education strategic planning management

Ensure your strategic plan succeeds with your educational partners’ input

September 29, 2023

Sarah Mathias

Strategic planning in education – 3 keys to success.

Effective strategic planning is critical for creating positive change in your district. Among the many benefits, strategic plans align educational partners with a shared vision, mission, and values; promote productive decision-making; and help students reach their full potential.

While having a plan in place will usually improve results, strategic planning can present challenges—resulting in endless meetings, countless goal and tactic revisions, and plans that are never fully realized.

In this post, we explore strategic planning in education, touch on some K-12 planning tips, and share three best practices for making strategic planning successful in your school district. With your community’s insights and the right tools, you can win at strategic planning. Here’s how.

In this Article

• What is Strategic Planning in Education?

Strategic planning tips for K12

See thoughtexchange in action — watch the product tour, what is strategic planning in education.

Strategic planning is the process of setting goals, deciding on actions to achieve those goals, and mobilizing the resources needed to take those actions. A strategic plan describes how goals will be achieved using available resources.

While the concept initially stemmed from business practices due to people moving from the private sector into educational leadership positions, many strategic planning tools and paradigms have been adapted to focus on engagement and consensus.

This is because effective strategic planning requires community support at the school district level, both functionally and legislatively. School districts of all sizes use strategic planning to improve student outcomes and respond to changing demographics while staying within the given funding box.

In top-performing schools, leaders have proactively shifted their strategic planning process to include their educational partners. They know that their strategic plans are more likely to succeed with community support and the insights that come with community engagement.

Strategic planning is key to setting students up for success in K-12 and beyond. A solid strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission, and values, increasing engagement while providing a framework to ensure students’ needs are met so they can reach their full potential.

Your strategic plan will benefit from your district’s input. Here are a few effective ways to engage your district in K-12 strategic planning.

Tap into your educational partners’ wisdom

Your educational partners have valuable insights. Consult teachers, staff, students , parents, and community members throughout the planning process, so your strategy aligns with their perspectives.

Whether you’re setting strategy at the district, school, or department level, consulting diverse participants will uncover unbiased insights, enhance trust and buy-in, and ensure greater success with new strategic directions.

Using ThoughtExchange , leaders can scale their engagement to efficiently and effectively include their community in their district strategic plans.

Use climate surveys

Completed by all students, parents/guardians, and staff, school climate surveys allow leaders to collect participants’ perceptions about issues like school safety, bullying, and mental health and well-being, as well as the general school environment.

ThoughtExchange Surveys get you both nuanced qualitative and robust quantitative data with instant in-depth analysis, ensuring your district understands all angles of school climate. Run surveys independently or combine them with Exchanges for faster, more accurate results.

• Collect benchmark comparisons while tracking and measuring improvements over time
• Gather quality quantitative data for reporting to state agencies or funders
• Identify outliers and trends across demographic groups

Put in some face time with town halls, meetings, or listening tours

In-person gatherings like town halls, meetings, and listening tours are effective ways to understand your educational partners’ wants and needs to ensure they line up with your strategic priorities.

When managed effectively, they give staff and other educational partners the chance to closely interact. In-person gatherings can build trust and morale, promote transparency, and help create a sense of purpose.

Leverage community engagement platforms

Community engagement software lets you streamline your community engagement initiatives. It allows education leaders to gather feedback and get tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people on the same page in just days. It also facilitates candid, collaborative community conversations that help districts realize their goals.

A comprehensive community engagement platform like ThoughtExchange allows you to integrate your strategy with your community and take decisive, supported action in less time. It provides planning, scheduling, and analysis tools to help you quickly set strategy and monitor execution.

3 keys to strategic planning success

1. get everyone on the same page.

Make sure your educational partners are on the same page by allowing them to contribute to and shape your strategy from the start. Lack of alignment about what strategy involves can hinder even the best plans. So the first step in creating a successful strategic plan is getting everyone involved to provide their insights and opinions.

Letting your people know you’re listening and that their insights affect decisions, builds trust and buy-in. Your community will be much more likely to support—not sabotage—a strategy or decision.

