A systematic review on sustainable educational innovations: The role of (distributed) leadership

Using the lens of the conceptual model of sustainable innovation (Rikkerink et al., 2016), the present systematic literature review addresses the following research question: How does (distributed) leadership, in interplay with contextual, relational and individual conditions at the micro, meso and macro level, influence the sustainability of educational innovations at the primary process in primary and secondary education? A meta-aggregative approach to Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) was deployed. Based on 43 selected studies, findings show that the role of (distributed) leadership at the school, district and national level is to support teachers as key actors in creating sustainable educational innovations. Leaders play an important role regarding contextual, relational and individual conditions at the meso (e.g., collaborative learning) and macro (e.g., alignment district and school vision and methods) level. As the micro level focuses on teachers in classrooms, original articles did not report conditions related to (distributed) leadership. Other contextual, relational and individual conditions not linked to leadership, such as teachers experiencing growth in their own competencies that are relevant for the innovation (i.e., individual condition, micro level), are presented. The results of the present QES show that a systemic perspective on sustaining educational innovations is in place: it is not about fragmented conditions that are shown to promote sustained innovations, but it is about balancing the various conditions that are linked to each other and that are the sum of their parts. Six recommendations for educational leaders are provided.