IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i22p9564-d446465.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Leadership Transform Educational Policy? Leadership Style, New Localism and Local Involvement in Education

Author

Listed:
  • Nivi Gal-Arieli

    (School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel)

  • Itai Beeri

    (School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel)

  • Eran Vigoda-Gadot

    (School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel)

  • Amnon Reichman

    (Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel)

Abstract

In the realm of new localism and collaboration, local educational policymakers are called upon for responsible community leadership. Given the conceptual continuum between new localism and transformational leadership, this study examines the relationship between the leadership style of local educational policymakers and the involvement of local authorities in education. Data were obtained from 107 questionnaires submitted by mayors and directors of education affiliated with 100 local authorities in Israel. As predicted, there was a positive relationship between transformational leadership and the local authorities’ involvement in education, measured using four factors, but only for sound local authorities. We used five criteria to determine the soundness of the local authorities. In contrast, among less sound local authorities, there was an inverse relationship between transformational leadership and involvement in education. In general, in such communities, leaders seemed to prefer to leave educational issues to the central government. Thus, we present evidence for the boundaries of educational transformational leadership in the educational governance arena. Education-related policies are on the agenda of leaders even in weaker local authorities, but only to the extent that these policies can serve as an instrument to meet specific needs of the local community. All in all, there is no “one size fits all” for all aspects of new localism—i.e., central regulation towards local government, local policy, local leadership, and civic participation. Accordingly, policymakers, local leaders and residents must fit themselves to the blurred boundaries of new localism and collaborate towards better education. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Nivi Gal-Arieli & Itai Beeri & Eran Vigoda-Gadot & Amnon Reichman, 2020. "Can Leadership Transform Educational Policy? Leadership Style, New Localism and Local Involvement in Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9564-:d:446465
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9564/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9564/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Itai Beeri & Doron Navot, 2013. "Local Political Corruption: Potential structural malfunctions at the central-local, local-local and intra-local levels," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 712-739, June.
    2. Sharon Eshel & Ravit Hananel, 2019. "Centralization, neoliberalism, and housing policy central–local government relations and residential development in Israel," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(2), pages 237-255, March.
    3. Shona Johnstone & Rosalyn A. V. Robison & Rachel Manning, 2013. "Delivering Social Sustainability Outcomes in New Communities: The Role of the Elected Councillor," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(11), pages 1-29, November.
    4. Nivi Gal-Arieli & Itai Beeri & Eran Vigoda-Gadot & Amnon Reichman, 2017. "New localism or fuzzy centralism: policymakers’ perceptions of public education and involvement in education," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 598-620, July.
    5. Sandra Waddock, 2020. "Reframing and Transforming Economics around Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elżbieta Izabela Szczepankiewicz & Jan Fazlagić & Windham Loopesko, 2021. "A Conceptual Model for Developing Climate Education in Sustainability Management Education System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yonat Rein-Sapir & Eran Feitelson, 2024. "Which Local Jurisdictions Are Environmental Policy Entrepreneurs? Insights from Israel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, May.
    2. María Jesús Rosado-García & Renata Kubus & Ramón Argüelles-Bustillo & María Jesús García-García, 2021. "A New European Bauhaus for a Culture of Transversality and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Elżbieta Izabela Szczepankiewicz & Jan Fazlagić & Windham Loopesko, 2021. "A Conceptual Model for Developing Climate Education in Sustainability Management Education System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, January.
    4. Emanuel Wittberg & Gissur Ó. Erlingsson & Karl Wennberg, 2024. "Does local government corruption inhibit entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 775-806, February.
    5. Nachmany, Harel & Hananel, Ravit, 2023. "The Urban Renewal Matrix," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    6. Sandra Waddock, 2021. "Wellbeing Economics Narratives for a Sustainable Future," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 151-167, July.
    7. Rachel Friedman & Gillad Rosen, 2020. "The face of affordable housing in a neoliberal paradigm," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(5), pages 959-975, April.
    8. Caesar Marga Putri & Josep Maria Argilés-Bosch & Diego Ravenda, 2023. "Thirty Years of Village Corruption Research: Accounting and Smart Villages for Village Sustainability as Future Research Direction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Giulia Mugellini & Jean‐Patrick Villeneuve & Marlen Heide, 2021. "Monitoring sustainable development goals and the quest for high‐quality indicators: Learning from a practical evaluation of data on corruption," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1257-1275, November.
    10. Eliška Drápalová & Fabrizio Di Mascio, 2020. "Islands of Good Government: Explaining Successful Corruption Control in Two Spanish Cities," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 128-139.
    11. Cook, David & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur & Malinauskaite, Laura, 2023. "The role of ecosystem services in the doughnut economy – The example of whale ecosystem services in Disko Bay, Greenland," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    12. Hananel, Ravit & Azary-Viesel, Sagit & Nachmany, Harel, 2021. "Spatial gaps – Narrowing or widening? Changes in spatial dynamics in the new millennium," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Steve Waddell & Sandra Waddock & Simone Martino & Jonny Norton, 2023. "Emerging Economic Operating Infrastructure to Support Wellbeing Economies," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 63-88, April.
    14. Ravit Hananel, 2021. "Bills, Rights and Housing Policy: The Evolution of Israel’s Seven-Decade Housing-Related Bills," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, April.
    15. Shamai, Moshe & Hananel, Ravit, 2021. "One+One+One=A lot," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    16. Weimin Zhang & Wangrong Ma & Qiwei Chen, 2022. "Does Regional Development Policy Promote Industrial Structure Upgrading? Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, July.
    17. Javier Sierra & Ángela Suárez-Collado, 2021. "Understanding Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability Challenges in the Global South," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9564-:d:446465. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.