principal in a process of school revitalisation

This study was founded on two key precepts. Firstly, that distributed leadership theory is more attuned to the post-industrial needs of organisations, and its influence on educational research has seen the emergence of new ways of comprehending leadership in schools. Secondly, whilst the educational literature is replete with descriptions of the characteristics and roles of principals as leaders there remains few explanations that capture the dynamic between the outcomes of leadership and the leadership process in schools. Accordingly, this study explores the leadership processes of a sample of principals in a process of school revitalisation underpinned by parallel leadership , a leadership concept that describes teachers as leaders of curriculum and pedagogy and principals as metastrategic leaders. The study extends the definition of parallel leadership by describing how principals contribute to transformations of leadership, learning, and pedagogy and proposes a Model of Metastrategic Principal Leadership. Hopefully it will be of assistance to practitioners seeking to move from traditional to distributed forms of leadership.