Inquiry-based leadership. The influence of affective attitude, experienced social pressure and self-efficacy
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-12-2015-0114 |
| Pages | 492-509 |
| Published date | 07 August 2017 |
| Date | 07 August 2017 |
| Author | Lisette Uiterwijk-Luijk,Meta Krüger,Bonne Zijlstra,Monique Volman |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Inquiry-based leadership
The influence of affective attitude,
experienced social pressure and self-efficacy
Lisette Uiterwijk-Luijk and Meta Krüger
Marnix Academy, University for Teacher Education, Utrecht, The Netherlands and
Penta Nova, Academy for School Leadership, Utrecht, The Netherlands, and
Bonne Zijlstra and Monique Volman
Research Institute of Child Development and Education,
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of psychological factors that influence
inquiry-based leadership. This study investigates how affective attitude, experienced social pressure, and
self-efficacy relate to aspects of inquiry-based school leadership. A school leader’s inquiry habit of mind, data
literacy, and the extent to which he or she creates a culture of inquiry in the school are each identified as
aspects of inquiry-based leadership.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from questionnaires completed by a sample of
79 school leaders.
Findings –A significant relationship was found between self-efficacy regarding inquiry-based leadership
and all aspects of inquiry-based leadership. Affective attitude toward inquiry-based leadership was
significantly related to creating a culture of inquiry. There was no unique relationship between experienced
social pressure and inquiry-based leadership.
Practical implications –Administrators and educators of school leaders who aim to stimulate inquiry-
based school leadership should not only focus on increasing the capacity of school leaders to lead their school
in an inquiry-based way, but they should also focus on leaders’self-efficacy and on fostering leaders’positive
attitude toward inquiry-based school leadership. Administrators and educators can, for example, give
positive feedback, emphasize the added value of inquiry-based leadership, encourage working with critical
friends, and stimulate collaboration with other leaders.
Originality/value –This study addresses two gaps in the existing research, by focusing on inquiry-based
leadership instead of data use and on psychological factors instead of knowledge and skills that are related to
this type of leadership.
Keywords Leadership, Educational research, Self-efficacy, Data use, Inquiry-based leadership, School leaders
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Schools are held increasingly accountable for their output in terms of student
achievement. In countries worldwide, schools are more and more expected to provide
stakeholders with data that illustrate the quality of their education and to effectively use
these data as the basis for the improvement of student performance (Earl and Katz, 2006;
Lai and Schildkamp, 2013; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
2013; Vanhoof et al., 2014). At the same time, schools in the Netherlands are more and more
allowed to make their own decisions with regard to the education they provide in order to
reach these results. As a result, school leaders and teachers are expected to use data as the
basis of their decisions at school and classroom level (Schildkamp and Kuiper, 2010;
Vanhoof et al., 2014).
Using data as the basis for school improvement implies that school leaders and teachers
should engagein collaborative inquiry and that theyshould base educational decisionson the
results of this inquiry. Next to being able to use data for school improvement themselves,
school leadersalso need to be able to create and give guidanceto a culture of inquiry in which
teachers are stimulated to collaboratively use data. They will have to communicate a clear
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 55 No. 5, 2017
pp. 492-509
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-12-2015-0114
Received 22 December 2015
Revised 13 April 2016
28 August 2016
23 November 2016
29 November 2016
Accepted 29 November 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
492
JEA
55,5
vision on inquiry-based working and stimulate teachers’inquiry habit of mind and data
literacy. Severalstudies have focused on factors that promoteand hinder data use in schools
(e.g. Ikemoto and Marsh, 2007; Jimerson, 2014; Katz and Dack, 2014; Schildkamp et al., 2014;
Schildkamp and Kuiper, 2010; Schildkamp, Rekers-Mombarg and Harms, 2012). Others have
focused on the influence of district leadership (e.g. Lee et al., 2012; Levin and Datnow, 2012;
Wayman et al., 2012) or on the way that school leaders may best support an increasing
capacity for data use (e.g. Anderson et al., 2010; Daly, 2012; Ikemoto and Marsh, 2007;
Mandinach, 2012; Schildkamp, Ehren and Lai, 2012).
All of these international studies emphasize the importance of effective leadership
and school culture for encouraging an increased use of data in schools. However, inquiry-
based leadership differs from the more standard “data use by school leaders”in the sense
that it does not focus on leaders using data but, instead, encourages an approach within
schools where inquiry together with the use of data is at the center. This requires school
leaders to work with an inquiry habit of mind, to be data literate, and to create a culture
of inquiry (Earl and Katz, 2006; Krüger and Geijsel, 2011). None of the aforementioned
studies have explicitly studied the capacities that school leaders need for leading
inquiry-based working in schools, nor the psychological factors that might influence this
type of leadership.
Researchon school leaders’capacities forinquiry-based leadershipin schools appears to be
rare. This studyaddresses two gaps in the literature. First,while data use by school leaders is
well researched, studies on school leaders leading inquiry-based working have hardly been
done. Focusing on inquiry-based leadershipinstead of data use by school leaders will add to
the existing knowledge base of effective leadership for school improvement associated with
data use in schools. This research will give more insight in the way school leaders stimulate
data use by teachers and in the way they create a culture of inquiry. Second, while the
knowledge and skills of school leaders using data have been studied, little is known about
the psychological factors that may influence the extent to which inquiry-based school
leadership is carried out.
Numerous studies have shown that psychological factors such as attitude, experienced
social pressure, and self-efficacy influence people’s performance, persistence and motivation
when carrying out tasks (e.g. Ajzen, 2002b; Bandura, 1997; Fishbein and Ajzen, 2010;
Geijsel et al., 2009; Sanbonmatsu and Fazio, 1990). Research on such psychological factors in
school leadership is scarce, but the study by Vanhoof et al. (2014) found that attitude and
self-efficacy have a significant relationship to data use by principals. They also found that
there is a small positive correlation between external expectations and the use of data by
principals. Systematic research in which psychological factors are investigated in relation to
inquiry-based leadership is lacking.
To address the two gaps in research so far, this study examines how the psychological
factors attitude, experienced social pressure, and self-efficacy regarding inquiry-based
leadership relate to the following aspects of inquiry-based leadership: working with an
inquiry habit of mind, being data literate, and creating a culture of inquiry. The purpose of
this study is to improve our understanding of inquiry-based leadership, and to provide
administrators and educators of school leaders with knowledge about how to stimulate
school leaders’inquiry-based leadership.
Theoretical framework
Inquiry-based leadership
Inquiry-based leadership is an aspect of leadership which can complement leading concepts
such as transformational, transactional, instructional, or distributed leadership. It is not a
new type of leadership, but a quality that can accompany existing leadership styles.
For example, Daly (2012) in his literature review on data use and social networks points out
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Inquiry-based
leadership
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