A scoping review of problems and challenges faced by school leaders (2003

Abstract

The purpose of this scoping review is to analyse the literature concerning principals’ problems and challenges, beginning in 2003 and ending in 2019. The research team conducted an extensive search to locate relevant academic literature, comprising 17 years of research, and a total of 153 documents were analysed. According to the findings, most of the documents (71%) correspond to the last six years (2014–2019), and most are studies from Anglo-Saxon countries (55%). The results point to eight main categories related to the complex nature of the job (the management challenge, the complexity challenge and the learning challenge), and interactions with different stakeholders (problems with educational authorities and educational policy; the staff and teaching process; the students; the families and the school community; and the society). Although the importance given to each category varies from one context to another, problems concerning the complex nature of the job and with the educational authorities and the educational policy are the most recurrent. A significant increase in the number and complexity of problems and challenges throughout the times was noticed, which seems to enhance the need for changes in educational policies and the careful design and implementation of leadership training programmes.

Keywords

Principal leadership principal’s problems principals’ challenges school leadership scoping review

Introduction

Problems and challenges faced by principals are a key topic within the educational leadership literature as, at the beginning of the 21st century, principals experienced crucial changes in their job, which became more challenging than before (Fullan, 2014). At the same time, the literature increased significantly in the last decades, showing different types of problems or challenges (Heifetz, 1994; Heifetz et al., 2009) that leaders faced.

For those reasons, the current article aspires to show an exploratory review and categorization of the problems, considering different geographical and cultural contexts. Towards this end, we reviewed the literature related to principals’ problems, and documented these, to respond to the following research questions (RQ):

RQ1: What is the volume and distribution, by time and source, of studies related to the problems and challenges faced by principals between 2003 and 2019?

RQ2: Which are the geographical areas with more academic production related to the problems and challenges faced by principals?

RQ3: Which are the main problems and challenges faced by school principals?

We begin this article by defining the key constructs and explaining that the last major review on principals’ problems (Hobson et al., 2003) overlooked certain aspects due to the aim and scope of the research at that moment. Also, the literature on principals’ problems increased, and the number and intensity of problems rose in recent years, which makes it necessary to undertake a new review of the literature. After this, we systematically and broadly explore new shreds of evidence and map the results related to the RQs. Finally, we conclude with a call for help to educational authorities, and a change in management training programmes so that school principals can be better prepared to address adequately the difficulties they face.

Understanding principals’ challenges and problems offers relevant information to provide an adequate response to problems, and, consequently, it can contribute to the improvement of educational leadership. An appropriate action towards the solution of leadership problems can, ultimately, contribute to the advancement of education, due to the impact of school leaders on school improvement (Leithwood et al., 2020). Henceforth, we aim to contribute to the existing literature by adding knowledge about the problems and challenges faced by principals in different countries with a comprehensive approach. This synthesized and integrated knowledge may contribute to better address the problems found at the system, local and context levels.

Defining the constructs

Many scholars in the social sciences have used the constructs ‘problem’ and ‘challenge’ synonymously (Alford and Head, 2017; Heifetz, 1994) because although the meanings of the two words are not precisely the same, in some cases they can be very similar. In the field of education, academics such as Drago-Severson et al. (2018), who have studied principals’ challenges for more than 10 years, employ the 2 words indistinctly, often in the same sentence (e.g. ‘we define pressing challenges as difficult and important problems leaders identified in their work’ (316; original emphasis)).

If we go into their meanings, a problem is defined by the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English as ‘a thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand’, whereas a challenge is ‘a new or difficult task that tests somebody’s ability and skill’, or an ‘invitation or a suggestion to somebody that they should enter a competition or fight’. This second meaning gives way to more differences between the two constructs, although a problem is often conceptualized as a gap between the desired and the actual state, thus becoming a challenging situation. Following the authors mentioned above, in this work we will use the two constructs indistinctly.

Finally, school principals’ problems can be described as undesirable and unsatisfactory situations for principals that can also be an ‘opportunity for improvement’ (Turnbull and Hoppe, 2018: 13). According to Heifetz (1994), problems can be technical, which can be solved by expertise and proper management; adaptive or wicked problems, which are complex and messy, requiring specific solutions for each circumstance; and mixed problems, which have elements of the two previous categories. School principals seem to experience these three types of problems.

Previous knowledge on principal’s problems: placing the topic

Fifteen years ago, in a literature review, Hobson et al. (2003) summarized the main challenges experienced by novice school principals between 1982 and 2002 in the UK, Europe and the USA. Previous studies, mainly in North America and the UK, exposed problems and challenges faced by principals at the turn of the millennium (e.g. Allison, 1997; Cooley and Shen, 2000; Dunning, 1996; Ferrandino, 2001; Fullan, 2001; Portin, 2000). Yet the survey presented by Hobson et al. (2003) constitutes a review of the literature with greater geographical breadth, although still restricted to novice principals and only some countries.

Amongst the main challenges and problems cited by novice principals in Europe (Hobson et al., 2003) were feelings of professional isolation and loneliness; dealing with the legacy, practice and styles of previous principals; handling multiple tasks; managing time and priorities; administering the school budget; dealing with ineffective staff; implementing new government initiatives; and problems with the school buildings and site management. All the above could be subscribed to by a vast majority of principals worldwide and coincided broadly with the challenges detected by the researchers mentioned above.

Hobson et al.’s (2003) survey, a synthesis of the literature on the challenges experienced by principals from 1982 to 2002, was used as a reference in studies related to principals’ problems in some specific contexts (e.g. Slater et al., 2018; Spillane and Lee, 2014). Therefore, we took this survey as our starting point for a new analysis considering the 17 years between 2003 to 2019. We also expanded the locus of research to studies worldwide and with all kinds of school principals (novice and experienced).

Although we considered Hobson et al.’s (2003) study to be a good starting point for our research, there are some significant problems and challenges cited in the literature that were not covered in any depth by them, such as: managing change (Fullan, 2001); the shortage of qualified educational leaders (Cooley and Shen, 2000; Ferrandino, 2001); challenges related to poor leadership (Portin, 2000); inequity in schools (Portin, 2000); standards and accountability (Cooley and Shen, 2000); and dealing with parents (Cooley and Shen, 2000). This fact also justifies the need to conduct further research on the topic of principals’ problems and challenges.

Method

Scoping review

This study is a scoping review (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005) of the literature related to problems experienced by principals worldwide. Scoping reviews are ‘a type of knowledge synthesis, which follows a systematic approach to map evidence on a topic and identify main concepts, theories, sources, and knowledge gaps’ (Tricco et al., 2018: 1). It consists of a rapid gathering of the literature aiming to accumulate as much evidence as possible and map the results related to the research questions (Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), 2015).

Munn et al. (2018: 2) suggested that one of the purposes of a scoping study is ‘to identify key characteristics or factors related to a concept’. Since in the current study we wanted to explore and categorize, but not in a systematic way yet, all the information available concerning the problems and challenges of principals in different countries, we acknowledge that the scoping review methodology serves this purpose well.

Identification of sources

We conducted an extensive electronic search to locate and retrieve relevant academic literature (Goodman et al., 2014), searching the Web of Science (WoS), SCOPUS and Google Scholar (GS) databases. According to our data, WoS, owned by Clarivate Analytics, and SCOPUS, owned by Elsevier, are considered the two leading world databases. On the other hand, Google Scholar (GS) has developed very comprehensive lists of documents. GS and SCOPUS appeared at the beginning of the 21st century, and contain overlapping content with WoS and each other, but there are often unique items in each source (Lasda Bergman, 2012). Hallinger (2019) recently pointed out that SCOPUS covers more educational administration journals than the WoS, but both databases provide high-impact research. Nevertheless, those archives sometimes miss relevant documents, and GS can be used to identify additional relevant literature, which justifies our usage of the three databases in our research.

