participation by all is central to this practice [68]. Distributed leadership may have the potential to empower everyone in this web to participate in leadership activities and cultivate leadership ability in all [69,70,71], also specifically building capacity within a school by developing the intellectual and professional capital of the teachers [72,73]. Schools’ ability to involve all stakeholders in decision-making processes is another significant characteristic of distributed leadership [74,75]. Through the interactions of positional and assumed leadership roles across the school environment, distributed leadership is a delicate balance achieved between autonomy and accountability, ensuring that individual agency is harmonised with collective goals [76]. Spillane contends that to understand leadership practice, and to help school leaders think about and revise their practice, the what of leaders’ thinking, the how and why of leaders’ behaviour and their situation need to be considered together [68]. Using the application of this distributed cognition and activity theory, and framing distributed leadership practice in this way,

Table 2. Prominent distributed leadership practices supporting the enactment of the transformational leadership six I’s full range of capacities and commitments.

1. Supporting Idealised Influence (i) Interactions practice (ii) Mobilising leadership (iii) Professional growth (iv) Exploring social processes	2. SupportingInspirational Motivation (i) Leader-plus (ii) Macro-to-micro tasks (iii) Teacher leadership (iv) Accountability & responsibility	3. Supporting Individualised Consideration (i) Trust & respect (ii) Empowerment & autonomy (iii) Utilisation of capacities & commitment (iv) Individual & collective elements
4.Supporting Intellectual Stimulation (i) Diagnosing & designing (ii) Purposeful collaborating (iii) Discretionary decision making (iv) Positive working relationships	5. Supporting Inclusive Culture (i) Belonging & shared identity (ii) WSC working interdependently (iii) Developing WSC leadership (iv) Mutual community relationships	6. Supporting Improved Offering (i) Professional learning communities (ii) Day-to-day activity (iii) Effecting instructional change (iv) Artefacts consideration

outlines the practices of distributive leadership found to occur most frequently in the research examined, divided into six sections to correspond to the six I’s, and each practice is applied to one eminent researcher as follows: (1i) Interactions practice: Spillane [77]; (1ii) Mobilising leadership: Harris [78]; (1iii) Professional growth: Grant [79]; (1iv) Exploring social processes: Harris [80]; (2i) Leader-plus: Diamond and Spillane [81]; (2ii) Macro to micro tasks, (5iii) Developing whole school leadership, (6iii) Effecting instructional change: Spillane et al. [82]; (2iii) Teacher leadership: Harris [83]; (2iv) Accountability and responsibility: Holloway et al. [84]; (3i) Trust and respect, (4ii) Purposeful collaborating, (5ii) Whole school community working interdependently: Harris [85]; (3ii) Empowerment and autonomy: Mifsud [17]; (3iii) Utilisation of capacities & commitment: Leithwood and Mascall [86]; (3iv) Individual and collective elements: Gronn [87]; (4i) Diagnosing and designing: Spillane and Coldren [88]; (4iii) Discretionary decision making: Leithwood et al. [89]; (4iv) Positive working relationships: Hickey et al. [90]; (5i) Belonging and shared identity, (5iv) Mutual community relationships: Edwards [91]; (6i) Professional learning communities: Spillane [92]; (6ii) Day-to-day activity: Spillane and Sherer [93]; (6iv) Artefacts consideration: Fasso et al. [94].

These distributed leadership practices would support the underpinning principles of transformational school leadership in the proposed synthesised model to be developed later in this paper. The distributed leadership actions and interactions of the whole school community [95,96] could facilitate the enactment of the transformational leadership principles. Leithwood and Jantzi’s transformational school leadership model portrays a shared leadership among school leaders, teachers and other stakeholders [97], and as such can be seen to be related to distributed leadership in this democratic approach [98], which further emphasises how a synthesised model could support educational leadership, where transformational school leadership is the ‘what’ and distributed leadership the ‘how’.

1.2. Vision, Strategy and Leadership Support Structures for IRISH Primary Schools—A Contextual Backdrop Informing Consideration of a Transformational Distributed School Leadership Model

Previous research findings by these authors reported school and system leaders express how a transformational school leadership model would support school leadership, made more sustainable if accompanied by another form of leadership, with distributed leadership referenced most frequently [2]. Leadership distributed across multiple people and situations has proven realistic, more sustainable and successful in school improvement [73,99,100,101]. The 2022 report from the Irish Primary Principal’s Network (IPPN) considers there to be a school leadership sustainability crisis in Irish primary schools [102], but sustainability of school leaders is attributed to distributed leadership [103] where experience of leading is shared throughout the school community and, therefore, eases the replacement of school leaders [82,104]. With distributed leadership promoted in leadership policy, increased support for implementation is required [14]. Looking at the following leadership policies, supports and their background demonstrates the paucity of specific leadership models in Irish primary school education, where the policy imperative has only begun to be featured in recent years [105].

In Ireland, prior to 2016, school policies came from the government through the Department of Education or through delegated agencies such as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The 2016–2019 Action Plan for Education [106] described a vision of Ireland providing the best education and training service in Europe. With noteworthy goals and strategies outlined, school leadership was frequently referenced, with the quality of school leadership recognised as one of the pillars that success in education is built on. One objective of the third goal was to improve school leadership, with a key action to strengthen and support school leadership, developing leadership capacity. Proposals for supporting the development of school leadership included (i) Developing a mentoring programme for newly appointed principals; (ii) A coaching service for serving principals and a post-graduate programme for aspiring leaders; (iii) Enhancing the Centre for School Leadership (CSL) supports; (iv) Changing the school leadership structures and functions, including ‘transforming the current schedule of duties towards a more flexible, distributed and accountable model where roles and responsibilities are shared and adapted to particular situations and contexts’ [106] (p. 36); (v) The roll out of ‘Looking At Our School 2016—A New Quality Framework for Self-evaluation’ [107]; (vi) Identifying and introducing reforms that drive up educational standards, particularly in literacy and numeracy, with new ‘Local Education Clusters’ for schools to share best practice and school improvement experiences. Cumasú—Empowering through Learning 2019–2021 [108] picked up the department’s vision and strategy baton, stating that a progressive and equitable education ‘has the power to transform lives—the transformation begins with the individual, and moves outward: to family, to community, to society’ [108] (p. 3). However, other than naming one strategic action ‘to build strong leadership practice in schools and promote innovation and excellence in leadership’ (p. 14) and that education sets out to empower learners to be the best that they can be, how school leadership was to be supported and developed was not referenced. The Statement of Strategy 2021–2023 [109], and the 2023–2025 [110] that followed, strived to have an ‘education system in which every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential’ [110] (p. 6), with the only references to school leadership either being to provide support for strategic leadership throughout the sector, or develop and support the education workforce to strengthen their teaching, leadership and student support capability, through continuing professional development. Forbairt—Annual Statements of Priorities, 2023 and 2024 publications [111,112], sit under the Department of Education’s statement of strategy and incorporate just one reference, ‘a range of leadership supports is available for principals and senior management, to support them in their roles’ [112] (p. 14). It can be seen here that, in fact, references to school leadership have reduced in the past 10 years, and that although the introduction of distributed leadership to the Irish education system is outlined, there is no reference as to how leadership is enacted in any document.

The Department of Education circular 0070/2018 sets out a leadership and management policy framework for posts of responsibility (middle leadership) in recognised primary schools, and outlines how school leadership should be enacted [113], with responsibility for playing a key role in improving educational outcomes as well as ‘motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school community’ [113] (p. 4). Senior leadership is the remit of the principal and deputy principal, middle leadership by the assistant principals and teacher leadership by the teaching staff. Distributed leadership is the recommended practice in the school context, creating a vision for development based on shared values and robust evaluation of evidence of current practice and outcomes as a ‘key support for pupil learning’ [113] (p. 4). It is described as ‘involving the establishment and facilitation of leadership teams with appropriately defined and shared responsibilities’ [113] (p. 33). Leadership and management roles and responsibilities are recommended to be distributed among those with senior/middle leadership roles. The principal, staff and board of management are required to identify the school’s leadership and management needs and priorities; the roles and responsibilities needing to be performed for the effective leadership and management of the school; and the distribution of these. In line with the principles of LAOS 2022 [18], the criteria for appointments to positions of school leadership strongly feature leadership behaviours: (1) Leading learning and teaching; (2) Managing the organisation; (3) Leading school development; (4) Developing leadership capacity. While much of the above is included in the updated version, Circular 0049/2019 [114], there are fewer references to leadership, although both indicate the central role that school leadership plays in ensuring the achievement of a school’s improvement trajectory, how a school determines its leadership needs and priorities, and the processes leading up to and including the appointment of school leaders [115]. Looking across the education sector, Murphy acknowledges the significant educational reform that has taken place in the school leadership policy context in Ireland, which has affected senior, middle and teacher school leaders. Included are school self-evaluation (SSE); ‘Droichead’; the teacher induction and mentoring process, a new approach to initial teacher education; changes in curriculum and assessment; technology (Digital Strategy for Schools); Special Education Teaching Allocation; and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [115].

Irish primary school boards of management and education training boards (ETBs) manage the school on behalf of the patron and are accountable to the patron and the Minister [116]. The Department of Education Governance Manual for Primary Schools provides an overview of the role of the board of management and references relevant Department of Education circulars, which outline policies, guidelines, templates and frameworks for the board and school staff to follow, relating to all aspects of school life, including leadership and management responsibilities, which are consistently referenced together. Similarly to 2011–2015 [117], 2015–2019 [118] and 2019–2023 [119] issues, there is little mention of school leadership in the 2023–2027 manual [116], other than stating (i) the primary purpose of school leadership and management is creating and sustaining an environment that facilitates high standards of pupil care, learning and teaching; (ii) the necessity for high-quality leadership in establishing a mission and vision for a school; and (iii) that good leadership increases school effectiveness specifically in ‘effective delivery of the curriculum, policy development and implementation, school self-evaluation and the creation of a positive and inclusive school culture and climate for all pupils and staff’ (p. 9). Boards of management/ETBs are advised to encourage and facilitate the in-school leadership team in their leadership role in the school. Investment in building the professional competence of school leaders has increased significantly in the period 2012–2024 in its provision of support services [116]. Highlighting the policy ‘Looking at Our School, 2022—A Quality Framework for Primary and Special Schools’ (LAOS) [18], which followed the LAOS 2016 publication [107], leadership and management is the second of two dimensions of a coherent set of standards for schools, with the framework underpinned by the practices of distributed leadership. Due to the many culturally and religiously diverse schools we have currently in Ireland, leaders also need to be aware of the resulting implications and challenges [120].

The Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) [121] can arguably be credited with influencing educational leadership policy in the primary sector. Officially launched in February 2000, having grown organically from 1994, when an active group of local Principals began to meet regularly in Cork for professional support and were acutely aware of the changing role of the primary school principal, it continues to support school leaders at the local and county levels as the professional body for Irish primary school leaders. Recognised by the Minister for Education as an official Education Partner, it works with the Department of Education, the National Parents’ Council, management bodies, unions, education agencies, academic institutions and children’s charities towards the advancement of primary education representing over 6500 principals and deputy principals. Three of its many publications, in particular, ‘Defining the Role of the Primary Principal in Ireland’, in 2003 [122], ‘Quality Leadership—Quality Learning Proof beyond reasonable doubt’ in 2006 [123] and ‘Giorraíonn Beirt Bóthar Distributed leadership—Deputy Principals’ in 2007, which outlines a shared leadership position for principals and deputy principals in primary schools [124], provide timely discussion papers for developing primary school leadership in policy guidelines.

