Leadership for school reform: Do principal decision-making styles reflect a collaborative approach

Economic growth in New Brunswick is increasingly dependent on the improvement of our educational system. Current initiatives to reform education and improve student performance are based on transforming the province’s schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). A key factor that will determine this reform’s success is the capacity of principals to adopt a collaborative leadership style. This paper examines a study of principal decision-making and the forces both for and against the adoption of the collaborative leadership style required to implement the current school reform. While the majority of principals studied, exhibit the capacity to lead using a collaborative decision-making style, the bureaucratic system in which they work may be preventing them from doing so