School leadership and the development of a learning climate and professional learning community in primary and upper secondary school

This chapter addresses the role of educational leaders in primary and upper secondary education. The purpose is to explore to what degree the principal’s role in developing a learning climate and professional learning community within a school at these levels differs from that in lower secondary schools, and what factors may account for these differences. The first part of the chapter describes to what extent principals in primary and upper secondary education are involved in instructional and distributed leadership. In the second section, primary and upper secondary schools across countries and economies are characterised by means of the five aspects of professional learning communities. The third section characterises countries and economies using dimensions of a learning climate in both primary and upper secondary schools. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the effect of instructional and distributed leadership on the development of a learning climate and professional learning community in primary and upper secondary education.