Leading school change and improvement. A bibliometric analysis of the knowledge base (1960–2017)
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2019-0018 |
| Published date | 04 November 2019 |
| Pages | 635-657 |
| Date | 04 November 2019 |
| Author | Jasna Kovačević,Philip Hallinger |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Leading school change
and improvement
A bibliometric analysis of the knowledge
base (1960–2017)
Jasna Kovačević
Department of Management and Organization, School of Economics and Business,
University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
Philip Hallinger
Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership,
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand and
Department of Educational Leadership and Management,
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively document and synthesize the knowledge base on
leading school change and improvement (LSCI).
Design/methodology/approach –The authors employed bibliometric analysis to evaluate 1,613
SCOPUS-indexed documents on LSCI published between 1960 and the end of 2017. In addition to descriptive
analysis of basic features of the knowledge base, the review also employed citation and co-citation analyses of
authors, journals and documents. Author co-citation analysis (ACA) was used reveal the intellectual structure
of the LSCI literature.
Findings –The growth trajectory of LSCI research began with low levels of publicationduring the 1960s and
1970s, followed by steady and then accelerating growth in subsequent decades. Citation analyses highlighted
key journals, authors and documents in this field, while ACA identified four research streams or Schools of
Thought that comprise the LSCI knowledge base: transformational leadership for school improvement,
instructional leadership for school improvement, shared leadership for change and school improvement,
school improvement.
Originality/value –The review offersempirical documentation of the changing intellectualstructure of the
one of the key linesof inquiry that emerged in thefield of educational administrationover the past six decades.
More broadly,the review illustratesthe benefits of bibliometricanalysis as a tool capableof illuminating critical
features that bear uponknowledge accumulation in a line of inquiry, or a broader discipline.
Keywords School change, Leadership, School improvement
Paper type Literature review
Over the past 60 years,a large body of research has accumulated whichconcludes that school
leadership has the potential to positively impact school change and school improvement (SI)
(Hallinger and Heck, 1996, 1998; Leithwood et al., 2008; Robinson et al., 2008). Research has
identified “leadership”as both a catalystfor action and a kind of “glue”that bringscoherence
to successfulchange (Fullan, 2001; Hall and Hord, 2006;Hallinger, 2003; Leithwood andJantzi,
2006; Newmannet al., 2001). Research has also studiedthe contribution that leadership makes
to “SI”(Edmonds, 1979; Hallinger and Heck, 1998, 2010; Hopkins, 2013; Jackson,2000; Potter
et al., 2002; Leithwood et al., 2008). Themes synthesized from these related lines of inquiry
frame school leadership as a complex, multi-dimensional process that is embedded in and
responsive to conditions in the school organization and its environment (Bossert et al., 1982;
Hallinger, 2011 ; Leithwood et al., 2008; Ogawa and Bossert, 1995).
Indeed, in a recent review of research the authors identified leading school change and
improvement (LSCI) as one of the key themes or Schools of Thought that have emerged in the
evolution of educational administration (EA) as a field of study (Hallinger and Kovačević, 2018).
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 6, 2019
pp. 635-657
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-02-2019-0018
Received 7 February 2019
Revised 1 April 2019
16 April 2019
Accepted 17 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
635
Leading school
change and
improvement
Following from our broad review of EA scholarship, we recommended more fine-grained
reviews that focus explicitly on the Schools of Thought within this literature. This review of
research was aimed at synthesizing trends in the evolution of research in the domain of “LSCI”
between 1960 and 2017. The review addresses the following research questions:
RQ1. What are the overall volume and distribution by time, geographic source and
publication venues of LSCI research?
RQ2. What authorsand research papers have had the greatestinfluence on LSCI research?
RQ3. What is the intellectual structure of the knowledge base underlying theory and
research on LSCI research?
In the last decade,EA research witnessed emergenceof science mapping aimingto synthesize
trends in EA knowledge production (Hallinger, 2018, 2019; Hallinger and Kovačević, 2018;
Wang and Bowers, 2016; Wang et al., 2017). Science mapping applies bibliometric tools of
citation, co-citation, and topical analysis to synthesize trendsin knowledge accumulation and
illuminate the intellectual structure of a body of knowledge (White and McCain, 1998). In this
review, we used VOSviewer software to analyze1,613 LSCI-related documentsextracted from
the SCOPUS database. The value of science mapping lies in its ability to analyze large
numbers of studies in order to highlight elements that cohere to form a knowledge base
(e.g. time, geographic sources, scholars, topics, institutions). This enables readers to “see the
forest,”that is otherwise hidden among the trees of numerous individual studies.
Conceptual framework
The authors employed a broad conceptual framework on the topic of LSCI. The framework
(see Figure 1) locates leadership as one element within a socially constructed, organizational
process that is shaped by the interaction of personal and contextual influences. Leadership
effects on school change and improvement are conceptualized as largely indirect, operating
through variety of school variables (Bossert et al., 1982; Hallinger and Heck, 1996;
Leithwood et al., 2008).
This framework (see Figure 1) was employed to assist in locating studies for inclusion in
the review corpus. In order to be included in the review, sources had to focus, at a minimum,
on variable combinations on paths of influence that included leadership and a measure of
change or SI (e.g. B–C, B–D, A–B–C, or A–B–C–D, A–B–D).
Method
Science mapping or bibliometric analysis offers a visual-spatial representation of the
intellectual structure of fields of knowledge (White and McCain, 1998; Zupic and Čater,
2015). A strength of the science mapping methodology is its ability to handle large amounts
A School Context
Characteristics
of Leader(s) Leadership
Structure
Culture
People
School
Change
Improvement
A School Context
ABCD
Figure 1.
Conceptual framework
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JEA
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