Apart from articles, the inclusion criteria comprised surveys, books and book chapters since the literature on principals’ problems and challenges includes several works commissioned by governmental and non-governmental organizations and published via surveys or books. The time frame considered was 2003–2019, a total of 17 years of research: the beginning year, 2003, corresponds to the moment when the most comprehensive review on the subject was published (Hobson et al., 2003). Figure 1 shows the selection process according to the PRISMA statement (Moher et al., 2009).

Figure 1.

The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) flow chart (Moher et al., 2009) adapted to the current research.

The main keywords for search of documents were ‘problems’ and ‘challenges’ and ‘principal’ or ‘headteacher’, due to variations in British English and American English concerning this leadership position in schools, which is the focus of our study. So, the search was made on the WoS through the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), looking for articles, reviews or books in the educational area with the search terms ‘problems of school principals’ OR ‘problems of headteachers’ OR ‘challenges of principals’ OR ‘challenges of headteachers’ in the topic (title, keywords and abstract). A total of 582 documents was obtained. The same search in SCOPUS resulted in 434 papers, and in GS 122 documents were found. Thus, the research in the three databases resulted in 1138 documents.

As corresponds to a scoping review, the selection process was conducted in a systematic and collaborative way by the researchers, following these rigorous procedures (Tricco et al., 2018):

Search in databases individually.

Screen documents by title, abstract and keywords, and exclude duplicates within databases and duplicates between databases. Documents that do not fit the criteria of the research were also excluded.

Selection of the documents.

Full-text reading and assessment.

Creation of the Excel database.

The screening of documents (phase 2) showed that many studies were not relevant to the search (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005) or were repeated. Hence, documents were excluded for different reasons: articles incorrectly classified by a database, duplicates, materials non-related to principals, documents related to school leaders but not addressing general problems or challenges, or documents in different languages apart from English, French and Spanish – the most common publishing languages – and Italian or Portuguese because the research team also has knowledge in these languages.

Data analysis

After the whole screening process (phases 1 to 3), a total of 153 books, articles and surveys was analysed. All the articles and books were studied carefully, and the results compiled in an Excel file containing: title and complete reference of the document; authors; journal name; year of publication; country or geographical area in which the research took place; keywords; abstract; database; fundamental ideas of the theoretical framework; research method; summary of the results and discussion; suggestions for future investigations; useful references; and problems identified.

The reading of all the documents permitted a content analysis and a classification of the problems and challenges faced by principals, following a process of dialogue and consensus. Then, to answer the RQs, tables structuring thematically the problems and challenges were made during this phase of thematic analysis (see Tables 1 to 7), and the tables were filled with the problems and challenges, and with the authors, publication year and geographical location of the research.

Table 1.

General problems of school principals (problem and number of articles citing the problem).

Problems with Leadership and Management practices arising from the complex nature of the job						Problems with Leadership and Management practices, arising from interactions with different stakeholders
The Management Challenge		The Complexity Challenge		The Learning Challenge		Problems with educational authorities (EA) And with the educational policy				Problems with teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff		Problems with students		Problems with families and the school community		Problems with the society
Predominance of a management model and poor leadership.	29	The increasing number, and difficulty, of responsibilities	56	Lack of preparation and inappropriate career development	20	Lack of autonomy	14	Accountability pressure to achieve standards	24	Dealing with insufficient and inefficient staff	20	Indiscipline	13	Lack of parental involvement and support	17	Lack of social recognition of schooling, principals	6
Difficulties in managing ordinary demands of the job (budget, resources, school buildings)	27	Increased paperwork and administrative tasks	13	Scarce professional feedback, coaching, assistance, and support to improve	6	Weak support from EA	8	The need to handle multiple tasks. Intensification of the job.	28	Low teacher commitment and morale	6	Student absenteeism and drop-out	4	More demanding parents and increased parent’s expectations	5	High societal expectations for principals and schools	1
Difficulties in managing new demands of the job (inequities, inclusion, cultural diversity)	12	Managing isolation	12	The need to improve leadership skills and capacities	5	Scarce financial resources received from the state	7	Salary disproportionate to the workload	5	Teacher’s absenteeism	3	Dealing with the deprived background of students	2	Parents reluctant to school changes	1
	12	Scarce professional identity	4	Lack of time for the principals’ own professional growth	2	Scarce financial resources received from the state	7	Salary disproportionate to the workload	5	Teacher’s absenteeism	3	Dealing with the deprived background of students	2	Parents reluctant to school changes	1
The need to deal with the legacy of the previous principal	9					Principal recruitment problems	13	Challenges in the adoption of new curriculums	2	The lack of time for monitoring classroom practice	1	Problems with diverse student composition	13	Parents’ lack of respect for the school leaders	4
						Low attractiveness of the profession	14	Problems caused by teacher unions	3	Challenge of procurement of teaching materials	1	Diminishing student population	2	Dealing with the serious problems of families	4
						Problems concerning the physical conditions of schools due to government financial dependence	5	Problems regarding recruitment, promotion, and salaries of teachers	5	Bad teachers’ attitude toward principals	5	Addressing bullying and cyber bullying	3	Working with different cultures and values	2
						Ageing of school principals	1	Implementing new government initiatives and laws	6	Difficult staff recruitment and retention. High turnover	8			Lack of community involvement to school	1
						High levels of principals’ turnover	3			Difficulties getting teachers to work as a team	3
						Discrimination for being a woman leader	7			Challenge in supporting the learning of all students	12
										Challenges in the adoption of new technologies	4
										Challenge in supporting teachers and their professional growth	2
										Challenge of conducting teachers’ assessment	2
										Challenge of creating a PLC	2
n=	195					149				69		37		34		7

Table 2.

