Transformational Leadership in Education: A Review of Concepts, Roles, Challenges, Practices and their Effects
Abstract
Purpose of the study: This research aims to review the literature on leadership in comparison to transformational leader practices in education and explore the roles, challenges, and its effects.
Methodology: This study presents a comprehensive literature review on transformational leadership in education, examining existing knowledge through a wide array of sources, including books, scholarly articles, reports, and credible online sources. Rather than relying on quantitative data and statistical analysis, this research emphasizes an in-depth exploration of the underlying principles and practical applications of transformational leadership in educational contexts.
Main Findings: The findings from this study provide policymakers, educators, scholars, and academics with valuable insights into transformational leadership as a powerful driver of organizational change in education. Transformational leaders, through a clear vision for the future, enable staff to elevate organizational performance by moving from low to high achievement levels. By articulating and fostering a shared purpose, transformational leaders empower their teams to implement strategies that directly improve school outcomes. Transformational leadership in education stands as a powerful tool for driving positive change. By inspiring a shared vision, stimulating intellectual growth, building strong relationships, modeling ethical behavior, and empowering individuals, transformational leaders can create a sustainable and impactful legacy in schools.
Novelty/Originality of this study: Unlike the other review, this provides uniquely synthesic comparision of transformation leadership style in Western and ASEAN case studies in education with the integration of transformational leadership practices and adaptation with the context of Industry 4.0.
References
P. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2016.
B. M. Bass and B. J. Avolio, Leadership for the 21st century. Free Press, 1994.
K. A. Leithwood, S. Anderson, and B. J. Mascall, "Leadership for learning: A conceptual framework," International Journal of Educational Leadership, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 3-32, 2004.
F. P. Hartono, N. S. Umamah, and R. P. N. Puji, "The level of student engagement based on gender and grade on history subject of senior high school students in Jember regency," International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 21-26, 2019.
H. Normianti, Aslamiah, and Suhaimi, "Relationship of transformational leaders of principal, teacher motivation, teacher organization commitments with performance of primary school teachers in labuan amas selatan, Indonesia," European Journal of Education Studies, vol. 5, no. 11, 2019.
B. Steinmann, H. Klug, and G. Maier, "The Path Is the Goal: How Transformational Leaders Enhance Followers’ Job Attitudes and Proactive Behavior," Frontiers in Psychology, 2018, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338
S. Juhdi, "Peran Urgen Guru Dalam Pendidian," Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan, vol. 10, no. 1, 2016.
S. Andriani, N. Kesumawati, and M. Kristiawan, "The influence of the transformational leadership and work motivation on teachers performance," International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 19-29, 2018.
M. Anderson, "Transformational Leadership in Education: A Review of Existing Literature," International Social Science Review, vol. 93, 2017.
D. Gurr and L. Drysdale, "Middle-level secondary school leaders: Potential, constraints, and implications for leadership preparation and development," Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 55-71, 2013.
World Bank, "Kuwait Launches a Five-Year Reform Program to Improve the Quality of General Education," 2015.
S. Andriani, N. Kesumawati, and M. Kristiawan, "The influence of transformational leadership and work motivation on teachers' performance," International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 19-29, 2018.
H. Alfaris, "Mohammed AI-Fares: a roadmap to diversity education outcomes," Aljarida, 2021.
A. Alqahtani, "Teachers’ perceptions of principals’ motivating language and public-school climates in Kuwait," Management in Education, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 125-131, 2015.
E. L. Grigorenko, "Creativity: a challenge for contemporary education," Comparative Education, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 116-132, 2019.
M. Gushwa and K. Harriman, "Paddling against the tide: contemporary challenges in field education," Clinical Social Work Journal, vol. 47, pp. 17-22, 2019.
R. I. Vosloban, "The Influence of the Employee’s Performance on the Company’s Growth: A Managerial Perspective," Procedia Economics and Finance, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 660-665, 2012. doi: 10.1016/s2212-5671(12)00211-0
S. Al-Husseini, I. E. Beltagi, and J. Moizer, "Transformational leadership and innovation: the mediating role of knowledge sharing among higher education faculty," International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2019.
I. Berkovich, "School leaders and transformational leadership theory: time to part ways?" Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 609-622, 2016.
