Ranking Leadership Challenges in Schools Based on Principals’ Lived Experiences
Keywords:
Lived experiences, ranking, leadership challenges, managersAbstract
Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify and rank leadership challenges in schools based on principals’ lived experiences and to determine the relative priority of these challenges in influencing educational leadership effectiveness.
Methodology: This study employed an exploratory mixed-methods design. In the qualitative phase, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 school principals who had at least 10 years of leadership experience. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on the Claise model with MAXQDA2024 software. In the quantitative phase, a 50-item questionnaire was developed based on the extracted qualitative codes and administered to 190 school principals. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical indicators including mean and standard deviation, and leadership challenges were ranked according to their perceived severity and impact.
Findings: The results indicated that shortages of qualified human resources, instability of educational policies, pressure from national evaluations, financial resource limitations, and inadequate professional development systems were ranked as the most critical leadership challenges. In contrast, limited managerial autonomy and insufficient alignment between curricula and future workforce needs were ranked lower. Inferential interpretation revealed that leadership challenges are multidimensional and primarily rooted in structural, policy, organizational, and human resource factors. Furthermore, structural constraints and resource deficiencies significantly limit principals’ ability to exercise effective instructional leadership and implement sustainable educational improvements.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that school leadership challenges are largely systemic rather than individual in nature, and improving leadership effectiveness requires structural reforms in educational policy, strengthening human capital, expanding managerial autonomy, and developing supportive organizational infrastructures.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Faramarz Azizi (Author); Faranak Mosavi; Elham kaviani, Mohammad Javad Karam Afrooz (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