The national policy documents ‘Looking at Our School (LAOS)’ 2016 and 2022 [18,107] outline expectations for Irish educational leadership policy. LAOS grew out of school self-evaluation (SSE), a process which is now a legal requirement in many countries as a school improvement mechanism [125,126,127]. School self-evaluation was formally introduced into the Irish school system in 2012 as a self-reflecting process of internal school review. The in-school leadership team frequently leads this process, which can develop empowerment [128] and enhance opportunities for promotion [126]. School self-evaluation further develops the school development planning process and focuses it firmly on teaching and learning [129]. It enhances staff and school agency, and autonomy [130,131], with strong leadership a prerequisite to successful implementation of school self-evaluation [132,133]. ‘Looking at Our School 2022’ is a framework policy for primary and post-primary schools, for school leaders and teachers to use in implementing the most effective and engaging learning and teaching approaches, and in enhancing the quality of leadership and management in their schools [18,120]. LAOS 2016 [107] and 2022 [18] support SSE and whole school evaluation (WSE); the Irish system of school inspection. LAOS 2022 continues the same structure as LAOS 2016 with two dimensions: (1) Learning and teaching; (2) Leadership and management. The key areas in each dimension are identified as domains, which are further divided into various content standards. The leadership and management domains are (1) Leading learning and teaching; (2) Managing the organisation; (3) Leading school development; and (4) Developing leadership capacity. The domains are then subdivided into leadership standards and these into statements of practice. However, there are no guidelines as to the ‘how’ of achieving these.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has been driving a process to reform the primary school curriculum. Its strategic plan 2022–2025 aims to lead and sustain developments in curriculum and assessment, where a further document in this process acknowledges that supporting curriculum development and enactment in every school in Ireland will also require attention to leadership, embedding educational leadership as a distributed practice anchored in learning, teaching and assessment [134]. The Department of Education Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 [135] highlights leadership at all levels as a key enabler for digital transformation in schools that is also emphasised in the European Union policy initiative [136]. Appropriate leadership motivation, expectations and values; school culture; collaboration; developing a shared vision and a whole school community approach support the implementation of the schools digital learning framework [135]. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to 2030 [137] follows on from the first National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development [138]. This government policy seeks to enhance ESD leadership in educational institutions and in the wider community, transforming learning environments and supporting the engagement of, and participation by, children and young people, our global citizens of the future, in decision-making processes. Quoting Stefania Giannini in the strategy ‘Education for sustainable development can provide the knowledge, awareness and action that empowers people to transform themselves and transform societies’ [137] (p. 4), ESD is integral to the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for people, planet, peace, prosperity and partnerships. Ireland played a central role in the development of the 17 SDGs, which were adopted in September 2015 by all UN Member States. The implications for school leadership are significant, as it is prioritised in the strategy for achieving UNESCO’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal, ‘ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all’ [139] (p. 30).

Oide [140], a support service for teachers and school leaders, funded by the Department of Education, was formed from the integration of the four existing support services, Centre for School Leadership (CSL), Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT), the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), in 2023. Oide supports professional learning for Irish school leadership, acknowledging the variety of leadership contexts in the Irish school system. The ‘Learning to be a Leader in Ireland’, a CSL document [141] retained by Oide, acknowledges the growing emphasis on the connection between effective leadership and positive learning outcomes for students. It highlights the bigger picture of a focus on leadership development with such as the European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL) set up in 2011, and considers the role of Oide, in supporting professional learning as essential in the development of effective leadership practices, with that of school leaders being pivotal to ‘improving the quality of education’ (p. 10). A model of professional learning, including professional standards; reflection on practice; relevant experiential learning; cognitive development; flexible and sustainable, individual and collaborative learning, alongside a continuum of leadership roles, from teacher to system leaders, is presented. It is proposed that to facilitate leading through change and the development of leadership practice in schools, professional learning activities need to incorporate some or all the six elements of this model as appropriate, to best develop and enhance leadership practice in schools. Oide offers a range of leadership support part-time programmes, to enhance leadership skills, led by the participants’ individual and contextual needs. ‘Misneach’, ‘Tánaiste’ and ‘Comhar’ are for newly appointed principals, deputy and assistant principals. ‘Meitheal’ is available to school principals who are in the role for five years or more, with ‘Forbairt’ a programme for school leadership teams and ‘Caidrimh’ supporting administrative primary principals and administrative deputy principals of special schools. The ‘Looking at Our School 2022 quality framework’ [18] is utilised throughout the programmes to explore high-quality teaching, learning and leadership. Oide leadership coaching is a confidential service, offering one-to-one personal service for all senior school leaders. In supporting leadership professional learning, Oide could potentially find value, and be interested, in supporting training in the implementation of a new model of school leadership to be enacted by the whole school community.

The above policies, guidelines, publications and support structures for school leadership provide an insight into its presentation to schools over the past two decades. While leadership is referenced as being necessary for educational progress, a paucity of guidelines for the ‘how’ can be observed. Although distributed leadership is the recommended practice, there is no roadmap for the leadership journey [124], and with transformational leadership expressed as aspirational for an Irish context [2], there is a calling for a school leadership model of transformational leadership supported by distributed leadership practices.

2. Materials and Methods

To delve more deeply into the perceptions and experiences of primary school and system leaders regarding transformational school leadership, the research described in this article set out to investigate the following questions: what are the perceptions of primary school and system leaders relating to the facilitating and inhibiting factors affecting the implementation of transformational school leadership, and is this model perceived to build relations with parents and the wider school community? Due to the wealth of data produced in the first of the research studies, the following questions were not analysed previously, and formed the basis of this enquiry:

• What would you suggest to be factors in the school setting that could facilitate transformational school leadership?
• Can you name any barriers or inhibitors to facilitating transformational school leadership?
• In ‘Looking at Our School 2022’, school leaders are required to build and maintain relationships with parents. Can you see how transformational school leadership might build a relationship with parents, putting the child at the centre of the work?
• In the same document, school leaders are also required to build and maintain relationships with the wider school community. How would you consider transformational school leadership might build such relationships, again putting the child at the centre of the work?

2.1. Data Collection

An interpretative qualitative study with logic and a process seeking understandings and experiences was undertaken [142,143]. Semi-structured interviews were adopted to explore opinions and perceptions of school and system leaders in primary schools with the purpose of deepening understanding of transformational school leadership, given due consideration in the study design [144]. An interview process was identified as the most appropriate method of data collection being interactional [145] and conducted conversationally with one respondent at a time, employing a blend of closed and open-ended questions [146], and appropriate for gleaning opinions [147,148]. Cognisant of the importance of design, methodology and approach, dynamics appropriate to data collection for an educational leadership study were considered [149], with attention given to the interview cohort to ensure that data produced would be valid, reliable and have generalisability. To this end, the school leader cohort selected comprised primary school principals, deputy and assistant principals, and primary school former inspectors currently working in education, to provide a broad perspective on the research topic. A broad selection of school types was sought and attained, with schools from across Ireland, urban and rural, DEIS (Delivering equality of opportunity in schools) and non-DEIS, as well as mixed and single-sex boys’ and girls’ schools. Purposive sampling, a proactive and targeted method, was employed, with poster advertising through online platforms. Practitioner experience was considered a valid means to ascertain opinions regarding the factors affecting the implementation of transformational school leadership. In so doing, the research questions were addressed within a paradigmatic framework of interpretivism and constructivism [150]. Data saturation was met and exceeded with fifteen participants proceeding to interview. Semi-structured interview schedules were formulated, and ethical approval was granted by the authors’ research ethics committee. Rigorous data collection procedures were followed, essential to ensure high-quality and trustworthy findings [151]. Consultation with research experts in the field of educational leadership guided the formulation of the interview schedule. Questions compiled were open-ended, free of ambiguous terms and directly targeted at addressing the main research aims [146]. The interview questions were formulated after careful attention to the extant literature.

2.2. Pilot Testing

Two pilot studies were conducted, facilitating refinement of the interview schedule regarding question clarity and the elimination of ambiguous terms. Data from the pilot studies were not included in the final data analysis. The pilot testing also allowed for the consideration of other elements of the interview process such as duration and interviewer input.

2.3. Participant Characteristics and Context

Table 3. Participant demographics.

Participant ID	Role	Location	DEIS Status	LP	Sx/Mx	Yrs. Formal Leadership	Yrs. Education Experience
AdP1	Administrative P	Urban	No	5	Mx	11–15	11–20
TP1	Teaching P	Rural	Yes	5	Mx	16–20	21–30
AdP2	Administrative P	Suburban	No	5	Mx	26–30	31–40
AdP3	Administrative P	Urban	No	6	Mx	16–20	11–20
AP1	Assistant P	Urban	No	5	Mx	21–25	31–40
TP2	Teaching P	Rural	Yes	3	Sx	11–15	21–30
AdP4	Administrative P	Suburban	No	8	Mx	21–25	31–40
FI1	Former Inspector	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	21–25	21–30
DP1	Deputy P	Suburban	No	2	Mx	6–10	11–20
AdP5	Administrative P	Rural	Yes	4	Mx	0–5	11–20
FI2	Former Inspector	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	26–30	21–30
AdP6	Administrative P	Suburban	Yes	9	Sx	21–25	31–40
AP2	Assistant P	Urban	Yes	7	Sx	0–5	11–20
AdP7	Administrative P	Suburban	No	3	Mx	0–5	31–40
FI3	Former Inspector	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	31–35	31–40

Notes: LP = Leadership positions; Sx/Mx = Single Sex/Mixed Sex; Yrs = Years; P = Principal.

collates information regarding interviewees, where they are anonymised and given an abbreviation representative of their role to facilitate attribution of thinking; administrative principal (AdP), teaching principal (TP), deputy principal (DP), assistant principal (AP) and an accompanying number; their school location described as urban or suburban, DEIS or non-DEIS; the quantity of leadership positions assigned to the school; whether the school student cohort is single sex or mixed; the number of years participants have been in school or system leadership; and years of experience working in education.

2.4. Interview Process

In line with ethical guidelines, respondents were furnished with a (i) consent form, (ii) research privacy notice and (iii) participant information sheet, which included further details of the study, the interview process and an opt-out facility, if required at any time. Interviews were scheduled for the duration of one hour approximately [145] and arranged at their school or workplace and at a convenient time and date. The lead author of the study conducted all interviews to ensure quality control, traversing Ireland to meet school leaders in their places of work, where they could show aspects of relevance to the interview, and where the interviewer could absorb the context and culture. Participants were encouraged to openly discuss their opinions. At the start of each interview, the interviewer spoke about the purpose of the study, reassuring participants that their identity and information supplied would remain confidential. Written consent was obtained to record the interview, explaining that the recordings would initially be retained but then deleted once transcribed. The audio-recorded interviews were listened to three times and transcribed verbatim, with any extra notes taken after interviews added to assist response context. Case numbers were employed to ensure privacy, and anonymisation of data was chosen over pseudonymisation. Transcripts were returned to participants for validation prior to data analysis. No participant requested modifications or exclusions from the completed transcripts. The interview process was consistent with recommended standards throughout [148,152] and an audit trail maintained [153,154]. The finalised transcripts were imported into NVivo 14 [155]. The NVivo project was shared with the research team to facilitate shared coding [156]. Triangulation was used by the research team, with interviewee transcript review employed for ensuring rigour [157] and interrater reliability.

2.5. Data Analysis

As a qualitative inquiry, the interpretive lens of the researchers played an important role in this study. The interviewer’s ex-principal status afforded a familiarity and rapport with study participants that earned their trust and elicited detailed accounts of their personal and professional perceptions, opinions and experiences. Data analysis was undertaken utilising Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) [158], a six-phase iterative and interpretive method firmly situated within a qualitative paradigm for ‘developing, analysing and interpreting patterns across a qualitative dataset’ [159] (p. 4). This was the preferred process, over grounded theory or interpretative phenomenological analysis, as it is independent, allowing the researcher to choose theories, epistemologies and themes, as well as the degree and type of analysis [160]. It also allows for the coding process to be flexible and organic [161], respecting the participants’ attitudes, while also embracing the reflexive influence of the researchers’ interpretations as valued and integral to the process [162]. The following 6 sequential phases of RTA were applied and revisited to fit the data and research questions appropriately: (1) Familiarising oneself with the data; (2) Generating codes; (3) Constructing themes; (4) Reviewing potential themes; (5) Defining and naming themes; (6) Producing the report [160,163,164]. An inductive process of analysis was adopted—a ‘data-driven’ approach, with open coding representing the meaning communicated by the participants [158]. Interrater reliability was utilised for data analysis to ensure the consistency of the study methods [159,163] and accuracy in the development of themes [165].

2.5.1. Phase One: Familiarisation with the Data

Data analysis was led by the first author, who became familiar with the data through listening and transcribing the audios, reading and rereading the transcriptions at the first level, interrogating the data, engaging critically and reflexively, while taking notes throughout at the second level.