D. Davies, D. Jindal-Snape, C. Collier, R. Digby, P. Hay, and A. Howe, "Creative learning environments in education—A systematic literature review," Thinking Skills and Creativity, vol. 8, pp. 80-91, 2013.
G. Alharbi, "Primary school teachers’ perceptions regarding ICT usage and equipment in Kuwait," Journal of International Education Research, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 55-62, 2012.
T. Sergiovanni, The lifeworld of leadership: creating culture, community, and personal meaning in our schools. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.
S. Jones, M. Harvey, J. Hamilton, J. Bevacqua, K. E. McKenzie, and J. McKenzie, "Demonstrating the impact of a distributed leadership approach in higher education," Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 197-211, 2017.
B. Bass and R. Riggio, Transformational leadership, 2nd ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006.
Suhaimi and Y. Rinawati, "The management of character education curriculum at vocational high school 2 Kandangan," Advances in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities Research, vol. 274, pp. 272-277, 2018.
S. Clarke and H. Wildy, "Improving the small rural or remote school: the role of the district," Australian Journal of Education, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 24-36, 2011.
M. Al-Sharija, "Leadership practices of Kuwaiti secondary school principals for embedding ICT" [Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology], Brisbane, Australia, 2012.
M. Fullan, The new meaning of educational change, 4th ed. Teachers College Press, 2007.
H. Karal and Z. Celik, "Designing components of a sample system considering the effect of web-based technologies' meaningful measurement and assessment practices," Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 9, pp. 908-912, 2010.
K. Leithwood and J. Sun, "The Nature and Effects of Transformational School Leadership," Educational Administration Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 387-423, 2012.
M. Pendidikan, S. Andriani, N. Kesumawati, and M. Kristiawan, "The Influence of The Transformational Leadership and Work Motivation on Teachers Performance," International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, vol. 7, no. 7, 2018.
B. N. Tanjung et al., "The influence of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior on the performance of Islamic School Teachers," Sys Rev Pharm, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 539-546, 2020.
M. Armstrong, A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan, 2010.
I. Winokur, "From centralized education to innovation: Cultural shifts in Kuwait’s education system," in Education for a knowledge society in Arabian Gulf Countries, A. W. Wiseman, N. H. Alromi, and S. Alshumrani, Eds. Emerald, 2014, pp. 103–124.
A. Balyer, K. Ozcan, and A. Yildiz, "Teacher Empowerment: School Administrators’ Roles," Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, pp. 1-18, 2017.
D. Prestiadi, I. Gunawan, and R. B. Sumarsono, "Role of transformational leadership in education 4.0," in 6th International Conference on Education and Technology (ICET 2020), vol. 501, Atlantis Press, pp. 120-124, 2020.
T. F. González-Cruz, D. Botella-Carrubi, and C. M. Martínez-Fuentes, "Supervisor leadership style, employee regulatory focus, and leadership performance," Journal of Business Research, vol. 101, pp. 660-667, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.065
I. Berkovich, "Will it sink or will it float: Putting three common conceptions about principals’ transformational leadership to the test," Educational Management Administration and Leadership, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 888-907, 2018.
B. Steinmann, H. Klug, and G. Maier, "The Path Is the Goal: How Transformational Leaders Enhance Followers’ Job Attitudes and Proactive Behavior," Frontiers in Psychology, 2018, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338
J. Seltzer and B. M. Bass, "Transformational leadership: Beyond initiation and consideration," Journal of Management, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 693-703, 1990.
B. Bass, Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Free Press, 1985.
K. Leithwood and D. Jantzi, "The effects of transformational school leadership on organisational conditions and student engagement with school," Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 112-129, 2000.
K. Leithwood and D. Jantzi, "A Review of Transformational School Leadership Research 1996–2005," Leadership and Policy in Schools, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 177-199, 2005.
K. Leithwood, "Leadership for school restructuring," Educational Administration Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 498-518, 1994.
N. M. Allix, "Transformational leadership democratic or despotic?" Educational Management Administration and Leadership, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 7-20, 2000.
K. A. Leithwood and C. J. Riehl, "What do we know about school leadership?" Second Handbook of Research on Educational Administration, vol. 2, pp. 3-32, 2003.
