INVESTIGATION OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP HELD BY PRACTISING EDUCATORS IN THE UK ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRES

The concept of successful leadership in education is discussed extensively in the existing literature in the field. Yet, the question of what constitutes successful leadership in a narrow context remains disputable. This paper reports on a study which aimed to extend the existing paradigm of understanding of what makes leaders successful by exploring the perceptions of successful leadership held by researchers, principals, managers, middle managers, teaching and administrative staff in language schools in the North East of England. Statistical and thematic analyses was applied for data gained through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings identify leadership skills mostly attributed to a successful leader and provide possible reasons for why practising educators within UK language institutions choose these particular skills. It is concluded that perceptions of successful leadership depend on the context in which it occurs and that more studies of leadership skills in a narrower context are needed.