2. Be a collaborative leader

According to ThinkStrategic , creating a school strategic plan should always be a collaborative process. Avoiding a top-down approach and getting input from educational partners will help minimize blind spots and unlock collective intelligence. It will also ensure everyone is committed to the plan. Get all community members involved in how to make the most of the school’s possibilities.

Commit to becoming a collaborative leader and put a plan in place to ensure you can achieve that goal. That may include implementing technology that can support scaled, real-time discussion safely and inclusively for students, teachers, and other educational partners.

3. Get a holistic view of your district

Getting a holistic view of your educational partners’ wants and needs helps you build more inclusive, supported strategic plans.

Depend on a platform that meets all your engagement needs in one place—from surveys to Exchanges—and allows you to consult more people in an inclusive, anti-biased environment. You’ll reduce the time and resources spent on town halls and meetings, and reach your district’s goals more efficiently and effectively.

Engagement and survey software has been proven to contribute to more effective strategic planning in education. It empowers leaders to run and scale unbiased engagement initiatives where they can learn what the people who matter really think— explore ThoughtExchange success stories to learn more .

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A Systematic Review on Educational Strategic Management

• Cari Edward C. Beñalet
• Manuel E. Paquiao Jr.
• Rosalie C. Baldezamo
• Ruel S. Vicente
• Jarah I. Reomero
• Marilou D. Junsay
• Nov 24, 2023
• strategic management

*Cari Edward C. Beñalet, Manuel E. Paquiao Jr., Rosalie C. Baldezamo, Ruel S. Vicente, Jarah I. Reomero, Marilou D. Junsay

Davao del Norte State College, New Visayas, Panabo City, Davao del Norte, Philippines

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.701177

Received: 11 October 2023; Revised: 19 October 2023; Accepted: 23 October 2023; Published: 24 November 2023

This systematic review delves into the extant literature on educational strategic management, employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. A selection of research articles from Google Scholar, published between 2018 and 2022 and written in English, served as the primary data source. This review delineates the demographic characteristics of the existing work on educational strategic management, focusing on the geographical distribution, research methodologies, and participant numbers. Additionally, it synthesizes vital aspects of educational strategic management and consolidates recommendations found in the literature. Analysis of the literature’s demographics reveals a notable paucity of studies emanating from Asian and African countries, underscoring the need for a broader international perspective. Thematic analysis of eight articles spanning five countries identifies four central themes concerning the features of educational strategic management: optimized organizational structures, dynamic managerial capabilities, sustained pursuit of long-term objectives, and responsive feedback mechanisms. Furthermore, the review distills recommendations from various sources into four fundamental elements of strategic management: environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and evaluation and control. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights for school leaders seeking to enhance their educational institutions. It also underscores the potential for future research endeavors to explore diverse dimensions of educational strategic management, such as challenges and coping strategies.

Keywords : Education, strategic management, systematic review

INTRODUCTION  

In the last decade, educational systems worldwide have embarked on a profound transformation journey. This transition marks a shift from entrenched traditions of educational management rooted in the past to a forward-looking model anchored in strategic direction. The central objective of education under this new paradigm is to advance and sustain educational excellence. Notably, this era of change has seen a pronounced emphasis on reforms dedicated to enhancing educational institutions, pedagogical practices, and the overarching educational system (Latorre-Medina & Blanco-Encomienda, 2018).

Strategic management, adeptly employing an organization’s resources to fulfill its objectives, has been at the heart of this educational evolution. Prior studies have defined strategic management as the art of formulating goals, strategies, and objectives to enhance an organization’s or a company’s competitiveness. It predominantly revolves around efficiently utilizing human capital and material resources to achieve predefined objectives (Sabattin et al., 2020).

A burgeoning body of literature underscores the pivotal role of strategic management and planning as the foundation for success in the intricate landscape of education. Within this context, the human resources within educational institutions emerge as the linchpin of strategic management, essential for optimizing performance and fostering excellence in schools.