M. Gronow, "ICT leadership in school education," presented at the Australian Catholic University Conference “Directions for Catholic Education Leadership in the 21st Century,” Sydney, Australia, 2007.
K. Leithwood, A. Harris, and D. Hopkins, "Seven strong claims about successful school leadership," School Leadership and Management, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 27-42, 2008.
J. Kotter, "Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail," Harvard Business Review, pp. 92-107, Jan. 2007.
N. Al-Huwail, S. Al-Sharhan, A. Al-Hunaiyyan, "Learning Design for a Successful Blended E-learning Environment: Cultural Dimensions," Journal of Computer Science, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 60-69, Dec. 2007.
K. Leithwood and D. Jantzi, "The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Conditions and Student Engagement with School," PUB Type Reports Research, vol. 143, 1999.
M. Lin Tengi, M. Mansor, and Z. Hashim, "A Review Theory of Transformational Leadership for School," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 792, 2017. doi: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i3/2847
A. L. Kadiyono et al., "Develop leadership style model for Indonesian teachers performance in education 4.0 era," Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 363-373, 2020.
Y. D. Lee and C. T. Kuo, "Principals'transformational leadership and teachers'work motivation: evidence from elementary schools in Taiwan," International Journal of Organizational Innovation, vol. 11, no. 3, 2019.
I. Indrawan et al., "Develop model of transactional, transformational, democratic and authocratic leadership style for Indonesian school performance in education 4.0 era," Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 409-419, 2020.
D. Vican, "Contemporary educational problems and major challenges as a part of curriculum changes in Croatia: A multiple perspectives insight," in Second International Handbook of Urban Education, W. Pink and G. Noblit, Eds. Springer, 2017, pp. 243–264.
M. Ahmad, "Impact of transformational leadership styles of principals on job satisfaction of secondary school teachers," Putaj Humanities & Social Sciences, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 41-50, 2018.
A. Syafarudin, "Strategy of Leadership and Innovation in Improving Company Performance against Competitive Advantage," International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 471-482, 2016.
C. G. Christopher, "Transformational leadership: school climate and teacher morale in a Secondary School setting" [Doctoral thesis, Northeastern University], 2020.
R. Rotberg, Transformative political leadership: Making a difference in the developing world. University of Chicago Press, 2012.
J. Ryan, "Inclusive leadership and social justice for schools," Leadership and Policy in Schools, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 3-17, 2006.
K. S. Finnigan, "Principal leadership and teacher motivation under high-stakes accountability policies," Leadership and Policy in Schools, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 161-189, 2010.
P. Sahlberg, Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? Teachers College Press, 2011.
H. C. Silins, W. R. Mulford, and S. Zarins, "Organizational learning and school change," Educational Administration Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 613-642, 2002.
P. Sahlberg, Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? Teachers College Press, 2011.
S. Asimiran and S. Hussin, "Principal leadership and school performance: Perspectives of principals in Malaysia," International Journal of Education, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 41-52, 2012.
S. Andriani, N. Kesumawati, and M. Kristiawan, "The influence of transformational leadership and work motivation on teachers' performance," International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 19-29, 2018.
P. T. Nguyen, D. Nguyen, and T. H. Soon, "Educational leadership and innovation in Singapore," Asia Pacific Journal of Education, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 67-84, 2015.
W. Lertpaithoon, "Educational leadership in rural schools: Narrowing the gap between urban and rural educational outcomes in Thailand," Journal of Rural Education Research, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 107-115, 2016.
J. E. Trinidad, "Resilience in education: A case study of transformational leadership in the Philippines," Journal of Educational Administration and Foundations, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 73-89, 2018.
S. Alainati, S. AlShawi, and W. Al-Karaghouli, "The Effect of Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning on Individual competencies," in European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems, Athens, Greece, 2011, pp. 30-39.
S. Al-Sharhan, A. Al-Hunaiyyan, "Toward an Effective Integrated E-Learning System: Implementation, Quality Assurance, and Competency Models," in Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM 2012), Macau, 2012, pp. 22-24.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mardy Serey, Sokwin Phon, Sothea Hill, Rany Sam, Sereyrath Em, Alberto Pagilagan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and acknowledge that the Indonesian Journal of Education Research (IJoER) is the first publisher licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges and earlier and greater citation of published work.
.png)
.png)