Problems with Leadership and Management practices arising from the complex nature of the job.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
The Management Challenge
Predominance of a management model and poor leadership	Problems to implement an instructional leadership: Conflict between management and leadership. Principals are caught in between the immediate needs of administrative tasks and the need to develop a leadership that is centered on learning Problems with the distribution of leadership Difficulties in distributing leadership and increase delegation	Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Bolívar (2018) Brandon et al. (2018) Bush and Glover (2016a) Bush and Oduro (2006) Cencic and Erculj (2019) Cowie (2011) Chrispeels (2004) Day and Sammons (2014) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski Du Plessis (2016 and 2014b) Farley, Childs, and Johnson (2019) Gairín and Castro (2010) Gómez-Hurtado et al. (2018) Hallam et al. (2010) Harris and Jones (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Le Fevre and Robinson (2014) Louis (2003) Martínez Ruiz and Hernández Amorós (2018) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Montecinos et al. (2018) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Shaked (2019) Sibanda (2017) Timperley (2005) Tobin (2014) Ulloa et al. (2012)	20152018201820162006201920112004201420182016, 201420192010201820102018200320142003201820132018201620192017200520142012	NigeriaSpainCanadaSouth AfricaAfricaSlovenia12 school systemsUSAGlobalUSA & BermudaAustraliaUSASpainSpainAfrica7 School systemsEurope & USAGlobalUSASpainUSA and BermudaGlobalSpainIsraelSouth AfricaNew ZealandUSAChile	29
Difficulties in managing ordinary demands of the job (budget, resources)	Difficulties dealing with the lack of resources,Difficulties managing the budget and budget cuts	Abaya (2016) Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Bayar (2016) Brooks and Sutherland (2014) Bush et al. (2019) Bush and Oduro (2006) Daggett (2014) Day and Sammons (2014) Demir (2016) Dinham et al. (2018) Dolph (2017) Gairín and Castro (2010) Hobson et al. (2003) Karakose et al. (2014) Paletta and Bezzina (2016) Tan (2018) Wildy et al. (2010) Wise (2015) Zayim-Kurtay and Zhu (2019)	2016201520162014201920062014201420162018201720102003201420162018201020152019	KenyaNigeriaTurkeyPhilippinesZimbabweAfricaUSAGlobalTurkeyAustraliaUSASpainEurope & USATurkeyItalyOECDAustralia & TurkeyUSABelgium	19
Difficulties in managing ordinary demands of the job (problems with school buildings and site management)	Problems dealing with the adverse physical conditions of schools and the inadequacy of infrastructures	Demir (2016) Hobson et al. (2003) Karakose et al. (2014) Magee and Slater (2013) Miller (2015) Slater et al. (2018) Walker et al. (2006) Zayim-Kurtay and Zhu (2019)	20162003201420132015201820062019	TurkeyEurope & USATurkeyGlobalJamaicaISSPP countriesUKBelgium	8
Difficulties in managing new demands of the job (inequities, inclusion, cultural diversity)	The need to address inequities and manage cultural diversity, refugees, changing demographics, or diverse communities	Aydin and Kaya (2019) Cowie (2011) Demir (2016) Drago-Severson & Maslin-Ostrowski (2018) Gokce and Acar (2018) Gómez-Hurtado et al. (2018) Liou and Daly (2018) Maslin-Otrowski et al. (2014) Poon-McBrayer (2017) Robinson et al. (2015) Slater et al. (2018) Stynes et al. (2018)	201920112016201820182018201820142017201520182018	Turkey12 systemsTurkeyUSA & BermudasTurkeySpainUSAUSA & BermudaHong Kong (Ch)New ZealandISSPP countriesIreland	12
The need to deal with the legacy of the previous principal	The legacy of the previous principal was a problem for some, particularly where the embedded values and culture of the school conflicted with the new principal’s personal and professional values (Cowie, 2011: 209 and 214)‘Teachers’ resistance to change may be linked to the way the previous principal managed the school’ (Montecinos et al., 2018: 205)	Bayar (2016) Cowie (2011) Galdames et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Lee-Piggot (2014) Montecinos et al. (2018) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Slater et al. (2018) Walker et al. (2006)	201620112018200320142018201620182006	Turkey12 systemsGlobalEurope & USATrinidad-TobagoChileSpainISSPP countriesUK	9
The Complexity Challenge
The increasing number, and difficulty, of responsibilities	Difficulties managing relationships with the all the members of the school community.The difficulty of managing such complex organisations as schools: you can be caught between system, school and family expectations.‘…75% of principals feel that their job has become too complex, half of the principals feel under great stress ‘several days of a week’ and the percentage who say they are satisfied in their work has dropped from 68 to 59% since 2008.’ (Fullan, 2014: 5)	Brandon et al. (2018) Cosner and Jones (2016) Cowie (2011) Daggett (2014) Day (2019) Dempster et al. (2004) Dinham et al. (2018) Duignan (2006) Dunning & Elliott (2019) ETUCE (2012) Farley et al. (2019) Fullan (2014) Gairín and Castro (2010) Galdames et al. (2018) Gómez-Hurtado et al. (2018) Lortie (2009) Njaji (2014) Pineda-Báez et al. (2019) Pollock et al. (2015) Shoho and Barnett (2010) Woodruff and Kowalski (2010)	201820162011201420192004201820062019201220192014201020182018200920142019201520102010	CanadaUSA12 systemsUSAUKAustraliaAustraliaAustraliaUKEuropeUSACanadaSpainChile & Latin-AmericaSpainUSAKenyaColombiaCanadaUSAUSA	21
	Managing time and agenda priorities. Time-management skills can help principals to feel and be more productive in the workplace.	Cowie (2011) Eacott (2018) Dinham et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Huang et al. (2018) MacBeath et al. (2009) Norton (2015) Lee-Piggot (2014) Saidun et al. (2015) Sebastian et al. (2017) Slater et al. (2018) Ulloa et al. (2012) Wise (2015)	2011201820182003201820092015201420152017201820122015	12 systemsUSAAustraliaEurope & USAUSAUKUSATrinidad-TobagoMalaysiaUSAISSPP countriesChileUSA	13
	Difficulties to balance work and personal life	De Jong et al. (2017) Duignan (2006) Dunning and Elliott (2019) Hobson et al. (2003) MacBeath et al. (2009) Moorosi (2007) Wildy et al. (2010) Woodruff and Kowalski (2010)	20172006201920032009200720102010	USAAustraliaUKEurope & USAUKUgandaAustralia & TurkeyUSA	8
	Resisting stress Stressful job, with many responsibilitiesDifficulties in dealing with the stressDifficulties in maintaining a healthy lifestyleAnxieties regarding school performance in a competitive global economic environment (Cowie, 2011)Reality shock experienced by novice principals (Spillane & Lee, 2014; MacBeath et al., 2009)	Brooks and Sungton (2016) Cheng et al. (2017) Cowie (2011) Cranston et al. (2006) Fields (2005) Fullan (2014) Hancock et al. (2019) Hobson et al. (2003) Kaufman (2019) MacBeath et al. (2009) Montecinos et al. (2018) Norton (2015) Spillane and Lee (2014) Woodroff and Kowalski (2010)	20162017201120062005201420192003201920092018201520142010	ThailandHong-Kong (Ch)12 systemsAustraliaUSACanadaUSA and GermanyEurope & USAUSAUKGlobal and ChileUSAUSAUSA	14
Increased paperwork and administrative tasks	Administrative overloadBureaucracy led principals to spend too much time on administrative tasks and less time on intellectual and interpersonal demands (Brandon et al., 2018).	Bolívar (2018) Brown and Conrad (2006) Demir (2016) Cencic and Erculj (2019) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Gurr (2014) Lee-Piggot (2014) MacBeath et al. (2009) Montecinos et al. (2018) Slater et al. (2018) Spillane and Lee (2014) Tan (2014) Timperley (2005)	2018200620162019201020142014200920182018201420142005	SpainTrinidad-TobagoTurkeySloveniaMexicoISSPP countriesTrinidad-TobagoUKGlobal and ChileISSPP countriesUSAUSANew Zealand	13
Dealing with the isolation of the principalship job	Changes in relationships with staff after becoming a principalLoss of proximity with staff	Dinham et al. (2018) Galdames et al. (2018) Hallam et al. (2010) Hobson et al. (2003) Lee-Piggot (2014) Leithwood and Azah (2016) Miller (2015) Montecinos et al. (2018) Saidun et al. (2015) Slater et al. (2018) Spillane and Lee (2014) Wildy and Clarke (2008)	201820182010200320142016201520182015201820142008	AustraliaChile.GlobalAfricaEurope & USATrinidad-TobagoCanadaJamaicaGlobalMalaysiaISSPP countriesUSAAustralia	12
Scarce professional identity	The meanings that principals attach to themselves in relation to their profession is limited	Bolívar (2018) Loder and Spillane (2005) Rangel (2018) Walker et al. (2006)	2018200520182006	SpainUSAUSAUK	4
The Learning Challenge (Professional Development Challenge)
Lack of preparation for the job and inappropriate career development	Unpreparedness for the principal’s functionsNo induction programsInsufficient pedagogical training of principalsLack of continuous developmentIn most countries, school leadership training is only optional rather than mandatory, and the length of it varies significantly among countries	Abaya (2016) Bailey and Gibson Beycioglu and Wildy (2017) Brandon et al. (2018) Bush and Glover (2016a) Bush and Oduro (2006) Cencic and Erculj (2019) Cowie (2011) Demir (2016) ETUCE (2012) Gairín and Castro (2010) Galdames et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Mentz et al. (2010) Okoko (2018) Pheko et al. (2018) Preston et al. (2013) Saidun et al. (2015) Serrano and Martín-Cuadrado (2016) Stringer and Hourani (2016)	20162019201720182016200620192011201620122010201820032010201820182013201520162016	KenyaMalaysiaTurkeyCanadaWest AfricaAfricaSlovenia12 systemsTurkeyEuropeSpainChileEurope & USACanada & South AfricaKenyaBotswanaCanada, USA, AustraliaMalaysiaSpainAbu-Dhabi	20
Scarce professional feedback, assistance and support to improve	Lack of professional assistance and support.Lack of professional feedback to the principalsLack of emotional support	Arar (2018) Bischoff and Watts (2014) Hobson et al. (2003) Pheko et al. (2018) Quong (2006) Service and Thorton (2019)	201820142003201820062019	IsraelUKEurope & USABotswanaAustraliaNew Zealand	6
The need to improve leadership skills and capacities	The need to improve a wide variety of skills and capacities(financial skills, managing complexity, interpersonal skills, legal skills)	Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Drago-Severson et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Pheko et al. (2018)	20152018200320132018	NigeriaUSA & BermudaEurope & USAUSA & BermudaBotswana	5
Lack of time for the principals’ own professional development	Many new heads were appressed by lack of time for themselves and for their professional development (MacBeath et al., 2009)	Hobson et al. (2003) MacBeath et al. (2009)	20032009	EuropeUK (Scotland)	2
n=					195

