Holistic case-study strategy

Given the complex interplay between the multiple components of the reconceptualisation framework, it may be difficult to investigate all components without involving an unmanageable number of schools, principals, teachers, students and other stakeholders. Instead, the holistic case-study strategy can be used to investigate the whole picture, explore the interrelationships between the key components of and factors involved in school autonomy, leadership, performance, national frameworks/policies, school context and national-education context and determine their contribution to students’ learning in selected case-study schools. This strategy would enable researchers to investigate these complex relationships both in depth and holistically, yielding sophisticated insights into the complexities of school autonomy. However, the generalisability and implications of the findings of studies based on this strategy may be limited by the small sample of schools under study.

As discussed above, this paper provides a framework for reconceptualising school autonomy by differentiating between functional autonomy, structural autonomy and cultural autonomy. This will help to redress the conceptual limitations of traditional research on school autonomy. Future PISA, TALIS and similar studies will also benefit from the reconceptualisation. In addition, reconceptualising leadership by identifying three categories of leadership activities – leadership for functional initiatives, structural initiatives and cultural initiatives – will help to improve the accuracy of conceptions of the relationships between leadership, autonomy and performance. In addition, based on the proposed framework illustrated in Figure 1, a typology of research strategies is developed to broaden the scope of investigation. A single-component strategy, a two-component strategy, an interaction strategy and a holistic case-study strategy are presented. Depending on the research purposes and the available resources, one or a combination of these strategies can be used to conceptualise the study of school autonomy, leadership and performance.

It is hoped that the new ideas and perspectives of the reconceptualiaation framework proposed in this paper will contribute to both local and international research on school autonomy.

Figure 1 A new framework for reconceptualising research on school autonomy

Figure 2 School autonomy as a multi-level self-management system

Table I Conceptual limitations and their implications for research reconceptualisation

Table II Theory of school-based management vs theory of external control management