Leadership and leadership development in Flemish secondary education. Collaborative and reflective designs as vehicle for principal professional learning and well-being.

In the introductory first chapter, this doctoral research started from the observation that Flemish secondary school leaders frequently make the newspaper pages because of (too) high workload, stress and a strongly reduced professional well-being. Combined, these factors often translate into burnout and even early drop-out. After all, school principals work in a particularly demanding environment in challenging times and rapidly changing circumstances. The multitude of demands and challenges require not only a wealth of knowledge and skills but also an apt leadership approach to improve the learning of all within a school. The effective professional development of school leaders seems indispensable in this regard. Whereas professional development initiatives allow one to acquire the necessary knowledge regularly, obtain new organisational ideas or refresh leadership skills, regular consultations with colleagues can also generate a beneficial and soothing effect on one's professional well-being.

Therefore, the central question of this PhD reads: 'How can Flemish secondary school leadership be facilitated through principal preparation and professional development'. To arrive at a nuanced and layered answer, this doctoral research was structured into two main phases: an exploratory phase and an action phase. In order to find out how professional development can facilitate leadership, it needed to be determined first (a) which elements or components of leadership require facilitation through professional development and (b) how this professional development should ideally be designed. Through interviews, Chapter 2 mapped out that school leaders often do not get to the instructional leadership that educational research describes as crucial. Organising schools according to Leadership for Learning principles could solve this problem. Through the combination of interviews and questionnaires, Chapter 3 described a need for more qualitative collaborative and group reflective learning designs in the professional development of Flemish secondary school principals.

The action phase subsequently looked at one professional development initiative (i.e., professional learning communities for school leaders within OVSG) and one principal preparation initiative (i.e., the three-year postgraduate in School Policy by the Centrum voor Andragogiek). Respectively, these initiatives included a collaborative learning element and a mix of theoretical and group reflective learning elements. Both designs corresponded with (a) the field's perceived leadership needs and learning preferences and (b) existing research insights on performant school leadership and the organisation of effective professional development and preparation for school leaders, as identified in the exploratory phase.

Through two separate chapters, this PhD considers how the complex interaction between the learner (with his or her own aspirations, expectations, professional self-image and school background) and learning context (consisting of group dynamics, learning processes and the specificity of guidance and process coaching) can influence the professional learning and well-being of participating school principals. In the case of the professional learning communities, outlined in Chapter 4, this interaction was mapped qualitatively and in-depth. Three learning communities and their school leaders were followed through various measurement instruments (e.g., non-participatory observations, interviews and preparatory questionnaires) and over an extended period. In the case of the principal preparation programme, outlined in Chapter 5, a one-off and large-scale survey of all trainees was chosen. This provided a quantitative view of the interaction between learner and learning context.

Based on both chapters, it can be concluded that positive professional well-being effects are still generated even when the conditions are not optimal (e.g., an unconducive group dynamic, lower-level learning processes or absent process guiding). In addition, learning from and with fellow principals by sharing experiences ensures that many new ideas and inspiration are gained. Moreover, in the sixth and concluding chapter, the insights from both chapters crystallised into nine recommendations for the future usage of collaborative and group reflective learning designs in school leaders' professional development and preparation.