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; ISSPP: International Successful School Principalship Project.

Table 3.

Problems with educational authorities and problems with educational policy.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
Problems with educational authorities (n = 76)
Lack of autonomy	Principals stressed the desirability of increasing their autonomy and explained tensions with authorities related to decentralization and autonomy.Insuficient autonomy to make decisions on staff and financial matters	Arar (2018) Bolívar (2018) Clarke and O’ Donoghue (2016) Bayar (2016) Demir (2016) Dempster et al. (2004) Dinham et al. (2018) Gairín and Castro (2010) Keddie (2016) Maforah (2015) Llorent-Bedmar et al. (2019) Martínez Ruiz and Hernández Amorós (2018) Montecinos et al. (2018) Ulloa et al. (2012)	20182018201620162016200420182010201620152019201820182012	IsraelSpainUKTurkeyTurkeyAustraliaAustraliaSpainUKSouth AfricaSpainSpainGlobal & ChileChile	14
Weak support from authorities	Some principals denounce constant challenges to their authority and ask themselves If they are going to be supported by the educational authorities	Abaya (2016) Arar (2018) Bayar (2016) Cowie (2011) Dinham et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Martínez Ruiz and Hernández Amorós (2018) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016)	20162018201620112018200320182016	KenyaIsraelTurkey12 systemsAustraliaEurope & USASpainSpain	8
Insufficient financial resources received from the State	Not having the economic resources needed for school management	Dinham et al. (2018) Dunning and Elliott (2019) Gairín and Castro (2010) Miller (2015) Pheko et al. (2018) Tan (2018) Ulloa et al. (2012)	2018201920102015201820182012	AustraliaUKSpainJamaicaBotswanaOECD countriesChile	7
Problems concerning physical conditions of schools	Problems concerning equipment and buildings maintenance, due to schools’ financial dependence from the State	Demir (2016) Dolph (2017) Hobson et al. (2003) Miller (2015) Slater et al. (2018)	20162017200320152018	TurkeyUSAEurope & USAJamaicaISSPP countries	5
Ageing of school principals	In most OECD countries, the principal workforce is ageing	ETUCE (2012) federation of 132 education trade unions in 51 European countries	2012	Europe (51 countries)	1
Principal recruitment problems.	Unclear and highly varying procedures for the recruitment of principals	Arar (2018) Bush and Oduro (2006) Bolívar (2018) Farley et al. (2019) Fussarelli et al. (2018) Gairín and Castro (2010) Gronn and Rawlings-Sanaei (2003) MacBeath et al. (2009) Pounder et al. (2003) Starr (2007) Thomson et al. (2003) Tran (2017) William (2003)	2018200620182019201820102003200920032007200320172003	IsraelAfricaSpainUSAUSASpainAustraliaUKUSAAustraliaAustralia & USAUSACanada	13
Low attractiveness of the profession	Education authorities are failing to make school leadership an attractive profession, as requested by international organizations Decreasing number of qualified candidates Vice-Principals and teachers feel no compulsion to seek promotion	Cowie (2011) Dempster et al. (2004) ETUCE (2012) Gairín and Castro (2010) Lee (2015) MacBeath et al. (2009) Montecinos et al. (2018) Njaji (2014) Peters-Hawkins et al. (2017) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Shoho and Barnett (2010) Wildy and Clarke (2008)	201120042012201020152009201820142017201620102008	12 systemsAustraliaEurope (51 countries)SpainUSAUKChileKenyaUSASpainUSAAustralia	12
Lack of preparation for succession	The succession of the principal is not well prepared and there are few qualified candidates for the job	Cowie (2011) Dempster et al. (2004) ETUCE (2012) Fusarelli et al. (2018) Gairín and Castro (2010) Montecinos et al. (2018) Peters-Hawkins et al. (2017)	2011200420122018201020182017	12 systemsAustraliaEurope (51 countries)USASpainChileUSA	7
Gender imbalance and discrimination of women as leaders	The profession of school principal is mostly a male profession. In addition, in some countries, leaders who are women suffer from discrimination based on their gender	Arar (2018) Arar (2019) ETUCE (2012) Gonaim (2018) OECD (2016) Preston et al. (2013) Wadesango and Karima (2016)	2018201920122018201620132016	IsraelIsrael, Palestine, JordanEuropeSaudi ArabiaOECD countriesCanada, USA, AustraliaSouth Africa	7
High turnover of principals	A constant churn of principals	Fusarelli et al. (2018) Rangel (2018) Tran (2017)	201820182017	USAUSAUSA	3
Problems with the educational policy (n = 73)
Pressure caused by accountability	Political, national and international pressure to achieve standards.Excessive control from the educational authorities and increased public accountability	Cheng et al. (2017) Cosner and Jones (2016) Cowie (2011) Daggett (2014) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Otrowski (2018) Duignan (2006) Dunning and Elliott (2019) Farley et al. (2019) Flores and Derrington (2017) Galdames et al. (2018) Goddard (2005) Gurr (2014) Gurr and Drysdale (2012) Jones et al. (2015) Lee-Piggot (2014) MacBeath et al. (2009) MacBeath et al. (2018) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2014) Pan and Chen (2011) Sebastian, Camburn, and Spillane (2017) Tan (2014) Townsend (2011) Wise (2015)	201720162011201420182006201920192017201820052014201220152014200920182013201420112017201420112015	Hong-Kong (Ch)USA12 systemsUSAUSA & BermudaAustraliaUKUSAPortugal & UKChileCanadaISSPP countriesAustraliaMalaysiaTrinidad-TobagoUKUKUSA & BermudaUSA & BermudaTaiwanUSAGlobalUKUSA	24
High job complexity	Intensification of the jobNature of the job: the need for pervasiveness and multitasking Diversity of tasks: “demanding day to day and hour to hour work” (Stynes et al., 2018) Principals’ job continues to be administration-bound, spontaneous and fragmented (Huang et al., 2018: 1)	Bayar (2016) Dagget (2014) Demir (2016) Dempster et al. (2004) Dinham et al. (2018) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Otrowski (2018) ETUCE (2012) Gairín and Castro (2010) Galdames et al. (2018) Goddard (2005) Gómez-Hurtado et al. (2018) Hobson et al. (2003) Huang et al. (2018) Lee-Piggot (2014) Leithwood and Azah (2016) Liou and Daly (2018) MacBeath et al. (2009) Miller (2015) Montecinos et al. (2018) Norton (2015) Pollock et al. (2015) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Spillane and Lee (2014) Stynes et al. (2018) Timperley (2005) Tobin (2014) Ulloa et al. (2012) Wise (2015)	2016201420162004201820182012201020182005201820032018201420162018200920152018201520152016201420182005201420122015	TurkeyUSATurkeyAustraliaAustraliaUSA & BermudaEurope (51 countries)SpainGlobalCanadaSpainEurope & USAUSATrinidad-TobagoGlobalUSAUK (Scotland)JamaicaChileUSACanadaSpainUSAIrelandNew ZealandUSAChileUSA	28
Salary disproportion to the workload	The salary of principals is quite similar to the salary of teachers, especially when taking into account the workload and responsibilities of principals	ETUCE (2012) Gairín and Castro (2010) Galdames et al. (2018) Goddard (2005) Woodruff and Kowalski (2010)	20122010201820052010	Europe (51 countries)SpainLatin AmericaCanadaUSA	5
Problems concerning the recruitment, promotion, or salaries of teachers, due to the dependence on educational authorities	The need to find ways in which school leaders can improve teacher recruitment, development andsalaries	Bolivar (2018) Demir (2016) Gairín and Castro (2010) Miller (2015) Ulloa et al. (2012)	20182016201020152012	SpainTurkeySpainJamaicaChile	5
Implementing new government initiatives and laws	Problems concerning frequently modified programs and educational laws which require implementing new initiatives, new curricula and new school projectsChallenges in the adoption of new curriculums	Arar (2018) Cowie (2011) Gómez-Hurtado et al. (2018) Gurr and Drysdale (2012) Hobson et al. (2003) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Norton (2015) Slater et al. (2018)	20182011201820122003201320152018	Israel12 systemsSpainAustraliaEurope and USAUSA & BermudaUSAISSPP countries	8
Problems caused by teacher unions	Conflicts with teacher unions	Bayar (2016) Bush and Glover (2016b) Slater et al. (2018)	201620162018	TurkeySouth AfricaISSPP countries	3
n=					149