Explorations into the factors influencing strategic management in education reveal a compelling narrative. The success of educational institutions and centers is intrinsically linked to the judicious application of strategic management across diverse domains. A telling example lies in the strategic management practices employed by Hershey National Track Company, as illustrated by Darden et al. (1989), which illuminate how strategic decision-making at the executive level can facilitate success even in fiercely competitive environments (Carvalho et al., 2021).

Strategic management, furthermore, has emerged as a force for organizational effectiveness in various sectors. Within the realm of education, strategic planning has evolved from its more assertive origins, rooted in business practices. This evolution has been catalyzed by the influx of professionals from the private sector taking on leadership roles in educational institutions. These adaptations now emphasize collaboration and consensus, as exemplified by Kose and Kose (2019), who highlight key components of educational strategic management, including structured organizational frameworks, managerial proficiency, goal alignment, and constructive feedback mechanisms.

Nevertheless, the landscape of educational strategic management has its challenges. A comprehensive analysis reveals various issues, including leadership, training, resource allocation, and educational policy frameworks, which underscore the multifaceted nature of this domain (Nyagah, 2015). The significance of conducting a systematic review to pinpoint a research gap and have also outlined a systematic review protocol for this specific domain and its associated research (Price, 2017).

A systematic literature review has been undertaken to address these challenges and bridge theoretical gaps. This review is a comprehensive compilation of existing research on educational strategic management, offering invaluable insights and direction for all stakeholders within the educational sphere. As this transformation unfolds, schools need clear and strategic direction to avoid wandering, where objectives shift frequently, and school leaders may need clarification about the purpose of their work as educational managers. Historically, schools have leaned more toward operational planning, emphasizing efficiency and effectiveness (Bush & Coleman, 2018).

Research Questions

The study tends to conduct a systematic review analysis of the existing literature about educational strategic management. It aims to answer the following research questions:

• What demographic data is in the existing literature on educational strategic management regarding country, research design, and the number of participants?
• What are the features of educational strategic management?
• What suggestions for further research can be identified by exploring the current literature in educational strategic management based on the elements of strategic management?

METHODOLOGY

This study used a systematic review analysis design. A key aspect of systematic analysis is gathering and evaluating all papers on a topic and design. Based on their quality, systematic reviews do statistical meta-analyses of study outcomes (Ahn & Kang, 2018). It is also the primary concern of Ranganathan and Aggarwal (2020) that a systematic review is a statistical approach for statistically combining the results of several research studies to produce a pooled estimate of treatment impact, which is usually included in systematic reviews. Therefore, systematic reviews are the most substantial evidence (Chandler et al., 2019). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting checklist was used to conduct this systematic review, as shown in Figure 2. (PRISMA; Liberati et al., 2009). The process has four stages: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. For this investigation, a thorough literature search was done to discover articles that included systematic reviews.

Adopted from: Liberati A, Altman DG, Tetzlaff J, Mulrow C, Gøtzsche PC, et al. (2009) The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration. PLOS Medicine 6(7): e1000100. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000100

 Figure 1: Information flow between the various stages of a systematic review

Searching, Screening, and Data Extraction

The primary database-search tool used by the study to find relevant literature that may be included in it was Google Scholar. Google Scholar was primarily chosen because it includes an advanced search tool that allows users to specify their preferred functional words, the portion of the paper in which they were used, and the year of publication. Additionally, it offers statistics depending on inclusion and exclusion standards, such as full-text versions.

To find relevant reviews, we launched Google Scholar, clicked the “advance search” option, and set the inclusion criteria to “in the title of the article” and the use of keywords like “educational strategic management” were applied in the search and browsing of valid literature, that generated two hundred and fifty-eight (258) results. We then set the publication year between 2018 and 2022, which was narrowed to ninety-two (92).