2.5.2. Phase Two: Generating Initial Codes

Guiding the initial coding and engaging with the data to uncover insights and patterns [166] were research questions: what are the perceptions of primary school and system leaders relating to the facilitating and inhibiting factors affecting the implementation of transformational school leadership, and is this model perceived to build relations with parents and the wider school community? The codes created were assigned to nodes, the name NVivo gives to codes [155].

2.5.3. Phase Three: Generating Themes

A range of initial themes and sub-themes was then created from reviewing and analysing the dataset in its entirety to combine codes sharing common features. These codes communicated meaningful responses to the research questions [163].

2.5.4. Phase Four: Reviewing Potential Themes

Here, the dataset was reviewed at two levels, with level one further analysing the themes and sub-themes developed in phase three, and an examination of the relationships among the data that inform each theme and sub-theme to allow them to contribute to the data narrative [161]. In level two, the themes were modified and some amalgamated, with some restructuring of themes and sub-themes according to the relevance and applicability to the research questions, until it was found that the resulting set of themes worked in relation to each other and the full dataset [162].

2.5.5. Phase Five: Defining and Naming Themes

The themes and sub-themes from the previous phase were collapsed to four themes and 14 sub-themes in this phase. Each theme tells an independent story, where the narratives and terminologies used by interviewees are consistent with the dataset, informative in relation to the research questions and fulfil the dual criteria of internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity [167]. The themes created were as follows:

• Facilitating factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership;
• Inhibiting factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership;
• Perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to parents;
• Perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to the board of management and extended community.

2.5.6. Phase Six: Producing the Report

This phase is the story of the research, the reporting on the adventure [159]. The findings section synthesises and contextualises the data [167]. While the themes created were synthesised in response to the interview questions, the data gathered for each theme were drawn from the entire dataset. The story begins with the factors expressed for facilitating the implementation of transformational school leadership, followed by the inhibiting factors, and proceeds to perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to parents, the board of management, whole school staff and the extended community. Where the term parent is used, this includes guardian, and parents’ association includes parents’ council and parents’ committee. The reflexive aspect of RTA calls for this research study to explicitly portray philosophical sensitivities and theoretical understandings in a clear manner [168], which will be apparent in the following sections of the paper.

3. Results and Discussion: Interview Findings and Analysis

3.1. First Theme: Facilitating Factors for the Implementation of Transformational School Leadership

This first theme created from the extensive dataset on the facilitating factors for implementation contained the following sub-themes in order of the volume of code: (i) Process, (ii) Relationships, people, trust, communication, culture; (iii) Support.

3.1.1. First Sub-Theme: Process

The volume of research at the macro level into educational leadership contrasts with the relatively low quantity on the experiences of school leadership [169]. With school and system leaders expressing such little time for school leadership, due to the management and administrative duties and responsibilities [2], the findings in this study show that participants emphasised how they would value having a clearly defined process for implementing transformational leadership to maximise school leadership success and sustainability, employing ‘good systems and structures’ (Participant AdP2). The following categories were each expressed by more than three participants, pertaining to what would contribute to this process in facilitating transformational school leadership:

(i)

Knowledge of the process and context consideration;

(ii)

Having a vision and mission with goal setting, stating the how and who;

(iii)

Adaptability, pace and getting the balance right;

(iv)

Organisational, innovative, negotiating and collaborative skills;

(v)

Agency and autonomy;

(vi)

Growth mindset.

(i) School and system leaders expressed a need for a clearly defined transformational school leadership process ‘to be incredibly well-informed, knowing what you’re transforming to, what you’re leading, and owning the process’ (participant FI2), with participant AdP1 believing ‘it’s about being clinical and focused’, and participant AdP5 also looking for a structure to provide focus and direction, and ‘that the leader has a real understanding of what it is’ (participant AdP7). A transformational distributed school leadership approach could potentially mitigate this need. ‘Looking at Our School (LAOS) 2022’ [18] was referenced as potentially facilitating the process by participant AdP6 but needing much more support for effective implementation: ‘I suppose the LAOS document 2022 is beginning to get that framework idea going, although I’ve never got any training in it, but it is pointing us in the right direction’. Participation of, and support for, the whole school community in implementation of transformational leadership was voiced; ‘Everyone must see themselves as having a part to play in the process. So, to support that, the staff, the pupils, the parents and the broader school community, need to feel that their strengths are recognised, celebrated and listened to’ (participant DP1). The absence of clear guidance for implementing a process of transformational leadership, as expressed by participant AdP6, who viewed transformational school leadership as aspirational: ‘There’s no guidance saying this is actually the way you should be doing it (transformational leadership)’. The value of transformational leadership being a deliberate process required to drive change was expressed by participant AP2, including a democratic approach ‘to build from the bottom up’, ‘because our principal promotes transformational leadership, we’re all leading’ (participant AP2). Participants emphasised school community context consideration as a facilitator in the implementation of transformational leadership process, especially those with experience of differing contexts. This echoes research on how various types of school contexts shape leadership practice, the value of examining leadership in context, with the need for leadership to respond and adapt to different contexts [170,171].

(ii) A collaborative approach to the creation of shared vision, mission and goal-setting documents for the school community was viewed by most participants as being central to the process of transformational leadership, with the value of implementation and maintenance also emphasised. For example, participant AdP4 indicated that ‘Without vision we perish!’, and participant AdP5 identified the necessity of ‘a clear vision with clear communication’, while participant AP2 views transformational school leadership to be about ‘building that vision, setting goals, and promoting that. It’s very, very, important’, and participant FI2 expressing that ‘you’ve got to have that collective, articulation of the steps you care to achieve’. Shared responsibility for the vision was emphasised by participants TP1 and AP2: ‘So, it’s not just the principal can do this—you need your ISM (in-school management) team, your Board of Management, you need everyone, pulling in the same direction, which is where the vision comes in’ (participant TP1); ‘It’s very important that it’s not the principal’s vision, that it’s something that’s organic, and forever changing, and that the children and parents have a sense of ownership around the vision’ (participant AP2). Participants AdP2, AdP3 and FI1 highlighted that any member leading the vision, mission and goal-setting needs to have that vision, acting with empathy and cognisant of the responsibility of leading a team while also building leadership capacity: ‘Transformational leadership style requires that the leader is working with a mission to meet goals’; ‘The school leader has to lead the vision, help get the team together to help formulate the vision and then bring them with you, empathise with staff, and give them opportunities to lead as well’; ‘as a transformational leader; that they have that vision’. Distributing the leadership among the staff and building leadership capacity in the school community strengthens the leadership culture throughout, as expressed by participant AP2: ‘The broader the base that you distribute that transformational leadership, making leaders of all your teachers, the stronger it is at the top, working towards that vision’. The synergy of combining transformational and distributed leadership has the potential to facilitate a sustainable enactment, with all players involved in the process, and a sharing of leadership pertaining to the situation. Having the school community supporting the vision to facilitate inevitable change was highlighted by participant TP1: ‘If everyone buys into the vision, it is possible, and it should be what you’d be aiming for, because school cannot stay the same’. Being realistic and selective regarding goal-setting were also seen as facilitators by participant DP1: ‘With the time and the work pressures on teachers; you need to be realistic about the targets and your vision’, and TP1, AP1, TP2, AdP4 and FI1, where it was also seen that successful implementation would be experienced if goals were carefully selected, and once achieved that they would be maintained: ‘With transformational leadership, you need integrated implementation. Is the ongoing good work being integrated enough so that it’s part of our natural modus operandi and remains maintained so that it’s not just dropped for newer ideas?’ (participant TP1); ‘I think a goal is important, but I think it needs to be there for a very good reason. Then checking in is very important. Checking back also!’ (participant AP1). In the vision, mission, goal-setting creation process, participant FI2 and others pointed to the essential importance of keeping the student at the centre of the focus: ‘Clarity of benefit to the student—if it’s not good enough for the student, why are we doing it?’

(iii) Within the process, being adaptable to embrace change and having the skills to pivot to what is needed was expressed as a facilitator of transformational leadership by several participants: ‘transformational leadership is being adaptable, so if a school needs something, you take that tool out of your tool kit. The leader needs to have that adaptability and needs to know that they have it within themselves or be able to find it within themselves’ (participant AdP2). Gauging an appropriate pace for implementation of transformational school leadership was also seen as a necessary facilitator to enable the sustainability of the person and position, and this was voiced by participant AdP2 as coming with experience, getting the pace right, so as not to pressurise members of the school community: ‘You might think you have a quick fix—you might come in all guns blazing, but that can burn itself out—it has to be sustainable with modern ways of thinking. I’m just a believer in slow and steady, the slow burn, build it, make it solid, make it sustainable—it’s a hare and tortoise kind of a thing’. Achieving an appropriate and timely balance and extent for the school’s particular context is another suggested facilitator: ‘knowing the extent—transformational leadership happens one step, one interaction, one person at a time’ (participant AdP2). ‘I suppose not taking on too much is important—I think that facilitates’ (participant AP1); ‘I think transformation has also got to be proportionate in terms of understanding what is possible’ (participant FI2). Experience in school leadership contributes to good judgement in adopting what is prescribed to achieve a balance in successful implementation: ‘I’m experienced enough, and I suppose you get a certain level of stability as you get older. Maybe experience facilitates in teaching you to make the procedures work for you’ (participant AdP2). Adaptability, flexibility and embracing change are part of the current every day in leadership, where educational leadership challenges may include making adaptive changes [172]. Guiding the whole school community through this process can arguably come within the breadth of today’s transformational leadership, and if supported by distributed leadership, there is a deepened sharing of responsibility and accountability to facilitate enactment success.

(iv) The mediating role of improvisation, creativity and related skills in transformational leadership has been acknowledged [49]. In this study, personality type and a specific skill set were viewed as enablers—being organised, creative, innovative and having project management, improvisation, negotiation and collaborative skills: ‘I think organisation and project negotiation are very much part of it; collaborative work’ (participant AP1); ‘who they need to be to make transformational leadership happen, and the skills they need to use’ (participant AdP7); ‘Collaborative work ethos and that good culture of working together well’ (participant FI1). A ‘start-up’ school was recognised as being a particularly appropriate context for a transformational leadership approach, with the opportunity of creating a leadership culture and the necessary skillset of everyone leading: ‘As a new school, I need all staff; SNAs, everyone, to be very capable leaders in whatever area they’re in. It might be trickier in another school, where the cultural history is ‘We’ve always done it like this’. There’s none of that in a new school—you really can start from scratch, so it does give that freedom’ (participant AdP7).

(v) Staff agency and autonomy were seen as valued facilitators: ‘I think the most important aspect is agency, that there’s a level of freedom’ (participant AdP1); ‘the openness for the individual, for the person who is not the transformational leader to work in an agentic, independent, autonomous way, as well as being part of a team and working in a collaborative way. The transformational leader needs to be able to facilitate, enable and encourage that’ (participant FI1). There is potential in the argument that if schools adhered to a standardised formal transformational leadership process, with distributed practices, setting out the vision, mission, culture, ethos and goals, it could allow for the Department of Education to provide more autonomy to schools in making context-specific decisions: ‘One size doesn’t fit all. I wish there was a little bit more autonomy in trusting us, as we know what’s best for our kids’ (participant TP2). This would also facilitate creativity, which increases where there are greater degrees of freedom and flexibility, agency and autonomy, and applicable to transformational leadership in education [59].

(vi) A growth mindset regarding curricular offerings, people and leadership was expressed in such as: ‘Believing there’s always something we should be looking to improve’ (participant TP1); ‘Any of the items that are very important to us, have a leader attached to them, and it’s about connecting with those particular people, aligning the transformational with the sense of growth, and we’re all leading together. Transformational leadership very much embodies that you are growing together, and if there’s anything different that we need to be doing; any systems or methodologies, to make the delivery of the curriculum the best that it can be’ (participant AdP6). Several respondents referenced the value of self-reflection being a facilitating factor of transformational leadership and growing one’s leadership practice; ‘John Dewey said it’s about reflecting on your experience—it’s not experience itself that teaches you or helps you to develop—it’s how you reflect on your experiences’ (participant AdP1). The expressions in this first sub-theme: process, demonstrate the requirement by school and system leaders for a transformational school leadership process, which is responded to later in this section with a model underpinned by the six I’s of transformational school leadership, supported by distributed leadership practices, and a roadmap for implementation.