ETUCE: European Trade Union Committee for Education; OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; ISSPP: International Successful School Principalship Project.

Table 4.

Problems with teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
Dealing with insufficient and ineffective staff	An insufficient number of teachers and/or administrative staff, especially in high-need schools or disadvantaged areasThe brain drain of teachers Managing ineffective teachers (e.g. supporting, warning, dismissing. Hobson et al., 2003). and non-teaching staff. Poor staff performance. Inadequately trained staff.	Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Ahumada et al. (2016) Bayar (2016) Bush et al. (2019) Bush and Oduro (2006) Çevik (2019) Clarke and O’Donoghue (2016) Demir (2016) Dolph (2017) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Hobson et al. (2003) Klar and Brewer (2013) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Miller (2015) Norton (2015) Preston et al. (2013) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Slater et al. (2018) Walker et al. (2006) Wildy and Clarke (2008)	20152016201620192006201920162016201720102003201320132015201520132016201820062008	NigeriaChile & GlobalUSAZimbabweAfricaTurkeyDiverse contextsTurkeyUSAMexicoEurope & USAUSAUSA & BermudaJamaicaUSACanada, USA, AustraliaSpainISSPP countriesUKAustralia	20
Low teacher commitment and morale	Dealing with low teacher commitment and morale, which has negative effects on the quality of their work	Abaya (2016) Bolívar (2018) Çevik (2019) Clarke and Donoghue (2016) Hobson et al. (2003) Slater et al. (2018)	201620182019201620032018	KenyaSpainTurkeyDiverse contextsEurope & USAISSPP countries	6
Teacher’s absenteeism	Dealing with teachers that are repeatedly absent (due to health problems or burn out), affecting students’ performance negatively	Montecinos et al. (2018) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Slater et al. (2018)	201820162018	Global & ChileSpainISSPP countries	3
Inefficient teachers’ attitudes toward principals	Teachers’ behaviours toward principals reflect lack of confidence or are negative	Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Bayar (2016) Demir (2016) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Montecinos et al. (2018)	20152016201620102018	NigeriaTurkeyTurkeyMexicoChile	5
Difficulties with staff recruitment and high teaching and non-teaching staff turnover	Difficulties in finding and maintaining staffHigh number of teachers who leave the profession each year	Bayar (2016) Clarke and O’Donghue (2016) Cowie (2011) Demir (2016) Gairín and Castro (2010) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2014) Paletta and Bezzina (2016) Ulloa et al. (2012)	20162016201120162010201420162012	TurkeyDiverse contexts12 systemsTurkeySpainUSA & BermudaItalyChile	8
Difficulties in getting teachers to work collaboratively	There is a need to work collaboratively, yet some teachers are reluctant to work as a team	Duignan (2006) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Hobson et al. (2003)	200620102003	AustraliaMexicoEurope & USA	3
Difficulties in supporting the learning of all students	The need to strengthen teaching practices.The need to improve student social-emotional development, as well as their academicachievement.Challenge: closing the achievement gap and supporting the learning of all studentsDifficulties in creating the learning conditions for every studentDifficulties in finding appropriate teaching and learning materialsThe lack of time for monitoring classroom practice	Anderson and White (2011) Cowie (2011) Day and Sammons (2014) Dolph (2017) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski (2018) Duignan (2006) Hobson et al. (2003) Marshall (2013) Muzyamba and Changala (2019) Robinson et al. (2015) Stringer and Hourani (2016) Varela et al. (2019) Woodruff and Kowalski (2010) Young (2015)	20112011201420172018200620032013201920152016201920102015	Australia12 systemsGlobalUSAUSA & BermudaAustraliaEurope & USAUSAZambiaNew ZealandAbu-DhabiLatin-AmericaUSAUSA	14
Resistance to the adoption of new technologies and methodologies	Challenges around adopting new digital technologies at schoolsChallenges related to teachers’ resistance to change	Duignan (2006) Savelyeva and Lee (2012) Sharma (2019) Hayes (2006)	2006201220192006	AustraliaHong-Kong (Ch)TurkeyAustralia	4
Difficulties in supporting teachers and care for their professional development	Challenges associated with the professional development of teachersThe lack of time for monitoring classroom practice	Hobson et al. (2003) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Tobin (2014)	200320132014	Europe & USAUSA & BermudaUSA	3
Difficulties in conducting teacher assessment	Challenges of conducting teacher evaluations and feedback	Drago-Severson, Maslin-Otrowski, and Blum-Destefano (2018)	2018	USA & Bermuda	1
The challenge of making schools professional learning community	Principals trying to promote professional learning communities in their schools can find obstacles related to insularity, unequal participation, or reluctancy to change	Cowie (2011) Day and Sammons (2014)	20112014	12 systemsGlobal	2
n=					69

ISSPP: International Successful School Principalship Project

Table 5.

