Abstract:
The paper is about leadership but with a particular emphasis upon leadership in schools facing challenging circumstances. The research reported in the paper presents a picture of successful principals in challenging urban contexts. The findings are obtained from the Polish part of the Leading Schools Successfully in Challenging Urban Context: Strategies for Improvement project, which involves a nine country partnership between higher education institutions and thirty six schools in disadvantaged urban contexts. The paper focuses on issues connected with the transformation process, especially concerning the school leadership and leadership strategies, so that others might gain deeper understanding of how a school begins, maintains and sustains the journey toward excellence for all students. Special attention is paid not only on what leadership strategies were used by Principal but also why they were used. Case studies demonstrate how leadership capacity can be built and sustained in high poverty urban schools.