**Abstract**

The role of educational leaders has been undergoing many changes in the era of globalization due to diverse needs and expectations of the stakeholders of education. This increases the need for professional development of educational leaders to fulfill their roles. Educational leaders have high impact on shaping school culture, school improvement, student learning, and achievement, so that their professional development is critical to their continued success as leaders. Educational leaders who participate in professional development programs update and extend their knowledge and improve their performance on the job by applying new knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices in schools. This book chapter intends to provide reader with a comprehensive overview of expected responsibilities and features of school leaders in the context of the different models of educational leadership and also presents a review of the articles about the need for professional development of educational leaders and finally gives professional development ideas which will help school leaders continue to strengthen their practices throughout their career.

**Keywords:** co-principals, department chairs, distributed leadership, instructional leadership, principals, teacher leaders, transformational leadership, professional development

#### **1. Educational leadership**

There has been a great interest in leadership not only in education but also in many sectors such as business, health, and technology. "Leadership as a process of social influence can maximize the efforts of others for the achievement of a goal" [1]. In educational settings, leaders are appointed to positions formally or informally, influencing their colleagues by providing direction to them [2]. Main core of educational leadership, used as school leadership exchangeably, is achieving better student success in schools. That is why all scholars and school staff work hard to find ways to obtain better school outcomes. In this sense, scholars put forward different classifications of school leadership and tried to explain the roles and responsibilities of school leaders.

Policymakers, scholars paid attention to principal leadership because of the body of research on effective schools during the 1980s. According to McEwan [3], instructional leadership emphasizes on implementation of the curriculum involving instruction and learning. According to Hallinger and Murphy [4], instructional roles of the principals are as follows:


During 1990s, scholars started to interest in school improvement and argued transformational leadership and teacher leadership as alternatives so that instructional leadership lost its potency by the turn of twenty-first century but rising interest in accountability movement and student outcomes led scholars to focus on school principals as instructional leaders [5]. Concept of transformational leadership was introduced in 1978 by James MacGregor Burns. Leithwood and Jantzi [6] defined the meaning and dimensions of transformational leadership as follows: "transformational leadership for making reformative changes needed in schools, focuses on motivation, inspiration and influencing teachers and parents to work together cooperatively based on core beliefs and values" [6]. "Six dimensions of transformational leadership are building vision and goals of school; provision of intellectual stimulation; offering individualized support; symbolizing professional values and practices; demonstration of high performance expectations; and development of structures to encourage participation in school decisions" [7, 8]. Transformational leaders stimulate and inspire their followers to commit to shared vision and goals of an organization, to achieve extraordinary outcomes and to be innovative problem solvers. They empower and support followers to develop and grow into leaders, align objectives and goals of each individual follower, pay attention to their needs and personal development as coaches and mentors [9]. Components of transformational leadership are


Concept of distributed leadership, also known as shared leadership emerged in early 2000s in part from the "Distributed Cognition and Activity Theory" because of the idea that "the principal cannot do the job alone due to having many dramatically evolving managerial and leader roles. For organizational reform, principals distribute leadership and decision making to a group of leaders" [10]. From the distributed leadership perspective,


Assistant principals (APs) are critical leaders [13] and candidates for being principals in schools around the world [14] by serving underneath the school principal. There are categories of assistants in schools such as deputy heads called quasi-deputy heads; assistants who work below the principal called subordinate deputy head and assistants who fill specific needs called niche assistant heads [15]. According to Kwan [16], "roles of assistant principals are teaching, curriculum and learning, resource management, external connection and communication, accountability and quality assurance of the school, staff management, development and growth of the teachers, policy environment and also strategic direction". In 2011, roles of assistant principals were assigned as having duties in administration; formulation of goals, development of curriculum; training, development, evaluation, and selection of teachers; student discipline and counseling students [17].

In the concept of teacher leadership, teachers are accepted as holders of a central position in school operations, learning, and teaching [18]. Teachers are the most important stakeholders of education and must be at the center of school transformation and change in education. Teachers can influence practice and policy significantly by working purposefully, collectively, and collaboratively. If teachers are supported for their creativeness, innovation, and collaboration, they may form lasting difference to learners and learning [19]. Teachers having leadership roles become more confident, satisfied with their work in schools and this leads higher teacher retention rates [20]. Cooper et al. [21] emphasize that teacher leadership rooted from teacher professionalism movement in 1980s is very important for successful school reform. They have specific duties which may vary depending on the school context such as


Success of teacher leaders depend on