Furthermore, there were several duplicates, as we saw. To quickly eliminate the ten duplicates, we exported the articles using Microsoft Excel and sorted them from A to Z. As a result, eighty-two (82) items were still available. These were examined based on language, with only articles written in English included, leading to the identification of seventy-one (71) sources and the exclusion of 55 articles. Because the seven eliminated publications could not be accessed, the researchers only kept sixteen (16) sources from these 29 journals. The researchers then reduced the number of papers to nine (9), excluding seven that needed to be published in a journal format. To ensure that every paper the researchers review is in qualitative format, we removed one using quantitative methods, which left eight (8) qualified articles to be included.

Moreover, we screened the articles by concentrating on the key elements of educational strategic management. The inclusion and exclusion standards for this review are shown in Table 1, which shows the eligibility criteria that determine which articles were included and excluded.

Table 1 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria of the Systematic Review

Search Strategy

The documentation of the analysis process and the establishment of inclusion criteria in this research were diligently carried out following established guidelines.

We used Google Scholar to look for pertinent works. To quickly compile the most recent and pertinent articles, we used the “advance search” option and selected inclusion criteria such as “in the title of the article” and the year between 2020 and 2022. To systematically include relevant works, we carefully filtered the searched articles by looking at the titles, reading the abstracts, and even downloading the whole texts for in-depth analysis. We searched various sources during the data collection procedure to adequately support

the current reviews. All references were properly cited for easier searching.

  Data Extraction Procedures

For convenience in reference, navigation, and citation, this systematic review has extracted the names of the authors, the year of publication, the country, the study design, participant characteristics, the study aims, the results and discussion, the conclusion, the recommendations, and the implications for strategic planning in education. The reviewed studies for strategic planning in education are included in Table 2. All of them were taken from Google Scholar.

Table 2  Reviewed Studies on strategic planning

Data Analysis

In the early part, with the final listing of the literature, simple tabulations of demographic data were made using Microsoft Excel regarding the study year, nation, and subject area. A comparison of the various literature was considered to overcome the outdated professional development skills in public schools. The analyzed data were also presented in a graphical format to provide a general image of the complete data set.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The eight reviewed articles in this paper came from eight countries. These were appropriately distributed according to the following:  India (1), Malaysia (2), Indonesia (3), Egypt (1), and Ghana (1). Five studies (63%) concentrated on basic education, while two studies (25%) focused on higher education. On the other hand, only one study (13%) was not identified (see Table 3).

Table 3   Distribution of the Reviewed Studies by Country and by Educational Level

The results of the framework’s sections are shown in the next section. The first section focuses on the demographic data in the existing literature on educational strategic management regarding the country, research design, and the number of participants. The second section identifies features of educational strategic management. The third part discusses the suggestions for further research that can be identified by exploring the current literature on educational strategic management based on the elements of strategic management.

Demographic Data on the Existing Literature on Educational Strategic Management

Table 4 summarizes the full-text publications and journals reviewed about educational strategic management and the nation in which the study was done, research methodologies, participant numbers, and study objectives. As seen in the table, India (1), Malaysia (2), Indonesia (3), Egypt (1), and Ghana (1) were the countries from which the studies were from. The quantity of qualitative and quantitative research designs used throughout all literature about educational strategic management may have been roughly balanced. According to the number of participants, the type of study and research design used have an impact.

The summary of the research emphasis for all relevant literature is shown in the last row following the review analysis. Additionally, the readers were informed of the study’s purpose(s) and expected that the posed research questions would be addressed.

Table 4  Demographics of the Various Literature

Features of Educational Strategic Management

Based on a thorough review of the ten (10) articles, four (4) emerging themes on the features of educational strategic management: Efficient Organizational Structure, Dynamic Management Skill, Maintaining Long Term Objectives, and Emerging Feedback, as shown in Table 5.

Table 5 Emerging Themes on the Features of Educational Strategic Management

Efficient Organizational Structure

In the efficient organizational structure in educational strategic management, the following characteristics, as shown above, are education innovation strategic management practices, awareness, clarity, enthusiasm, and commitment.