3.1.2. Second Sub-Theme: Relationships, People, Trust, Communication, Culture

Where leadership is no longer seen to reside in individual pursuit [173,174,175,176,177], quality relationships where leaders respect followers are crucial to leadership success [178] and seen to particularly facilitate transformational school leadership [179,180]. The following categories were expressed by more than three participants pertaining to how ‘relationships, people and personality’ facilitate transformational school leadership:

(i)

Individualised consideration, identifying the change agents;

(ii)

Relationships among the whole school community;

(iii)

People, qualities, personality, reflection;

(iv)

Exchange, commitment, collaboration, cooperation, harmony;

(v)

Trust, respect, communication;

(vi)

School and inclusive culture.

(i) Having the capacity to relate to others with individualised consideration, and knowing and understanding your community, were understood to facilitate implementation of transformational leadership in responses from participants AdP1, TP1, AdP2, AP1 and AP2: ‘It’s about knowing your school community’; ‘You have to focus on the good in people that you have’; ‘Relationships are such a big part, that it does depend on the people you are dealing with’; ‘To be able to understand the people’; ‘For transformational leadership to occur, you need to invest in your staff, you need to know your staff, you need to give that time’. Knowing your community facilitates identifying the people necessary to implement or support change was emphasised as: ‘Who do I need to bring on board for this journey, so that we’re in a position where we are collectively owning the transformation, then we’re all accountable, responsible, involved, participating and understanding what’s happening. I managed in a few cases to identify the change agent, and in a primary school in Ireland, for transformational leadership to work, you’ve got to do that, because the most obvious change agent is most likely not the change agent’ (participant FI2). Interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence were also highlighted, part of the individualised consideration third ‘I’, by participants DP1, AP2 and AdP7: ‘I think the interpersonal skills competency of the leaders is another important factor in making it work; interpersonal skills like empathy’; ‘the emotional intelligence that is required in transformational leadership—to be able to identify in other staff what can be pulled, building towards the school vision’; ‘The emotional intelligence; being able to bring people with you’.

(ii) Looking through the leadership as practice (LAP) lens places critical emphasis on relationships and interactions between people and repositions leadership as being about collective action [181,182,183]. These authors’ model of transformational leadership supported by distributed practice nods to LAP, to the extent that everyone in the whole school community is part of the relationship and interactive process accepting leadership responsibility and accountability [184]. The school and system leaders interviewed, regardless of position or years’ experience, expressed how relationships, motivating others to travel the journey and people sharing the leadership responsibility facilitate the implementation of transformational leadership: ‘Put the steps in place, bringing people with you, by sharing the leadership, and ultimately hoping to transform’ (participant AdP3); ‘As a transformational leader to have the ability to share that vision and bring the others along so that they can enact and implement the vision in a distributed way, in a collaborative way’ (participant FI1); ‘being able to work as part of a team, and build leadership capacity in others; not seeing yourself as knowing everything. I think those aspects are important for it to work in an Irish context’ (participant DP1); ‘If a school is looking to implement transformational leadership, relationships, the quality of the teachers, the leadership within the school, will all have a major influence on its success’ (participant FI3). The leadership team developing relations with staff conducive to transformational leadership practice by all was noted: ‘Other factors will be that you have a staff willing to go along with the transformational leaders; a staff willing to collaborate, and that the people within the school community are active as well’ (participant FI1). Transformational leadership engages the relational self and the collective self, leading to the followers’ relationship with the leader and social identification with the organisation [185]. It is a human-centred approach with relationships, people and personality having significant impact [46], and the facilitating influence of quality relationships was reflected by participant TP1: ‘relationships are the big thing’. Loving relationships are considered a facilitating factor of significance: ‘The effects of transformational leadership are deep and long-lasting, inspire and motivate. It smooths over the ruffles. It makes things easier when people make mistakes or do the wrong thing. If there’s enough love there, enough deep-seated positive things going on for people, they’ll get over whatever bumps arise’ (participant AdP2).

(iii) People, qualities and personalities were deemed to have a significant bearing on the implementation of transformational leadership: ‘If you already have good quality people in place, that makes it so much easier. What’s important for me is that qualities are right. Competence, of course, and if they’re skilled; even better, but none of those things are as important as the personal qualities’ (participant AdP2). It was stated by participants AdP2 and AdP5 that leadership ego or self-gain can bias the practice: ‘Transformational leadership style requires that the leader is not working for self-gain’; ‘Am I doing it for myself, am I doing it for the pupils, am I considering the teachers? So that is a facilitator in relation to transformational leadership; drop the ego—it’s not about me, it’s about the 147 families, 216 students, 20 staff, but I had to learn that’.

Again, the capacity for reflection, and prioritising it with energy and time, were emphasised as being of benefit to the transformational leadership process by participants AP1, AP2 and AdP7: ‘It takes an energy from the leader and from the leadership group, and just that time, sitting down, and saying ‘How did you think that went?’; ‘There has to be that capacity for self-reflection. You know that’s a personality thing and a skill of itself; where am I going, what am I doing, what am I doing right, wrong?’; ‘Transformational school leadership is about making sure that what I and the community see as things that are hugely important, happen, and that only happens if you’re regularly reflecting on it, and then making the changes needed’.

(iv) Transformational leadership is an exchange, cooperation and collaboration between all participants implementing strategies, to achieve maximum goal attainment [186]. Campbell’s research on collaboration for educational change finds it a complex concept and practice, influenced by leadership practices [187]. Transformational leadership can build collaborative school culture in a relatively brief period [188]. Commitment, ‘buy-in’, belonging and cooperation were expressed as facilitators by many participants: ‘I suppose the willingness of people to go along is one thing’ (participant TP1); ‘cooperation, buy-in, commitment’ (participant AP1); ‘there has to be buy-in from everyone in the school; everyone has to see themselves as having a part to play in the process’ (participant DP1). Harmony, collaboration and shared leadership were expressed as a valuable level of engagement for achieving success at various levels: ‘Harmony is a big thing. You can’t have harmony without opposing voices. They are singing different notes, but if you can get that sweet spot of hearing all the voices, aw, its magic when it comes together; wow, it makes the most beautiful sound. Or the guy ropes of a tent—pulling this way and that way, but if you can get it roughly equal, the tent stays up and its stable—something like that! The teamwork here is so valuable’ (participant AdP2). ‘To lead a transformational team, you need to be working very closely with the team’ (participant AdP3). ‘Being part of a team and working in a collaborative way’ (participant FI1). ‘If everyone comes together to support the child, it’s easier to gain a consensus over an issue then’ (participant DP1). ‘The key to transformational leadership is the ISM team; it’s almost that sharing leadership—the in-school management team and modelling are hugely important’ (participant AdP6); ‘inspired by the top’ (participant AP2).

(v) The level of trust among all school staff affects how a school functions and achieves [189], with the transformational school leader building a respectful, appreciative and trusting relationship with followers [190]. Communication with all stakeholders was expressed as essential for building trusting relationships with most interviewees: ‘You need to build up trust and have good communication with your staff. The transformational leader needs to be clear on the vision, to have the skills to communicate that vision to the staff, and to be able to build the trust within the staff, so they can get buy-in, that this is worthwhile doing’ (participant FI1); ‘Regular open channels of communication between all members of the school community, where differences of opinion are welcome, but everyone recognises the need to resolve differences and work as part of a team for the benefit of the student, and the interpersonal skills of the leaders is another important factor in making it (transformational school leadership) work’ (participant DP1); ‘Communication, approachability, and knowing your staff’ (participant AdP5); ‘When I say communication I mean keeping your team on message all the time’ (participant FI2); ‘Building trust is a huge part of it, and building communication (participant AdP6); ‘It’s really important to explain to your staff; communication’ (participant AP2). Communication style appropriate to context and personality was referenced by participant AdP1: ‘I think its nuanced, its complex; depending on who you are speaking to, and the context of what is going on, can require different responses; you contextualise your engagement. Some people prefer or require more direct communication. Some people need a gentler touch’. Building trust, confidence and respect with the school community is a valuable enabler of the transformational leadership process as expressed; ‘I think it also takes trust, being trusted, feeling trusted’ (participant AP1); ‘There’s confidence among the staff, and understanding towards each other, led in a large part, by the empathetic approach of the principal’ (participant DP1); ‘Consistency and follow through would also be very important in being a transformational school leader, so that staff, students, teachers and parents know that when you say you are going to do something that you do it; that they trust you’ (participant AdP5); ‘That there is a good understanding from the staff with the attitude of: We’re here to make relationships, build trust; first of all with pupils inside the classroom, outside, and with other staff as well, and that’s really, really, important’ (participant AdP6); ‘People buy into it because you have earned trust and respect; people know you’re a hard worker’ (participant AP2).

(vi) School culture evidences the attitudes, traditions and practices created over time, inherited or passed on and practised by members [191]. It provides a distinctive identity that represents the sensory experience of that school [192]. In the Irish context, led by the leadership team, school self-evaluation is a process all primary and post-primary schools must undertake on an ongoing basis, consisting of collaborative, internal school reflection, review and planning for improvement and implementing change, with school culture acknowledged as critical to its success [193]. School culture was similarly expressed by interviewees as being integral to facilitating transformational leadership: ‘That good culture of working together well’ (participant FI1); ‘Well-being, well-adjusted, happy, resilient children, supported by similar teachers and transformational school leadership deliver the highest quality product of learning’ (participant FI2); ‘Transformational leadership for me is seeing that big picture; a place of safety, of connection, it’s about relationships, trauma aware, quality based, and that all lived; you have to feel it in the culture’, with cultural history also suggested as a potential factor (participant AdP7). Leadership for inclusion focuses on equity and ensuring that all are treated according to individual need [194], where barriers to learning are dismantled, and inclusive learning environemnts are prioritised [195]. Flanagan’s research on transformational leadership and developing a whole-school approach to inclusion calls for school leaders to initiate and maintain a strong inclusive culture to ensure that it endures regardless of staff changes or specific pupil presentation [19]. Interviewees referenced how an inclusive school culture facilitates: ‘A school culture of inclusion is critical and will facilitate transformational school leadership, with whole school community collaboration and cooperation’ (participant FI3), echoed in research that a transformational leadership approach has the most potential in establishing inclusive environments [196,197,198].

3.1.3. Third Sub-Theme: Support

Support in various forms was perceived by school and system leaders as a significant facilitator for transformational school leadership:

(i)

Administrative support and distributed leadership;

(ii)

Leadership team, staff and whole school community;

(iii)

Training and continuous professional development;

(iv)

Recruitment.

(i) Interviewees were resounding in their positivity and enthusiasm for transformational school leadership. However, for the Irish context, it was expressed by participants AdP3, AdP7 and FI3 that due to the pressures already being experienced by principals, transformational leadership could be best achieved if schools were provided additional administrative support to give principals the space to lead its implementation: ‘Admin. support. There are also schools with teaching principals. It’s very difficult if you’re in the classroom all day with a small amount of admin. support’; ‘The core facilitator is that the role of the principal needs to be defined at department level, and the jobs that don’t need to be done by the person who’s being paid probably the most; sitting filling in the form, instead of leading teaching and learning, are delegated. So, qualified administrators, and centralising work like finances; I’m currently trying to sort our electricity, because our bill is crazy, but I know nothing about finding electricity providers; it’s a waste of everyone’s resources’; ‘Relieving principals of the overload of administrative responsibilities needs to be prioritised’. As referenced by participant AdP3, maybe there are aspects of the Educational Training Board (ETB)’s Community National Schools, established in 2008 as a new model of primary school patronage, regarding administrative support that can be brought into all primary schools: ‘We now have a full-time secretary; that’s a big help. And a certain amount of responsibility goes to Head Office. So, for example, they’ll put together the application for Emergency Works; I have an input, but there’s a team there, and it’s not my responsibility, and that’s fantastic. Again, in this model; HR and Recruitment; the ETB can help principals take away some of the management responsibility to give them time for leadership’. Distributed leadership was also expressed by interviewees, such as participant AP2, as feasible support to facilitate transformational leadership: ‘You can’t have transformational leadership without basing it on distributive leadership; it really needs that model to carry it and the more people involved in it, the more successful transformational leadership will be’ (participant AP2). This construct illuminates the potential for a transformational distributed model of school leadership.

