The Impact of Transformational School Leadership on School Staff and School Culture in Primary Schools—A Systematic Review of International Literature
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear author(s),
This was an interesting study. I was surprised at the small number of final papers included and the large number excluded, but you did have a solid methodological framework and rationale. The synthesis and analysis were insightful and interesting and it was quite well-written. Further elaboration on the specific criteria that were used to exclude such large numbers of articles from the review would have been helpful as readers were forced to 'fill in the gaps' a little. Additionally, your discussion had room for further/in-depth analysis. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the paper and feel it is publishable.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for conducting this review on transformational leadership. It is interesting to study stats across a range of years. It is an important piece of work that can add to the existing literature.
This paper is a proposed review and meta-analyses of existing educational leadership strategies/models or approaches. Whilst this is critical, it is important for your focus to be broader in terms of evidence since focusing predominantly on one type (meta-analyses) misses the richness of detail and nuance provided in other types of research evidence. This seems important to point out, especially if there is a desire to understand the complexities of leadership, such as how social issues impact daily operations. Meta-analyses often, inadvertently, wash out contextually relevant detail. As such, it is important to view many different kinds of evidence and not just rely on some types only. A broader range of educational leadership evidence can be very productive for enhancing practice.
It is also important to critique the use of the term followers within leadership literature. There is a shift within this use especially in the contemporary landscape. You need to capture this in your discussion.
At some parts of the paper, there is a tendency to report and summarize rather than synthesize the data. Pls ensure that you organise the ideas within key themes of discussion to make this easier to read.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Thanks for the response and changes made. This review will be a great addition to current literature.
Author Response
Thank you for your positive response. it is much appreciated.
Reviewer 3 Report
Authors have put effort to improve the article, but still there are some questions to solve before publishing.
The aim of the study was to use meta-analysis to identify how transformational leadership affects school staff and school culture. The results would have been expected in two separate perspectives - what impact was found on staff and what on culture. Are staff and culture seen as one?
The information in Table 1 is still unclear, could this be presented as text, not in the table? The titles of the study in the Table 7 don’t give extra value, as the reader can find these in the reference list.
The second problem relates to the presentation of the results. At present, the results are presented as a consolidated list of keywords (table 14). The analysis is presented in six categories (p 14) which are difficult to distinguish from each other, e.g. people development, fashion motivation, intellectual stimulation, etc.. Perhaps it is difficult to distinguish the results of the studies by these six categories.
The issue is also present in the many tables in the article. The classic table categorises some indicators. The tables used in this article only present keywords without systematising them.
Author Response
Thank you for your considered recommendations. They are most welcome.
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Your recommendations |
Our responses |
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3.1 |
The aim of the study was to use meta-analysis to identify how transformational leadership affects school staff and school culture. |
The current study does not claim to be a meta-analysis. The search process conducted for this review was broad in nature and identified multiple papers including both quantitative and qualitative data. |
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3.2 |
The results would have been expected in two separate perspectives - what impact was found on staff and what on culture. Are staff and culture seen as one? |
Please see section 3.2 of this review to observe how the results are now presented in two separate perspectives. |
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3.3 |
The information in Table 1 is still unclear, could this be presented as text, not in the table? |
This information is now presented as text. |
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3.4 |
The titles of the study in the Table 7 don’t give extra value, as the reader can find these in the reference list. |
These titles have been removed. |
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3.5 |
The second problem relates to the presentation of the results. At present, the results are presented as a consolidated list of keywords. |
The presentation of results has been changed considerably. |
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3.6 |
The analysis is presented in six categories (p 14) which are difficult to distinguish from each other, e.g. people development, fashion motivation, intellectual stimulation, etc.. Perhaps it is difficult to distinguish the results of the studies by these six categories. |
The findings, analysis and synthesis has been altered considerably in line with your recommendations. There is no reference to ‘fashion motivation’ in the review. |
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3.7 |
The issue is also present in the many tables in the article. The classic table categorises some indicators. The tables used in this article only present keywords without systematising them. |
The superfluous tables have been removed, and the one remaining table with terminologies has been better contextualised. |
Round 3
Reviewer 3 Report
Authors have put full effort to work with the recommendations. I consider the paper publishable after language revision.