Problems with students.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
Indiscipline	Bad behaviour or disrespect from students. Low standards of behaviour. Lack of discipline. Difficulties in addressing student indiscipline	Abaya (2016) Abdulrasheed and Bello (2015) Bayar (2016) Çevik (2019) Cowie (2011) Day and Sammons (2014) Demir (2016) Dolph (2017) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Maforah (2015) Magee and Slater (2013) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago-Severson (2013) Norton (2015)	2016201520162019201120142016201720102015201320132015	KenyaNigeriaTurkeyTurkey12 systemsGlobalTurkeyUSAMexicoSouth AfricaGlobalUSA & BermudaUSA	13
Students absenteeism and drop-out	Students absenteeism and drop-outEarly drop-out	Araujo et al. (2019) Clarke and O’Donoghue (2016) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Slater et al. (2018)	2019201620102018	Portugal & EuropeDiverse contextsMexicoISSPP countries	4
Problems in dealing with the diversity of students	Dealing with student diversity:Inclusion of immigrant students.Multiple mother languagesGrowing percentage of students with special needs.Students from very deprived educational and cultural backgrounds	Ahumada et al. (2016) Aydin and Kaya (2019) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski (2018) Klar and Brewer (2013) Norton (2015) Poon-McBrayer (2017) Robinson et al. (2015) Romanovski (2015) Romanovski et al. (2019) Slater et al. (2018) Suba et al. (2019) Szeto, Cheng and Sing (2019) Weiss et al. (2019) Wise (2015) Ylimaki et al. (2007)	201620192018201320152017201520152019201820192019201920152007	Chile & GlobalTurkeyUSA & BermudaUSAUSAHong Kong (Ch)New ZealandQatarQatarISSPP countriesBhutanChinaGermanyUSAUK & Australia	15
Diminishing student population (in schools with specific characteristics)	Rural areas or schools with bad reputation have difficulties in retaining or captivating new students.	Clarke and O’Donoghue (2016) Slater et al. (2018)	20162018	Diverse contextsISSPP countries	2
Addressing bullying and cyberbullying	Prevention and intervention on disruptive behaviours	Corcoran and McGuckin (2014) Force (2016) Wise (2015)	201420162015	IrelandUSAUSA	3
n=					37

Table 6.

Problems with the families and the school community.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
Lack of parental involvement and support	Families’ negative attitudes towards school and indifference to its needsOffensive actions from some parents Lack of parental involvement,Lack of parental support,Lack of communication between parents and school	Abaya (2016) Ahumada et al. (2016) Bayar (2016) Clarke and Donoghue (2016) Day and Sammons (2014) Demir (2016) Dinham et al. (2018) Dolph (2017) Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski (2018) Dunning and Elliott (2019) García-Garduño et al. (2010) Hobson et al. (2003) Montecinos et al. (2018) Norton (2015) Serrano and Martín Cuadrado (2016) Tobin (2014) Varela et al. (2019) Zayim-Kurtay and Zhu (2019)	201620162016201620142016201820172018201920102003201820152016201420192019	USAChile and GlobalTurkeyDiverse contextsGlobalTurkeyAustraliaUSAUSA and BermudaUKMéxicoEurope and USAChileUSASpainUSASpainBelgium	18
More demanding parents	Increased parents’ expectations towards schoolsParents expectations that school will deliver quality education for their children, especially when measured in terms of academic achievement	Bayar (2016) Cowie (2011) Gairín and Castro (2010) Hobson et al. (2003) Tan (2014) Tan (2018)	201620112010200320142018	Turkey12 systemsSpainEurope and USAOECD countriesOECD countries	6
Coping with parents who are reluctant to changes concerning the school scope of action	Parents reluctant to participate in school bodies or in processes of school change	Maslin-Otrowski and Drago Severson (2013)	2013	USA and Bermuda	1
Parents’ lack of respect to the educational profession and for the school leaders	Nonrecognition of principals’ leadership from the families	Dinham et al. (2018) Dolph (2017) Norton (2015) Stringer and Hourani (2016)	2018201720152016	AustraliaUSAUSAAbu-Dhabi	4
Dealing with the serious problems of some families	The existence of families with problems: immigrant families, local adult population with a low level of education and formal qualificationsPoor employment opportunities in the area, poverty	Ahumada et al. (2016) Bayar (2016) Clarke and O’Donoghue (2016) Maslin-Otrowski and Drago Severson (2014)	2016201620162014	ChileTurkeyDiverse contextsUSA and Bermuda	4
Challenge of working with different cultural values of each specific context	The need to deal with the increasing diversity in schools	Oduol and Cornforth (2019) Machaisa and Mulandzi (2019)	20192019	KenyaSouth Africa	2
Lack of community involvement with school	School communities reluctant to participate in school matters	Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski (2018)	2018	USA and Bermuda	1
n=					36

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Table 7.

Problems with the society.

Problem	Description of the problem	Authors citing the problem	Year	Country- countries	n articles
Lack of social recognition of schooling, teachers and principals	In some countries, professions related to education are not highly valued in social terms	Dinham et al. (2018) OECD (2016) Serrano and Martín-Cuadrado (2016) Norton (2015) Walker et al. (2006) Wise (2015)	201820162016 201520062015	AustraliaOECD countriesSpain USAUKUSA	6
High societal expectations on principals and schools to solve all kind of problems	Society often attributes responsibilities to schools that go far beyond their mission	Shoho and Barnett (2010)	2010	USA	1
n=					7

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Results

In this section, we present the results concerning our research questions: quantity of publications and its evolution; influential journals; the geographical distribution of the research; and the thematical structure of the topic.

Evolution of publications, more influential journals, and geographical distribution (RQ1, RQ2)

Our search yields 153 documents from 2003 to 2019, an average of 9 articles per year (Figure 2 shows the distribution of publications per year). Nevertheless, most of the documents (71%) were recently published papers, corresponding to the last six years (2014–2019), showing a clear trend of increasing publication and growing interest in this topic starting from 2014. Not surprisingly, the 109 documents published between 2014 and 2019 more than doubled the sum of the publications (44 documents) corresponding to the initial period (2003–2013). Figure 2 shows the distribution of publications per year.

Figure 2.

Evolution in number of articles related to principals’ problems 2003–2019 (n = 153).

The 153 documents comprised 122 journal articles (80% of the documents), 25 books or book chapters, and 6 surveys. The analysis of the journal articles revealed that a quarter of them had been published in only three journals: Educational Management Administration & Leadership (12 articles), Journal of Educational Administration (11 articles) and School Leadership & Management (8 articles). Next follow the Australian Journal of Education (five articles), Educational Administration Quarterly and Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences (four documents each). Finally, the International Journal of Leadership in Education, Journal of School Leadership and Leadership and Policy in School published three articles each. These nine journals published 43% of the total articles in our database.

As shown in Tables 2 –7, with all the references, investigations are related to all continents and more than 45 countries: Abu-Dhabi, Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Bhutan, Botswana, Canada, Chile, China, East Timor, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Jamaica, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, UK, USA, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and some global studies.