(ii) Support of all members of the whole school community by one another has been found to build professional learning communities [199], and was considered a significant facilitator for transformational leadership by multiple participants, such as AdP3, AdP6 and AP2: ‘In-school management teams—the fact the numbers are now coming back to where they were—that’s a great help’; ‘And if you’re trying to create transformation and create growth, you have to bring people along with you; it’s not show and it’s not forced. It’s positive, it’s gentle, and it’s progressive, together. I certainly see part of my role is cultivating leaders from among the school staff and developing the leadership qualities in the in-school management team’; ‘But the principal still in the background supporting and making sure that it’s all working towards our common goal which is better learning outcomes for our children; that is what we’re about, and supporting the teachers in doing that. It’s so important that we see ourselves as a professional learning community; we’re much more open in the past couple of years to sharing our experiences, CPD and resources. I think that comes from the framework where we’re all working towards that goal’.

(iii) Providing opportunities for continuous professional development (CPD) for all staff supports development and leadership [200,201]. Internal and external CPD, including coaching, mentoring, resourcing and pre-leadership training for formal leadership roles, were seen as supporting the facilitation of transformational leadership by such participants as AdP1, AdP4 and AP2: ‘Leadership coaching for teams on an ongoing basis would facilitate it massively. I engage with a coach and find it very beneficial; it helps with the blind spots—it helps me challenge my own thinking. The number one thing is to properly resource school leaders, and if it’s a model of leadership that we want to aspire to, and we want to see school leaders engage with, then to support that, on a practical level. Even the coaching was only given for one year. So why wasn’t that given on an ongoing basis as a resource? Wouldn’t that be a really good use of money?’; ‘To scaffold and framework the implementation network path and support it with the right professional development or the resources that they need. And if you’ve got young leaders, they need mentoring’; ‘It’s so important; CPD, and to encourage it. There’s never a problem here if you want to do a course; always supporting, and giving opportunities for CPD, the sharing of the CPD, building up the confidence of staff, and then that sense of ownership is celebrated’.

(iv) Recruitment of leaders has been found to influence the quality of school leadership [202], and in this study, school and system leaders spoke to the supporting factor of appropriate recruitment in the implementation of transformational leadership by participants AdP6 and AdP7: ‘HR takes a huge amount of time, and getting that right’; ‘If you’re looking for transformational school leadership, there needs to be the right people, the right skills, the right mindset to move into that space, so I think we need to make the role more attractive, and more sustainable’. Looking at the data in the sub-themes supporting the facilitating factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership highlights the merit in creating a model that combines transformational and distributed leadership.

3.2. Second Theme: Inhibiting Factors for the Implementation of Transformational School Leadership

With far less data than for the facilitating factors, this theme was created from the specific question regarding the inhibiting factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership, with interviewees again voicing opinions from lived school leadership experience and from knowledge of school leadership. In examining this data, the following sub-themes were created: (i) School culture, people; (ii) Principals’ workload, sustainability; (iii) Knowledge, capability; (iv) School system.

3.2.1. First Sub-Theme: School Culture, People

Culture is the evidence of motives, values, beliefs, identities and interpretations of significant events resulting from the common experiences of a group [203]. From the findings, the inhibiting factor of culture divides into the following:

(i)

School culture;

(ii)

People.

(i) Culture is central to leadership in our schools, where leaders have unique opportunities to be cultural architects, to shape core values and to provide ethical leadership and respect for purpose and values [204]. How school culture can inhibit the implementation of transformational leadership includes the perception of participant FI2: ‘I think the Irish culture fights against productive collaboration, so I think it’s very hard to transform, on message’. The challenge of a principal inheriting a school with a challenging culture must also be considered: ‘Inhibitors can be the culture you have inherited, and then you’re looking at re-culturing. And re-culturing a school is challenging’ (participant AdP4). Power is inherent in every societal grouping, and for Foucault, it makes us what we are. It is not aligned to agency or structure [205,206]. How power is enacted can be a positive or negative contributor to school culture, as expressed by participant TP1: ‘If everyone buys into the vision, but there are so many stories of Boards of Management—with powerplays, and staff members who are pulling. So, transformational leadership is out—you are just literally trying to manage to keep things going from day to day, but where you can have it, it should be what you’d be aiming for, because school can’t stay the same’.

(ii) There is a significant influence of the uncertainty avoidance dimension of culture on transformational leadership [207], and this dimension could arguably be said to underpin many expressions of the inhibiting factors relating to people in the school context, and how it potentially impedes the implementation of transformational leadership, as in such expressions as the following from participant TP1, AdP2 and FI1, where people in the school community opposing the process can inhibit progress in implementation: ‘If there’s a bad apple in the barrel, that can disgruntle’; ‘Difficult people inhibit; you can make a difference, you can transform them, yes, you can, but odds are against it, unfortunately’; ‘If you have someone who isn’t willing to engage in the shared vision, or who isn’t willing to move forward; that can stop transformational leadership and if that takes root; even a small cohort of individuals can inhibit progress or transformation happening’. Inheriting certain staff or unsatisfactory recruitment can potentially create school cultural challenges increasing challenges for transformational leadership: ‘If you inherit staff; it’s a potential disadvantage of transformational school leadership’ (participant AP2). ‘If you recruit badly, and select the wrong people to be middle leaders, or senior leaders, then you’re potentially not in the space where you’re going to get the right kind of transformation’ (participant FI2). Similarly to other leadership styles, research evidence shows that relationships can inhibit transformational leadership in certain circumstances; leaders can overinvest personally in relationships and experience emotional exhaustion [208]. Relationships where leaders show favouritism can create division, cause resentment and undermine the leader [22], and leaders who develop close personal relationships may experience challenges in maintaining professional distance, affecting respect from the team. With impartiality and fairness central to transformational leadership, such relationships could undermine credibility [209]: ‘So, the inhibitors; relationships are the big thing really’ (participant TP1). Peoples’ attitudes to any aspect of school leadership will always be a factor, as expressed; ‘It’s something that you’re maybe naturally interested in, so if you don’t place a value on it, then maybe we’re not going to invest in it, and maybe not develop it in our schools?’(participant TP2); ‘Personable being a facilitator, and remote being an inhibitor’ (participant AdP4); ‘Personality—that sort of ‘us and them’; management, staff?’ (participant AP2). The implementation of a relationships-valued leadership model via transformational distributed leadership positioned in educational policy to achieve maximum inclusion, with the passions and potential of each member of the school community maximised, could arguably minimise such ‘school culture’ and ‘people’ inhibitors.

3.2.2. Second Sub-Theme: Principals’ Workload, Sustainability

In conceptualising the implementation of transformational leadership, there were two elements that were referenced by school and system leaders as inhibitors that could potentially be eliminated:

(i)

Principals’ workload;

(ii)

Sustainability.

(i) Primary school principals exert significant influence on school leadership [210], school life and school improvements [211,212,213], and their professionalism, commitment and dedication in so doing merits respect and support [214,215,216]. Significant evidence exists regarding principals’ increasing workload. Fullan has regularly referenced how the role of principal has evolved over the years, becoming even more complex and demanding [217], with the occupational stress of school principals likely to impact on the school environment and teachers in the school, as demonstrated by a study by Darmody and Smyth [218]. It also revealed that an issue in the supply of school leaders is ongoing with one of the key factors discouraging applications for principalship, being the volume of work associated with the position. The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), the Irish primary school teachers’ union, produced a report on the workload, stress and resilience of primary teachers. Despite reporting job satisfaction, enthusiasm and motivation, teachers and principals consistently reported increased stress, primarily due to the increased workload associated with administration and the increased pressure to solve problems that have their origin in societal concerns, with principals expressing significantly higher levels of stress [219]. The 2014 Irish Primary Schools Network (IPPN) publication ‘Priorities for Principal Teachers—In Clear Focus’ acknowledges how the contextual factors of societal change have impacted on the role of the principal, with the aims of (i) Supporting the many principals struggling to manage workload; (ii) Looking again at how the range of talents of the wider educational community can provide support; and (iii) Defining the priorities for the leadership role of principal [220]. In the past decade, this has remained central to the agenda of the IPPN, with increasing concern as to the disproportionate increase in the responsibilities of the principal managing the organisation, without a related increase in supports and resources [221]. ‘The workload and expectations that are required by one person; that does not facilitate transformational leadership’ (participant AdP1). ‘So, it’s doable absolutely, but the day to day running of the school takes time and effort; dealing with crises, dealing with financial, dealing with discipline—the amount of time the principal gets to lead the vision is probably very small’ (participant AdP3). ‘I think leadership is getting harder and harder; you have to deal with administrative and management things, but in some ways, it should be a step above those, like you’re looking down on those, but I think in Ireland today, the job of principal is being dragged down—it’s like Gulliver with all those little ropes around him’ (participant AdP2). ‘Circular 63, in 2017 regarding tasks of the principal, states that one of the first things is to establish the vision and purpose of the school, and the only type of leadership that I have come across that is connected to that directly is transformational leadership. So, it would be remiss of us not to use it as an approach. But it’s so busy, Irish primary school principals are so busy; it’s just constant work and constant problems; our heating isn’t working today; it’s the day to day running of the school, and a principal who can invest time in considering their own leadership style; they’re very fortunate’ (participant AP2). To alleviate this pressure on school leaders and provide a range of supports, Darmody and Smyth propose the establishment of an intermediate management tier between the Department of Education and schools by taking responsibility for employment matters, finance and school maintenance [215]. A greater emphasis on administrative support and the encouragement and development of distributed leadership in a genuine sense are vital ways of easing the burden [169]. Supporting whole school community leadership, a construct providing appropriate administrative support and accountability structures, warrants further discussion.

(ii) Sustainability, as a sub-theme created from this dataset, related to the lack of sustainability of a position, with the IPPN considering the creation of conditions to enhance sustainability as one of its major strategic objectives in its 2022 publication, Primary School Leadership: The Case for Urgent Action: a Roadmap to Sustainability [221]. ‘The big issue is the non-sustainable nature of the job—the workload and expectations that are required by one person. That does not facilitate transformational leadership’ (participant AdP1); ‘We’re really struggling to recruit principals, and principals of the standard they need to be, and particularly if you’re looking for transformational school leadership they need to be the right people, the right skills, the right mindset to move into that space, so we need to make the role more attractive, and more sustainable’ (participant AdP7). Distributed leadership was introduced [107] to lighten the load of school leaders. Research shows that engagement with this model could assist the sustainability of school leaders in their roles [221,222].

3.2.3. Third Sub-Theme: Knowledge and Capability

The successful implementation of transformational school leadership, as with any leadership model, would require knowledge of the undertaking, training and experience. The lack of such would inhibit, as expressed by participants FI1, DP1 and AdP7: ‘I think one would have to understand what transformational leadership is before you can say that you are on that path. So that might be a bit of a disadvantage; maybe the lack of knowledge currently, the lack of research in Ireland at the moment, but again maybe in 5 or 10 years’ time, that wouldn’t be a disadvantage, because it will be, maybe, more widely known’; ‘I don’t see any disadvantages with the approach, but there can be difficulties in just putting it into practice in schools at the moment, with things like the pressure, with skills, with the experience’; ‘The biggest risk is not the person not having the capacity for it, like the individual either not having a real understanding of it, but actually the implementation is obviously so much more complex. If the leader and the team behind them only have a surface understanding of what transformational school leadership is, I think that could cause more damage than not trying to do it, because change for change’s sake is risky’.

