SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER OBSERVATION ON THEIR APPLICATION OF DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP STYLE

Abstract

Distributed leadership in secondary education is a leadership style in which all educational personnel
at school is involved in the improvement of teaching and learning. Its application corresponds to the
contemporary requirements of education organization/management. However, in countries building
democracy, such as Georgia, distributed leadership is not sufficiently applied and its application and
impacts have not been studied. The paper presents the results of an experimental study at two
schools – the experimental one, where teachers were trained to be involved in distributed leadership,
and the control one, where no such training was organized. Then for one semester, the teachers in
both schools did self-observation and were observed by three observers to see whether they differed
in the application of distributed leadership. The results confirmed that a statistically significant
improvement in distributed leadership application took place at the experimental school, while no
such improvement occurred at the control school. A recommendation is given that for teachers
insufficiently aware of distributed leadership style training concerning its clear definition, benefits, and
challenges is necessary.