Studies from the USA are the most numerous and represent nearly 25% (37 documents) of the total number of records. Afterwards follow Australia (17 documents), UK (13), South Africa (9), Canada (8), Turkey (8), Spain (7), New Zealand (6) and China (5). Next follow Chile, Malaysia, Kenya and Bermuda (each one with four documents). The usual proportion of English-speaking countries leads this geographical distribution since, apart from the six global surveys (4% of the documents) and the international leadership projects (6 documents, 4%), 85 papers correspond to this linguistic area (55% of the documents).

Still, the number of documents from non-Anglo-Saxon countries (36%) contributing to the knowledge of principals’ problems is increasing, mainly since 2014; before this date, nine studies correspond to non-English speaking countries. As Phillip Hallinger (2019) pointed out recently, the increment in the production from non-Anglo-Saxon countries is a ‘remarkable change in the composition of the global EDML knowledge base’ (11). However, most of the studies drew predominantly from cultural contexts deemed as dominant, and western academics have coordinated a vast majority of them.

A categorization of problems and challenges (RQ3)

The content analysis showed that problems and challenges could be produced by different circumstances: (a) general problems and challenges of the schools and the school leaders; (b) specific problems and challenges related to the type of school (primary/secondary; rural/urban/suburban; developed/developing country); and (c) concrete challenges related to the amount of experience of the principal (novice/experienced). The second and third domains of problems/challenges can make it either more difficult or less stressful to solve the general problems, which are the only ones that we are going to study in the current article.

General problems and challenges faced by school principals

The literature revealed that some common problems and challenges affect principals in several countries around the world, and an analysis of the documents led to categorization and description of problems and sub-problems identified in the current research.

We organized these general problems and challenges into two broader categories: (a) problems with leadership and management practices, arising from the complex nature of the job; and (b) problems with leadership and management practices, arising from interactions with different stakeholders. Within these two broader categories, we were able to find eight different groups, which are related to: (a) the management challenge; (b) the complexity challenge; (c) the learning challenge; (d) the educational authorities and educational policy; (e) teaching, teachers and non-teaching staff; (f) students; (g) families and the school community; and (h) society. All these problems and challenges are listed and classified in Table 1.

Eight problems and challenges stand out as the most cited ones in literature, in the following order (see Table 1, and references in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 6): the difficulties managing relationships with all the members of the school community; the need to handle multiple tasks; the challenges in managing the daily demands of the job (budget, resources, school buildings); the predominance of a traditional management model over a model of pedagogical leadership; the accountability pressure to achieve standards; dealing with scarce and ineffective staff; lack of preparation for the job and inappropriate career development; and the lack of parental involvement and support.

Just as in Hobson et al.’s (2003) review, most of the challenges relate primarily to the complex nature of the job and to educational authorities and policies. Nevertheless, half of the eight most cited problems were not mentioned in 2003 and are more complex and wicked than those, since they involve many actors, are difficult to define and require creative solutions.

A more detailed analysis of the problems follows in the next sections and tables. Due to the significant number of documents in this scoping review, we examined the most important topics and subtopics, providing all the references to each topic in the tables and in the references section.

Problems and challenges related to the complex nature of the job: management challenge, complexity challenge and learning challenge

According to our review, these are the most numerous challenges/problems affecting school leaders (n = 195 documents) and represent 38% of all the references to problems. Following Brandon et al. (2018), our research team structured this category of problems and challenges into clusters: the management challenge, the complexity challenge and the learning challenge (see Table 2).

Management challenges are ‘more immediate organizational tasks often take precedence over working to support instruction. These management concerns are frequently cited as inhibitors to having sufficient time to adequately provide supervisory or instructional leadership’ (Brandon et al., 2018: 266). The complexity challenges are associated with the interpersonal politics and interpersonal demands; and the learning challenge is the absence of attention to the professional development of principals.

The 77 articles that are included in the management challenge in Table 2 are related to the challenges experienced by principals to improve leadership for learning and social justice or to distribute leadership. This fact is due to the increasing managerial demands (budgeting, managing school buildings and infrastructures, supporting overwhelmed staff) that usually take precedence over the core activity of a school – improving teaching and learning. The excess of the usual managerial tasks deprives principals of developing the kind of leadership that is required currently, and, at the same time, new demands are emerging, making the role of the principal more and more complicated.

The complexity challenge (n = 85 articles) refers to the pervasiveness of the job, and to the diversity of administrative tasks that a principal should develop. This fact, and the lack of identity of the profession, causes challenges for principals and requires the development of skills such as managing time or resisting stress that can help principals to feel and be more productive in the workplace.

The learning challenge or professional development challenge (n = 33) shows that principals are not well prepared for their job, and they do not have enough support or training while developing it. As time goes on, more skills and capacities are needed from principals, making the gap even more profound and relating the learning challenge to the complexity and management challenges.

Problems with educational authorities and with the educational policy

Tensions in the relationships with educational authorities and the lack of autonomy and the overdependence of leaders on government are consistently cited in the literature, especially during the last decade. Table 3 shows the totality of problems related to authorities and policies, and the increasing pressures of the system on principals: pressure to achieve standards and all kind of demands, tensions with the recruitment of staff, strains to implement continuous new government initiatives and laws, or tensions with teacher unions.

Problems with school staff, students, families and school community, and the whole society

Managing people (staff, students or families) seems to be hard. Usually, principals complain because they cannot find good teachers, or have to deal with ineffective staff, reduced teacher involvement or high turnover of teachers (see Table 4 for problems related to teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff).

Related to students (Table 5), principals complain about indiscipline in the classes and student absenteeism and drop-out. They also referred to a large number of pupils with special needs and students from ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse families in the classrooms that make teaching more difficult.

The lack of parental and community involvement and support is the most cited problem related to families and runs parallel with the lack of social recognition of schooling and school leaders. At the same time, families (Table 6) and the whole society (Table 7) demand more from schools and their principals, making it more challenging to respond to such diverse requirements.

Discussion

Given the considerable amount of problems and challenges experienced by principals, in this section we discuss the implications of the results from a theoretical and practical point of view. The research shows that, over the past 17 years, scholars worldwide have documented principals’ problems and accumulated evidence indicating that the role of principals continues to be as challenging as described at the turn of the century (Cooley and Shen, 2000; Ferrandino, 2001; Hobson et al., 2003; Murphy, 1993). Furthermore, it seems that school leaders are nowadays expected to do even more than before (Farley et al., 2019).

This scoping review documented some conflicting situations that make solutions difficult and challenging. For example:

The struggle between the demanding and multitasking job (cited in 28 articles) and the need to concentrate on leadership for learning (29 articles). The increasing demands from the educational system and the necessity to handle multiple tasks prevent principals from focusing on what is essential in their work: improving teaching and learning. At the same time, this fact turns the heads’ work into bureaucratic work away from the pedagogical leadership that is needed.

The struggle between autonomy (14 articles) and accountability (24 articles). In some countries, governments are giving more autonomy to school leaders and, simultaneously, asking for more accountability, a problem that is commonly cited and is confirmed by the OECD (2018). It seems that the more governments talk about autonomy, the more things are controlled (Dinham et al., 2018), and the greater the necessity to achieve standards.

