Among the many challenges faced by educational systems in the 21st century, leadership succession is universally recognised as being a major concern. Rather than retain the current paradigm of a single figure at the top of the school hierarchy, leading researchers Patrick Duignan and Helen Cannon argue the case for a more inclusive, collaborative and distributed leadership. They offer a series of alternative models, and gather views from existing principals to demonstrate what might be possible, what might work better than the model followed today.

The authors emphasise how a new paradigm must work to retain those already in the job, but must also act to encourage potential candidates to apply for the job. They offer specific recommendations and advice to system policy makers, human resource personnel, and to practitioners in schools, especially school principals and deputy principals, on new models and paradigms. Practical guidelines are proposed that offer sustainable leadership solutions and promote educational systems and schools as ‘communities of learning’. Ultimately,The Power of Many shows how the principal shortage can and must be substantially reduced, and the collective capacity of leadership in schools enhanced and sustained.