3.2.4. Fourth Sub-Theme: School System

The strong managerial role required of the principal can inhibit the principal’s capacity for implementing transformational leadership [223,224,225]. Systemic change is believed to be required, with solutions perceived to be the remit of the Department of Education: ‘The system is set up in such a way to encourage principals to be more isolated in their work, and to prioritise administration of tasks, become bureaucrats, and lose the connection. And that is of no fault of their own’ (participant AdP1); ‘You’re like, King’s Cross Station—all the lines come in to you, and everything goes out from you, and that’s the way schools are set up, and they are trying to organise bigger schools with a walking deputy and maybe more people involved in leadership teams, but ultimately, everything has to go through one person’ (participant TP1). Research in the last decade continues to highlight that primary school leaders in Ireland continue to face challenges relating to ambiguity and insufficient guidance from the educational authorities [226,227,228,229,230,231]. Studies show the need for clearer-defined roles, better support structures and more leadership development opportunities: ‘Lack of training’ (participant AdP6); ‘My lack of guidance from the Department of Education in what I actually should be doing…, the inspectorate, the department’ (participant FI2); ‘The Department needs to start listening, and start trying to sort out some kind of a workable framework’ (participant AdP6). The inhibitors emerging from the data can arguably be said to be more about school leadership, in general, and less about transformational school leadership specifically, but highlight a demand for leadership guidance, support and a leadership model. However, this needs solutioning, which will be addressed in response to research question two.

3.3. Third Theme: Perceptions of Transformational School Leadership Pertaining to Parents

This theme was created from the interview question: In ‘Looking at Our School 2022’ [18], school leaders are required to build and maintain relationships with parents. Can you see how transformational school leadership might build a relationship with parents, putting the child at the centre of the work? ‘Looking at Our School (LAOS) 2022’ advises that (i) the principal, deputy principal and other leaders in the school build and maintain relationships with parents, other schools and the wider community, with the ‘statement of highly effective practice’ looking to ‘value and support partnership with parents as a means of supporting pupils’ learning and wellbeing. They build and maintain very constructive relationships with parents, which impact positively on their children’s learning’ [p.40]; (ii) the board of management and the principal builds and maintains relationships with the parents’ association, with the ‘statement of highly effective practice’ looking to see that they ‘facilitate and support the parents’ association to fulfil its partnership and advisory role, and to operate as an inclusive forum, supporting the involvement of all parents’ (p. 40). The dataset evidenced perceptions and experiences of positive influences of transformational leadership and healthy relationships between principals and parents’ associations, in particular. However, transformational leadership was seen to go significantly further in terms of relations with parents and grandparents, by the participants. Through fostering collaboration, aligning goals, empowering parents and increasing their relations with school staff, transformational leadership can increase inclusion of parents in their child’s educational journey [174]. Perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to parents can be categorised in the following sub-themes: (i) Vision, inclusion; (ii) Relationship-building, capacity, trust; (iii) Communication; (iv) Empowerment, growing together.

3.3.1. First Sub-Theme: Vision, Inclusion

School staff working with parents, all sharing the vision of having maximum impact on the child, was highlighted as a merit of transformational leadership by participant AdP1, DP1, AdP6 and AP2: ‘The whole impact is very important. So, what is this school doing for the children? What are we aiming to do for our whole school community, for the children’s families? What’s our vision for where all our children are going to go? So, there’s a big inclusivity element of it, engaging with parents about supports for children. Making an effort to engage with parents at a human level, expressing and articulating what it is that we’re here for and how we’re working together’; ‘So, whether it’s to do with policies or an area of development; you might be doing a survey, or you might have a meeting with them; that they feel involved in the school, part of the school vision and you’re acknowledging and celebrating their role’; ‘On a survey for parents, the first questions I’m asking them is what we’re doing best in, how we’re doing it, what we need to hold onto for the future; it’s those kinds of things that help you focus your mind and maybe assist in being transformational’; ‘It’s like aligning your teacher goals and their professional goals with a vision; it’s aligning the parents; what they want for the educational experience for their children and taking that on board’. Inherent in the ethos of the ‘Educate Together’ school is sharing the vision creating with the parent body: ‘Parental engagement is always something that (1) is expected and (2) the parents require it; they’re choosing an Educate Together, so they’re quite strong on that’ (participant AdP7).

3.3.2. Second Sub-Theme: Relationship-Building, Capacity and Trust

Relationship-building enhances leadership capacity [232]. Believing in the leadership capacity of parents and including families as partners in the school community will lead school leaders to value relationships with parents and view this potential for a positive influence on the pupils [233]. Transformational school leadership facilitates this co-leadership [234]. Schools support parents in the education of their children, and this perspective must never be lost sight of: ‘Transformational school leadership leading learning fosters relationship-building with parents, who are the primary educators of their children’ (participant FI3); ‘The whole maintaining relationships with parents’ (participant AdP5). Transformational school leadership building relationships with parents, and sharing the school vision, with open two-way communication has the capacity to lead to reciprocal trust: ‘Building up the trust with the parent body, having good clear communication, and being collaborative and collegiate with the parents’ (participant FI1); ‘building relationships, building trust’ (participant AdP6); ‘We just kept bringing parents in, and over the years we’ve built trust, so when we have any school refusal and all those things, they’ve allowed me to go to their homes. We open the doors, we invite them in, we don’t let things fester. They know that we do have their best interests at heart, and we have worked hard on building those relationships’ (participant TP2). The transformational leadership principle of modelling behaviour can also inspire parents in their roles, supporting positive relationships and promoting positive engagement with the school [234].

3.3.3. Third Sub-Theme: Communication

Transformational school leadership recognises that engaging parents through consistent and relevant communication fosters trust between school leaders and parents, building strong partnerships, a collaborative and supportive learning environment, and improves student outcomes [179]. Regular communication with parents was seen to be of immense value to most participants, expressed here by FI1, DP1 and FI2: ‘In order to ensure that parents are on board, you do need to be able to communicate your vision, to ensure that the parents share the vision and how that might impact on their child, So, it’s the clarity of the communication is important, and the trust, through the Parents’ Council, and whatever means you would normally communicate with the parents if things are happening in the school in terms of change, or innovation, to realise the vision or the short to medium term goals that you have set for the school’ (participant FI1). Communication sharing information and welcoming parental input was voiced by many interviewees, focusing on leading to solutioning potential challenges, as expressed here by participant DP1: ‘Regular open channels of communication between all members of the school community, where differences of opinion are welcome, but everyone recognises the need to resolve differences and work as part of a team for the benefit of the student’.

3.3.4. Fourth Sub-Theme: Empowerment, Growing Together, Additional Needs

The empowerment and growing together aspect of transformational leadership can support the development of relationships with parents, fostering increased engagement and commitment, with parents feeling respected and valued [235]. Interviewees spoke about how parental and grandparental involvement, through cooperation at information evenings, gardening projects, school trips and reading initiatives, involved parents and grandparents in learning with staff and students, while also empowering them. Empowering parents through involvement leading discussion groups, as expressed by participant AP1: ‘It worked. That was a powerful feeling for everybody; proud for where they were, that they’d achieved, le chéile (together); helping with reading projects…, I was mentoring those parents and grandparents, a mini system of collaborative learning; it was part of that whole idea of transformational leadership changes the individual and it changes the system; a microcosm of transformational leadership; we were all changed in a positive way. The parents and grandparents were learning. They loved it, the children loved it, and I have to say, I loved it… There’s ownership, it builds pride; those little projects being pulled together with parents because they are all agreeing with the mission of our school’ (participant AP1). ‘Support of the parents makes life so much better for the children and for the teachers, and sometimes it needs to be nurtured and cared for. Sometimes it’s not there, and you must work at it’ (participant AdP2). ‘So that might be parents coming in to help with a reading initiative or school fundraising or supporting a school trip, so that they don’t feel they are just getting things from us but that they are contributing towards the school as well. I think that helps to build a sense of cohesion amongst the whole school community which would be credit to transformational leadership’ (participant DP1). ‘Be more open, bring the parents in. Don’t be afraid. They are not our enemy. We are nothing without them’ (participant AdP3). ‘We’ve our grandparents coming in tomorrow, so our Parents’ Association will be here, but I’ll be in the middle of them pouring teas and coffees, we’re all on the same page’ (participant TP2).

Navigating the complexities of supporting children with additional needs is a constant challenge for parents and schools. With respect, and understanding of transformational leadership, this journey can be undertaken together [236,237]: ‘engaging with parents about supports for children’ (participant AdP1). Creating opportunities for student enhancement was perceived by participant FI2 as a crucial aspect of transformational leadership: ‘We opened a ‘Grannies’ Room’, so they then became matrons for change for their granddaughters, and they got invested, and it resulted in some of the girls getting better chances. To try and say to children that there’s more out there, there’s more possible. You just must light that fire, and you drive that. Together we can find multiplicities where possible’. School and system leader interviewees viewed transformational leadership as having a very positive influence on school–parent relationships with the child at the centre of the work. In looking to how this can be developed, participant AdP7 expressed: ‘LAOS is excellent, and the 2022 update is very positive. But that whole centring of the child and family and community; I don’t know if that’s even been picked up by the majority’. This insight informs us that more work is required to bring this to the awareness of schools and emphasises the need for human-centred leadership to be enacted by the whole school community, where the school staff empower the parents, grandparents and pupils to lead in their own lives.

3.4. Fourth Theme: Perceptions of Transformational School Leadership Pertaining to the Board of Management and Extended Community

This theme was created from the interview question: In ‘Looking at Our School 2022’ [18], school leaders are required to build and maintain relationships with the wider school community. How would you consider transformational school leadership might build such relationships, again putting the child at the centre of the work?’ ‘Looking at Our School (LAOS) 2022’ [18] advises that the principal, deputy principal and other leaders in the school build and maintain relationships with the wider community and the ‘statement of highly effective practice’ stating ‘the principal, the deputy principal(s) and other leaders in the school build and maintain very productive relationships with other schools and education providers, and make highly effective use of external supports to extend learning opportunities for students’ (p. 40). Transformational school leadership inspires and motivates stakeholders to achieve higher levels of performance and engagement [237,238,239]. This has significant relevance to the relationships between school leaders and the wider community. In responses to the question and theme created on this topic, the board of management, chairperson and members, the inspectorate, other schools, external co-professional support and the wider community were referenced positively in that a culture of transformational leadership can ensure that these groups feel valued and integral to the school’s success in the following sub-themes: (i) Vision and values alignment with board of management; (ii) Relationship-building with inspectorate, other schools, allied help professionals; (iii) Wider community.

3.4.1. First Sub-Theme: Vision and Values Alignment with Board of Management

Leithwood and Jantzi emphasise the importance of vision alignment between school leaders and the board of management, providing empirical evidence on how shared vision enhances commitment [31], and Fullan discusses how transformational leadership can cultivate a positive school culture when the values of the school are aligned to the board and the community [240]: ‘Your ISM team, your Board of Management, everyone pulling in the same direction, which is where the vision comes in’ (participant TP1). Transformational leadership encourages collaboration between school leaders and stakeholders, the Chair of the board of management and staff [241,242]: ‘To have them come in; the Board of Management’ (participant DP1). ‘I get the Chairperson to come in before we start the new school year to welcome back everybody’ (participant AdP5).

3.4.2. Second Sub-Theme: Relationship-Building with Inspectorate, Other Schools, Allied Help Professionals

Transformational leadership facilitates inspectoral input to maximise school outcomes [243]. Engaging and building relations between school leaders and the inspectorate is another example of transformational leadership modelling and demonstrates to other staff members and students how reciprocal relationships build trust and collaboration, leading to better outcomes for the school such as through school development, as highlighted by participant FI3: ‘the inspectorate and other institutions can contribute to the development agenda for schools’. In Ireland, under LAOS 2022 [18], an element of school leadership responsibility lies in encouraging liaisons with other schools and school leaders, and studies have found that transformational leadership best supports this networking [244]. Forming networked learning communities that bring school communities out to a broader world results in gaining ideas, perspective and confidence [245]. Leadership networking and co-professional collaboration was perceived to extend the community, reduce isolation, grow confidence: ‘The value of transformational leadership facilitating leading and working in professional collaboration within and between schools, sharing best practice, allows school leaders to feel less isolated’ (participant FI3). ‘Different school communities coming in to share about their traditions or their work’ (participant DP1). ‘A feeling of being proud of something, being responsible for it, being critical of it. Four of us did training. We went out to see three other schools. It was a benefit of transformational leadership where we felt we were given the back up. We owned it and we were very pleased with how it went’ (participant AP1).

