The pathways of leadership's indirect influence on students' learning processes

A head teacher acting in the capacity of an educational leader exerts an indirect influence on pupils' learning processes. Relying to a considerable degree on the analysis of factors determining the achievement of Hattie's students, Leithwood et al. (2009) identified four paths allowing a head teacher to exert impact on students' learning processes through his/her actions. They are the rational path, the emotions path, the organisation path, and the family path. The objective of the research was to answer the following question: which tasks in the area of teaching and learning activities do head teachers consider as the most important? Preparing an answer to this question, the author relied on data collected during in-depth interviews (IDI) with 170 head teachers of Polish schools. The interviews were conducted within the scope of the project entitled Educational Leadership, whose objective is to prepare a training and development system for head teachers. Opinions acquired during the interviews underwent a qualitative analysis (an analysis of the content) in an attempt to isolate particular activities undertaken by head teachers with respect to the four paths of influencing students' learning processes: the rational path, the emotions path, the organisation path, and the family path.