The lack of respect for school leaders that coincides with the increasing demands and expectations from families and the whole society. Public accountability systems have created significant novel burdens for the principal, frequently the only individual whose name is ‘directly linked to a school’s academic performance’ (Drago-Severson and Maslin-Ostrowski, 2018: 2). Principals mentioned, additionally, that they receive weak support from local authorities (Arar, 2018; Cowie, 2011), families (Bayar, 2016; Gairín and Castro, 2010; Tan, 2018) or the society (Shoho and Barnett, 2010), although they deal with increasing external demands coming from very different stakeholders (Norton, 2015). More demanding parents and amplified societal expectations coincide, paradoxically, with the lack of parental involvement in the school (e.g. Dunning and Elliott, 2019; Serrano and Martín-Cuadrado, 2016; Tobin, 2014) and the lack of social recognition of principals (e.g. Dinham et al., 2018: OECD, 2016; Walker et al., 2006; Wise, 2015).

Finally, the typical contradiction between the importance given to education in official discourses, and the lack of resources and support from local authorities, also reflected on educational policies. While everybody recognizes the importance of education in the knowledge society, principals all over the world feel that they are not supported by the educational authorities and by the educational system and policies (e.g. Abaya, 2016; Bayar, 2016; Martínez-Ruiz and Hernández-Amorós, 2018). There is an over-reliance on principals as change experts, and principals are made accountable for a lot of different policies and mandates (Demir, 2016; Drago-Severson and Marlin Ostrowski, 2018), making the situation still more difficult.

It appears that all these controversial problems contribute to job dissatisfaction (De Jong et al., 2017; Njaji, 2014) and the low attractiveness of the profession. So, it can be said that educational authorities are failing to make school leadership an attractive profession, as requested by international organizations (Pont et al., 2008).

How can leaders be successful in meeting these challenges? The intensification of the principals’ job requires new forms of leadership, and this creates new pressures for principal preparation programmes (Lochmiller et al., 2016). In this context, a leadership that is, at the same time, pedagogical, inclusive and distributed emerges and is needed. Simultaneously, principals ought to learn how to confront the nature of their work, fully accepting what this leadership position involves presently.

All over the world, research shows that to be a headteacher is increasingly complex, with significant responsibilities vaguely defined and delimited (European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), 2012), a lot of very different things to do (Dempster et al., 2004), high external pressures (Hobson et al., 2003; Slater et al., 2018), difficult decisions to make (Cranston et al., 2006; Robinson et al., 2017) and always working with people during extended hours. Being aware of the characteristics of the job may help principals understand and improve their work while better managing themselves, changing their perspective about some situations they consider to be problems. Leadership coaching can be a viable tool to assist principals (Bisschoff and Watts, 2014; Wise and Cavazos, 2017), and networking among principals or guided critical reflection (Beatty, 2015) can also be solutions. All these measures will help principals to focus on the teaching and learning in their schools (Du Plessis, 2014a).

Furthermore, policymakers and governments are part of the problem. However, they should also be part of the solution, not only because some problems are directly related to specific policies that principals disapprove of, but also due to the relevant role that governments’ educational departments have on the development of support systems to all principals in public schools. More support from authorities and policies is needed to help principals and to improve education all over the world.

Limitations of the study

As this is a scoping review, we tried to display a general view of the literature that can serve as a basis for more in-depth studies related to each problem or sub-problem and the different geographical or cultural areas. Nevertheless, we are aware of some methodological limitations of this study: first, according to Tricco et al. (2018), the methods and reporting for scoping reviews need improvement and we are aware of this circumstance. Also, our search strategy may have overlooked some existing studies, and some geographical areas, such as Africa, Asia or South America, could be less represented than others. Besides, these geographic areas are only represented by a limited number of countries. Another limitation is that the geographical origin of the authors of all articles has not been analysed yet, and possibly this examination would have revealed the abundant presence of researchers of Anglo-Saxon origin and from western countries and universities. More research is needed to overcome the limitations mentioned.

Contributions of this study

This paper aspires to contribute to the literature by giving a large set of data to analyse the problems confronting principals. The organization of the data provides a possible approach to the challenges of school leaders based on the people who interact in/with the schools (principals, teachers, non-teaching staff, families and community, students, educational authorities and the whole society) and the teaching and learning process.

This overview and structuration of the literature can help practitioners, teachers and policymakers to comprehend the nature and complexity of the principals’ job. It is worth noting that some of these problems are technical, but a vast majority of the challenges can be considered wicked problems, according to the categorization of Heifetz et al. (2009) and to the results of previous research (Tintoré et al., 2020). Little research marked, for example, technological challenges as significant problems, but the most frequent problems identified were related to the pervasiveness of the job or the challenges to develop leadership for learning. Although each problem should be studied in its context, we can venture that problems with society or with the educational authorities and a great deal of problems arising from the complex nature of the job can be included within the category of wicked challenges that require adaptive solutions involving many actors. As our research focuses on detecting the problems pointed out by school principals in various geographical contexts, we cannot offer solutions to these problems, although this may be the subject of future research.

Suggestions for future research

Additional research could consider each problem and sub-problem, and the problems that principals face in each stage of their careers or each type of school context. Also, a more in-depth analysis of the tables that summarize the problems can allow conclusions to be drawn about the main challenges in various parts of the world, the chronological evolution of the problems, the current most emerging challenges or the geographical places where further study is necessary. Moreover, defining problems can contribute to the development of effective solutions, and the research highlighted the importance of principal preparation, an issue that also needs further discussion

Conclusion

The research team aimed to review what is known from the existing literature about the problems faced by principals worldwide. Hence, we mapped evidence concerning the evolution of the literature, the main sources and geographical locations, and the main topics and subtopics. The results go beyond previous analysis by recapitulating and analysing problems described by principals in many parts of the world, and from our analysis we can conclude that the problems are constant and similar between countries (Walker et al., 2006), although increasing in number, complexity and wickedness in the last five years. Still, context matters, especially when it comes to the intensity and significance of some themes above others. Being conscious of the challenges can help school leaders to improve management and leadership in their schools and can help leaders’ trainers in the definition and development of leadership programmes that are aware of the necessities and challenges school leaders have in common.

These problems call for better preparation of principals and an improvement in their leadership skills (Gurr and Drysdale, 2012). They also call for changes to be undertaken by the educational authorities and in educational policies. Poor leadership skills or imbalance between resources given by the state and the school’s demands are highlighted across this study. Apart from trying to reduce the excessive workload of principals or increase the resources, the most reasonable solution to these problems must be related to professional development and, more specifically, leadership development (Maslin-Ostrowski and Drago-Severson, 2013). In this sense, we propose a leadership for learning approach and an instructional leadership approach as a solution (Badenhorst and Radile, 2018). We also suggest more help and real autonomy on the part of the educational authorities if we want to solve the problems.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This study was part of project EDUGest financed by EDULOG - Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo.

ORCID iD

Mireia Tintoré

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A scoping review of problems and challenges faced by school leaders (2003–2019)

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Defining the constructs

Previous knowledge on principal’s problems: placing the topic

Method

Scoping review

Identification of sources

Data analysis

Results

Evolution of publications, more influential journals, and geographical distribution (RQ1, RQ2)

A categorization of problems and challenges (RQ3)

General problems and challenges faced by school principals

Problems and challenges related to the complex nature of the job: management challenge, complexity challenge and learning challenge

Problems with educational authorities and with the educational policy

Problems with school staff, students, families and school community, and the whole society

Discussion

Limitations of the study

Contributions of this study

Suggestions for future research

Conclusion

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

Funding

ORCID iD

References