The IPPN introduced the ‘Small Schools Project’ to address the unique challenges experienced by small schools in Ireland, of which there is a disproportionate number in an international context. It aims to create a collaborative network among small schools and is an initiative that is aligned with transformational school leadership principles [246]. This model could potentially be extended to all schools if successful. Transformational school leadership can promote school inclusion [31]. With the increased inclusion of allied health professionals in schools, such as psychologists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and social workers, the competency of school leaders in integrating personnel and building co-professional relationships has become increasingly important to support school inclusion and maximise the benefits for students and their parents. This was referenced by interviewees in relation to how transformational leadership can support this work: ‘Co-professional relationships with external professionals’ (participant FI3); ‘The DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) framework includes connecting with the wider community, such as Tusla and their social workers, speech and language therapists; all of them. I always invite them in’ (participant AdP6).

3.4.3. Third Sub-Theme: Wider Community

With transformational leadership, cultivating relationships between the school and the outside community can enhance partnerships and educational outcomes [180]. Reflecting the objectives of LAOS, liaising with the wider community was seen to be integral to transformational leadership: ‘Some of the leadership responsibility would be that actual role, liaising with the community, to the benefit of the teaching and learning. Bringing different disciplines in to talk to the kids—harness all the knowledge, the combined wisdom and knowledge in our community. I like the Junior Entrepreneur Project and doing Dragon’s Den (TV programme)’ (participant AdP1); ‘Knowing what’s in your community. Knowing what the resources are’ (participant TP1). Every school and system leader expressed having been involved in leading engagement between school and outside communities, to the benefit of both in most instances, and viewing this as a valuable component of transformational school leadership. ‘Everyone wins. I suppose a case of being open to it’ (participant AdP1). These ranged from performing for and with nursing home and hospital patients, such as ‘Carol singing for the sick elderly residents in the hospital locally’ (participant AdP1); ‘Going out into the community, to local business, the garda station or farms’ (participant DP1). Transformational leadership facilitates project management success [247,248]. This was supported by interviewees, with transformational leadership viewed to include having skills necessary for sourcing financial support from local businesses and maximising the use for school resources, such as one school participating in a community programme, the CLÁR schools, community and sports fund [249], with the children enjoying the same facilities at school and club activities: ‘They see it all linked, and all working together, and that’s important for the kids as well, and it encourages them to be involved’ (participant TP1); Transformational leadership was seen to involve seeking out funding for technology, equipment, sustainable gardening projects and more from the local community, as expressed: ‘How it (transformational leadership) could develop the school in terms of accessing funds’ (participant AdP1); ‘We’re always looking for money from everybody’ (participant TP1). On the board of management, the two community representatives are a resource to link the school with the external community, as shared: ‘We have our community representatives as well—they’re people who are out for the good of the school’ (participant DP1). For the school under the new patronage of the Education Trustee Board, it was viewed that transformational leadership would progress links with the local community, while the DEIS school leaders referenced the benefits of increasing associations with services in the locality; ‘I think being interested in your community is important because it gives that sense of place, for every child, and building those relationships’ (participant TP2). ‘For children to make connections with the wider community, and the more they link in with their community, the more they will link in with their school; the healthier and better they will be moving on, because if they have a huge sense of community, when they are away from home, and something goes wrong, then they can know they can come back to a community, and get an injection of support that will sustain them’ (participant AdP6). The value of school–community relations and how transformational leadership would be enacted in opening the school to the community was also expressed by several respondents: ‘We’re open; the cubs, scouts, girl guides are in; there’s a local fitness class takes place twice a week. The school is open and that’s well-known; it’s not my school, it’s their school’, and again, that must come from leadership; it must be communicated, that the school is an integral part of your community, and it’s there to be used’ (participant AdP5). Appreciation of the local community links and the capacity of transformational leadership to maximise the potential and create synergy between the school and community, enhancing both educational and social outcomes, was highlighted with the Irish context referenced a number of times: ‘Historically, a lot of very strong links between schools and lots of different types of initiatives or community-led projects, and those contextual factors in the Irish setting are very important’ (participant FI1). ‘I would have seen that (transformational leadership) with my predecessor with the way he had the school and the community absolutely woven together’ (participant AdP2). Transformational school leadership can guide schools to actively engage with community stakeholders and build partnerships that provide benefits to students and schools with much reciprocal learning [180]. The positivity expressed by school and system leaders regarding the potential in the enactment of transformational school leadership in primary schools, with many cases of recommendations for a supporting practice, specifically, distributed leadership, to facilitate enactment focuses the perspective on the ‘how’, developing ‘community-centred collaborative actions anchored in the school context’ [14] (p. 678), and a model and methodology can thus facilitate.

4. A Transformational and Distributed School Leadership Model

Leading in a world of accelerated change, a sustainable shared school leadership model constructed from traditional and recent tenets of transformational school leadership, providing a methodology for application, has been expressed by school and system leaders as facilitating school leadership [2]. The data from this research support this view, with enactment by the whole school community. Therefore, this section addresses the second element of this research study: to create a synthesised model of transformational and distributed school leadership for the whole school community aligned with the most recent Irish primary school policy document, ‘Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework for Primary and Special Schools (LAOS)’, which sets out what effective and highly effective learning, teaching, leadership and management practices look like in the Irish school system.

The principal has been understood to be the person enacting transformational school leadership historically [2,46]. However, leadership today demands unprecedented high levels of emotional intelligence and commitment from the leader, which can lead to burnout [250,251] and may be unsustainable [222,252,253]. In proposing a synthesised model of shared leadership underpinned by transformational leadership principles and supported by distributive leadership practices, alongside a clear methodology, space for whole school community sustainable leadership can be created. This model sees leadership distributed amongst the whole school community, led by the senior leadership team, with shared responsibility taken by all members, while also aligned to LAOS 2022 [18].

4.1. LAOS 2022

‘Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework for Primary and Special Schools’ [18] outlines 10 key underpinning principles: (i) Holistic nature of learning and the learner; (ii) Inclusion of all pupils; (iii) Centrality of pupils’ wellbeing; (iv) Importance of quality teaching; (v) Schools as learning organisations; (vi) Responsibility of schools for the quality of education they provide; (vii) Pupils as active agents in their learning; (viii) Contribution of external and internal evaluation to school improvement; (ix) The importance of leadership and management; (x) Leadership role for all. The framework consists of two dimensions, (i) Learning and teaching and (ii) Leadership and management, and within each dimension are four domains. Those within the leadership and management dimension are (i) Leading learning and teaching; (ii) Managing the organisation; (iii) Leading school development; and (iv) Developing leadership capacity. These domains and principles are shown below in Figure 1. Within each domain is a set of standards, against which schools can consider their progress [193]. While this study focuses on the leadership aspect of the second dimension specifically, to position a transformational distributed school leadership model alongside LAOS has the potential to give schools a clearer way of implementing both LAOS dimensions effectively.

4.2. Rubric of Transformational Distributed School Leadership Model

A proposed application of a transformational distributed school leadership model would embrace the transformational leadership principles and distributed leadership practices as outlined below in

Table 4. Six I’s of transformational school leadership (TSL) principles supported by distributed leadership (DL) practices.

1. (TSL) Idealised Influence (a) Modelling best practice (b) Moral, ethical & social regard (c) Capacity & values (d) Creativity & innovation (e) Active engagement (DL) (i) Interactions practice (ii) Mobilising leadership (iii) Professional growth (iv) Exploring social processes	2. (TSL) Inspirational Motivation (a) Shared vision & group goals (b) Setting direction (c) Proactive, energising & optimistic (d) Commitment & collaboration (e) Human-centred & passionate (DL) (i) Leader-plus (ii) Macro-to-micro tasks (iii) Teacher leadership (iv) Accountability & responsibility	3. (TSL) Individualised Consideration (a) Reciprocal relationships & trust (b) Psychological safety & reflexivity (c) Empowering & developing (d) Respect & empathy (e) Advising & supporting (DL) (i) Trust & respect (ii) Empowerment & autonomy (iii) Utilisation of capacities & commitment (iv) Individual & collective elements
4. (TSL) Intellectual Stimulation (a) Challenging the process (b) Building capacity for change (c) Develop innovation & autonomy (d) High-performance expectations (e) Problem-solving processes (DL) (i) Diagnosing & designing (ii) Purposeful collaborating (iii) Discretionary decision making (iv) Positive working relationships	5. (TSL) Inclusive Culture (a) Ownership & belonging (b) Neurodiversity consideration (c) Individualised education planning (d) Developing leadership skills (e) Participation (DL) (i) Belonging & shared identity (ii) WSC working interdependently (iii) Developing WSC leadership (iv) Mutual community relationships	6. (TSL) Improved Offering (a) Student outcomes & school improvement (b) School restructuring (c) Leading change in learning & teaching (d) New paradigms for governance (e) Communication (DL) (i) Professional learning communities (ii) Day-to-day activity (iii) Effecting instructional change (iv) Artefacts consideration

, involving the whole school community, led by the school leadership team. While the principles and practices have been tabulated separately in this table, the implementation of the model would see considerable overlap of principles and practices. The six I’s are the human-centred ways of being, enacted by each person or team leading that aspect of school activity, from the principal and senior leadership team leading the whole school community, to teachers and students leading within and outside the classroom, parents, inspectors, co-professionals, boards of management and parents’ associations leading from their positions, using distributed leadership practices including such as those prioritised in the model. The transformational leadership principles and distributed leadership practices were selected upon extensive analysis of the international literature, where they were ranked according to frequency in high-ranking research and triangulated by the authors.

To facilitate and support an applied approach for this transformational distributed leadership model, a seven-step roadmap has been constructed outlining the steps to be followed by the whole school community for an ongoing inclusive and recorded school developmental journey, aligned with LAOS, aiming to support learning and growth for all. This would provide a quantifiable leadership journey for the whole school community, expedite integration of new stakeholders and build the leadership capacity of all the team. Utilising the ROADMAP as the methodology could facilitate implementation and give schools a way of encouraging a shared journey with the whole school community. The following are the seven steps:

• Regularly record the school’s unique vision, mission, culture, ethos, contexts and values statement;
• Organise and prioritise the school’s needs accordingly with appropriate timelines;
• Aim for a unified, supportive and enjoyable journey for the whole school community;
• Develop vision and shared goals, with achievable responsibilities;
• Motivate with trusting, individual and team relationships with modelling, meetings, coaching and mentoring;
• Allow agency, autonomy and accountability as per competencies, considering passion, position and availability;
• Promote, communicate, review, scaffold, progress, praise, celebrate and publicise achievement of goals.

The info graph of the model below comprises the six I’s and two most prominent distributed leadership practices extracted from the literature, triangulated by the authors. These and the accompanying roadmap are illustrated in Figure 2.

5. Conclusions

Transformational school leadership continues to receive attention from researchers and practitioners globally [2], impacting on areas such as enhanced school culture [2,254] and teaching performance [254], empowerment of teachers and other stakeholders in promoting and supporting educational innovation [255,256], and creating a positive and supportive learning environment that fosters growth and development [255]. Distributed leadership is the recommended practice in Irish leadership policy [66,222,257,258], where transformational leadership does not feature by name, but based on the findings of this study can serve to achieve the vision for Irish education.

Having examined Irish policies and guidelines for primary schools where leadership is specifically referenced, this paper also investigated school and system leaders’ opinions of factors influencing transformational school leadership and constructed a transformational distributed leadership model that could aid effective and sustainable leadership enactment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with school and system leaders to record their perceptions relating to the facilitating and inhibiting factors affecting the implementation of transformational school leadership, and the building of relations with parents and the wider school community. The validity and reliability of the methodology were verified by the authors in terms of form and context with constant comparison and triangulation, from the broad representation of school and system leaders selected for the same carefully constructed questions asked of each interviewee, employing NVivo 14 for coding, and reflective thematic analysis. The findings led to the creation of four themes and sub-themes: (i) Facilitating factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership—process, relationships, people and personality, support; (ii) Inhibiting factors for the implementation of transformational school leadership—school culture, people, principals’ workload, sustainability, knowledge, capability, school system; (iii) Perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to parents—vision, relationship-building, capacity, trust, communication, empowerment and growing together; (iv) Perceptions of transformational school leadership pertaining to the board of management and extended community—board of management, the inspectorate, other schools, allied help professionals, wider community.

Throughout the policies, guidelines and supports for education in Irish primary schools, from the Department of Education, the National Council for Curricular Development, The Teaching Council and patron bodies, to OIDE, the IPPN, Higher Education colleges, Education Centres and more, the vision to create, develop and support high standards in education is evident. Quality school leadership is specified as underscoring this vision, and these authors believe that a transformational distributed school leadership model would embrace the ‘how’ of school leadership enactment for the whole school community. As distributed leadership is already promoted by the Department of Education for school leadership in an Irish context, it was necessary to further harness the attitudes of school and system leaders toward transformational school leadership and the factors affecting its application. The interview participants in this study expressed informed and insightful opinions regarding these facilitating factors, summarised as:

• A leadership structure and clearly defined process;
• Additional administrative support;
• Shared leadership;
• A whole school community vision and mission with goal setting;
• Stating the how and who of implementation, for accountability and responsibility;
• An inclusive culture that embraces change and allows agency and autonomy for all;
• Positive people with a growth mindset, and capacity to identify the change agents;
• Organisational, innovative, negotiating, adaptive and collaborative skills;
• Trusting, respectful, reciprocal relationships among whole school community;
• Commitment, collaboration, cooperation, communication and harmony between all;
• Positive leadership team, staff and whole school community;
• Training and continuous professional development;
• Appropriate staff recruitment to facilitate succession of transformational leadership.

In examining the data regarding the inhibiting factors for implementation, participants frequently expressed that these could apply to many leadership approaches, but were primarily:

• Negative school culture;
• People adverse to implementation;
• Principals’ current workload being unsustainable.

It was noted that the inhibiting factors would potentially be reduced or eliminated if a transformational distributed leadership model was adopted formally into educational leadership policy.

In looking at the application of transformational school leadership and how it would pertain to the board of management, parents and extended community, the following were highlighted:

• School vision and values alignment with board of management;
• Sharing the educational vision, working together, for maximum impact on the child;
• Positive, trusting and reciprocal relations;
• Open honest communication between all members of the whole school community;
• Enabling empowerment, learning and growing together;
• Relationship-building, networking and professional collaboration with the inspectorate, other schools and allied help professionals;
• Inspirational modelling;
• Leading engagement between school and outside communities, benefiting learning;
• Project management and sourcing funding;
• Innovative ways of opening the school to the community.

These findings overall yielded very positive attitudes and aspirations regarding the implementation of transformational school leadership for the whole school community, with recommendations for distributed leadership as a supporting practice. The sustainability of school leadership in Ireland and globally has been questioned [46,259,260], and was echoed by the current school and system leadership practitioner participants in this study, specifically, that of the role of principal. This beholds scholars and system leaders to endeavour to find systemic solutions. The immense capacity of school leaders has been shown in responses to various crises in recent years, providing high-level leadership, enabling change, new thinking, ideas and practices, and responsiveness to complex and context-specific factors [261,262]. While ‘unsustainable’, pertaining especially to the role of school principal currently, was a concern expressed by interview participants, the practicality of having the transformational distributed school leadership model and roadmap to guide the whole school community leadership process can arguably lead to the enhanced sustainability of the person and the position of formal school leaders, especially principals, while also building leadership capacity within all those in our whole school community. This extended community includes students, school staff, parents, families, the school inspectorate, allied health professionals, childcare partners, statutory body representatives, extracurricular groups, government, local agencies and businesses staff, and all those who support the school, leading inclusive learning and growth for all. Enacting a model of school leadership by all these members will take very different forms, according to personnel, context and involvement. This is why a model cannot be prescriptive but assistive in guiding and setting a cultural, inclusive and relational tone. Such is the transformational distributed school leadership model and roadmap proposed in this study. The positive findings regarding the facilitating factors strongly outnumbered the inhibitors, and the interviewees’ positivity regarding the application of transformational school leadership pertaining to the board of management, parents and extended community were outlined.

This led to addressing the second research element, which looked to create synergy between transformational and distributed school leadership that may provide support for leadership in the whole school community and create a blended model aligning with current Irish government policies, specifically, ‘Looking at Our School 2022: A Quality Framework for Primary and Special Schools (LAOS) 2022’. In constructing this blended model with guidelines for application by the whole school community in the form of a seven-step roadmap, the transformational distributed school leadership journey is envisaged as being enacted by the whole school community, where everyone can lead, and is constructed for application to the leadership policy structure and culture as pertains to Irish primary school education. The model created combines transformational school leadership principles supported by distributed leadership practices. The seven-step roadmap facilitates maintenance and communication of progress to all stakeholders and other schools where professional learning communities between schools may be sharing leadership and learning. With the increase in the number of allied health professionals working in schools over the past decade helping to implement a ‘whole school’ approach [263] involving school staff, parental and community involvement, which is found to have positive effects on social and emotional skills, mental health, prosocial behaviour and academic achievement [264,265], a leadership model for the whole school community to co-ordinate all could have many positive inclusive aspects for the benefit of the students. In addition, many schools in Ireland now offer before- and after-school care facilities and activities, resulting in an increased number of students spending longer in the school environment than in previous decades. Added to this would be educational psychologists and special education support personnel, as well as the number of community personnel delivering schemes and programmes to schools such as the ‘Artist in schools’, ‘Creative Ireland’ and ‘Sports Partnerships’. It is proposed that embracing the transformational distributed school leadership model and roadmap, bringing all education partners together, and sharing the school’s vision, mission, ethos, culture and contexts statements will have a cohesive effect on school effectiveness and student attainment.

The generalisability of this research would allow application of the findings, model and roadmap to post-primary Irish education and education systems globally. Both transformational and distributed leadership have been found to be effective leadership models in schools internationally, and this underscores the value of synthesising these models for application to Irish primary school policy and practice. Transformational school leadership is researched across countries and cultures, reporting such successful applications of a cultural fit with existing education models as those found from the education system in Yemen, working within the constraints of the ongoing conflict [254], and the Lonto Leok (translated as ‘sit in a circle’) dimensions of the Manggarai people in Eastern Indonesia [266]. The synergistic transformational distributed school leadership journey and roadmap blended model may have potential application in such contexts also. Studies of the application of transformational school leadership internationally over recent decades have found it to be the most effective style for leading in times of change [47] to have very positive wide-ranging effects on aspects such as school improvement and motivation [236], exploring multiple perspectives and problem-solving techniques [267,268], student achievement [269,270], culture [46,271], student’s deep learning [272] and employee well-being [273,274]. Valentine and Prater found the transformational leadership practices that had the greatest relationship with student achievement relied on social interactions and relationships [270]. As distributed leadership is frequently described to be based on interactions [77,275], and within relationships rather than individual action [276], the idea that distributed leadership is grounded on practice and activity stretched over the team [71] all sits very easily with transformational leadership, where relationships are at its very heart [277]. Distributed leadership has been found to be spreading over a broader geographical and cultural scope since 2013 [17] and to benefit primary school education internationally in many ways, such as school improvement [4]; raising student attainment [4,78]; sharing the leadership responsibility [278]; building leadership capacity [279]; working towards shared goals, organisational change, effectiveness and improvement [74]; social capital and professional collaboration [78]; and organisation commitment [280]. Leithwood and Jantzi [236] reference how an extension of their study could be to examine how transformational leadership is distributed throughout schools. By synthesising transformational and distributed leadership, this new approach aims to support enactment of transformational leadership with distributed leadership practices.

Several studies of schools in other jurisdictions support various aspects of our findings: an American study of elementary schools [281], where facilitating parent involvement as an integral part of transformational leadership practice was found to improve teaching and learning. Constrained by having to build capacity for change, accessing or redirecting supporting resources, and the amount of time it took to create the conditions to bring about improvements, the results were found to be outstanding, with the whole school community growing and feeling the beneficial impacts of transformational leadership. Ownership emerged from developing parents’ capacity, with a synergy of involvement, engagement and empowerment in the school, an outward- as well as an inward-looking community orientation, and members of the extended community contributing seen as a bonus. Similar benefits were found in a study of transformational leadership and parental involvement in their children’s elementary school education in Indonesia [282]. These studies support the findings from these authors’ study, where transformational leadership is perceived to enhance parental involvement, and is therefore beneficial to their children. A study of transformational leadership and its effects on school culture in primary schools in the Maldives [271] found significant assistance for staff in developing and maintaining a professional and collaborative school culture, and fostering staff skills development and effective problem-solving, concluding a strong correlation between transformational leadership and school culture, and supporting the Jantzi and Leithwood (1996) study [267]. A study of transformational school leadership in German schools was found to develop students’ deeper learning [272], with a close alignment between transformational leadership practices adopting a whole-school approach, and the implementation of students’ deeper learning [283]. It was observed to challenge both cultural and structural barriers positively and to hold great potential for learning development processes. This evidence lends further support for the proposed model.

A qualitative study of distributed leadership carried out on two Jamaican schools, assessed by the National Education Inspectorate in 2013 as requiring immediate support, was undertaken between 2018 and 2019 to examine the extent of the effects that the turnaround efforts had [284]. While significant improvements in teaching and learning environments were attained, the critical value of embedding distributed leadership in the schools’ operations if transformational efforts were to be continued was expressed. The challenges included concerns that there was too much reliance on the principals’ leadership; the value of empowering all actors to work to progress the vision and change agenda; communicating collective ownership of the goals; and the importance of implementing a succession plan as the principals of the two schools involved expressed how detrimental it would have been if they left their positions. Another study of interest and relevance explores distributed leadership in American elementary schools’ adoption of comprehensive school reforms (CSRs) [73], where one of the conceptual problems was, in understanding that there would be another form of leadership involved, to identify what form of leadership was to be distributed, in this case instructional leadership. This supports this study’s concept of two forms of leadership working together. Another study of distributed leadership and Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of enactment [285] found the level of authentic participation and engagement was influenced by the level of enactment and empowerment of distributed leadership, that school context determines teachers’ leadership practice, and that distributed leadership practice is likely to be influenced by teacher positionality and the influence of hierarchical concepts of leadership in the socio-cultural Asian context. These findings support the model in this study, emphasising context and recommending each school regularly records its unique vision, mission, culture, ethos, contexts and values statement, to have this at the forefront of leadership development.

These findings allow potential in informing policy in Ireland and other educational settings. To maximise the impacts of the application of this school leadership model, relevant professional support training would be required for whole school communities, to align it to the LAOS framework and effect leadership and learning for all. This could present as a challenge in resource allocation and funding for schools. However, there is significant support being given to leadership training currently, and therefore, if the model was adopted into educational policy and supported through the established leadership development organisations, universities, colleges and education centres, its application could be very achievable. Findings also highlighted that increased administrative support for school leaders would also undoubtedly allow more time for school leadership and support optimal enactment of a transformational leadership model. An additional challenge would be the scale of enacting the model, as it is a whole school community model, and therefore, ‘buy-in’ is needed by many stakeholders. However, some school communities have already begun this whole school community journey, and therefore, it potentially provides a welcome structure to guide the journey. For schools looking for where to begin, the model outlines this journey, with behaviours and practices an integral part.

Outstanding recommendations emerging from the research findings include (i) a transformational school leadership model would be created, synthesised with supporting leadership shared practice to facilitate the enactment and sustainability of the position and person, and training for the whole school community provided; (ii) leadership policy for Irish primary schools would adopt the transformational distributed school leadership model and roadmap, giving whole school communities autonomy to design their own journey according to context; (iii) school leadership would be prioritised in government education policy, and time allowed for it, as school leaders want to lead and develop leadership capacity in their schools by lightening the administrative burden on school leaders and giving additional support; and (iv) this research has relevance and application beyond the Irish education system.

5.1. Limitations

There are limitations to this research study relating to the representation, number and self-selection of participants. A sample of 15 school and system leaders was used. Although there were aspects of the research project pertaining to parents and the wider school community, these stakeholders were not included in the participant cohort. To address this limitation, which further research on this topic could also, include an increase in the participant cohort with a wider representation of stakeholders, and therefore, an increase in the number of participants to ensure sufficient representation. The self-selecting of participants has implications for potential generalisability and respondent bias. This paper should be read bearing these in mind.

5.2. Further Research

Further research could explore (i) the application of the transformational distributed school leadership model and roadmap through whole school communities case studies and (ii) how the application of leadership models in other jurisdictions or societal sectors have become best practice.