Education Innovation Strategic Management Practices . The execution methods are as follows in educational institution innovations. Personalized educational settings development (Dias, 2018). This concept aids the person’s abilities for thought and analysis, growth of their additional intelligence, and development of a dependable citizen. Additionally, eight distinct intelligence formations are necessary for success in many of today’s strategic management (Ashittey, 2022).

Furthermore, Yaakob et al. (2019) emphasize opportunities for learning through problems: Examine what you already know and learn more. You must acquire and improve your people skills to improve team performance by enhancing your communication abilities, developing more adaptability in information processing and satisfying obligations, using evidence to support claims, and practicing the abilities you will need after your education.

Awareness, Clarity, Enthusiasm, and Commitment. 

Plans provide for early commitment to a course of all corporate strategic activities that will benefit from being coordinated and implemented convincingly. Plans are a further programming tool (Swain & Pradhan, 2020). Commitment to the factors that, at all costs, will steer the organization in the right direction and the goals for the system (Bahri, 2020).

Dynamic Management Skill

Based on the comprehensive review, dynamic management skill is characterized by fundamental transformation, overcoming resistance to change, and developing skills and change competencies.

Fundamental Transformation . Various definitions come to mind when transformation work is considered. Swain and Pradhan (2020) stated that a transformation is a significant alteration in shape or appearance. It is a structural method of implementing a strategy or vision to transfer people, teams, and organizations from one state to another desired state in the future. Transformation is a process of change in which organizational culture shifts in favor of a particular type of culture that institutionalizes such social processes (Ramdhan,2019). Making long-term and short-term goals, a future perspective, a mission, and meaningful outcomes are all components of strategic management; as a result, the start of an effective shift in transformation can be strategic (Bahri, 2020).

Overcoming Resistance to Change and Developing Skills and Change Competencies . Change is a necessary process that must happen whether it is acknowledged because it is dynamic. Management is frequently viewed as a technique to control the company effectively and efficiently until the point of execution and evaluation, ensuring its goals and objectives are met (Sabaruddin et al., 2022). The configuration form is revealed according to the scope, competition results, targets, and resource allocation (Syarifudin et al., 2022). Additionally, Dias (2018) stated that people in the organization would be led and able to function at their best if strategic management could maintain long-term objectives and use strategic management techniques, using operational management as a tool to accomplish the organization’s strategic objectives or company, particularly in terms of competition, it can encourage managers and leaders to think strategically.

Maintaining Long Term Objectives

In Maintaining long-term objectives in educational strategic management, the following characteristics, as shown above, are creating innovative programs, sustaining the survival of the institutions, keeping the institute progressing, and achieving top standards. It includes strengths and weaknesses for the effective management of environmental opportunities and risk, and lastly, a configuration of the results that are expected to be achieved in the future.

 According to (Dias, 2018; Ashittey, 2022; and Sabaruddin et al., 2022), maintaining long-term objectives creates innovative programs because the school administrators can examine the efficacy of particular programs and enhance them in response to their results. It ensures the institutions’ survival by demonstrating future planning for the organization’s benefit and providing a potential solution to any issues that might arise (Ashittey, 2022; Syarifudin et al., 2022)

According to Ashittey (2022), decisions made by management regarding implementing measures to put a newly decided strategy into place and overseeing the ongoing pursuit of that plan. It is crucial to carry out the new plan to increase competence and effectiveness in decision-making while demonstrating quantifiable progress toward achieving the desired outcomes and objectives.

Diaz (2018) defines Organizational Strategy “as the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of course of action and allocation of resources necessary for carrying out goal.”, thus the value of sound planning facilitates the implementation of the strategy and, eventually, results in success.

Additionally, planning is one of the management’s responsibilities. Management is frequently viewed as a technique to control the company effectively and efficiently until the point of execution and evaluation, ensuring its goals and objectives are met (Sabaruddin et al.,2022; Ashittey, 2022).

Emerging Feedback

In Emerging Feedback in Educational Strategic Management, the following characteristics are:  improves execution and maintains transparency in planning action and continuous improvement in the strategy control and determination of fair performance criteria.

Human resources are essential to educational administration in this challenging world since they are the ones who will carry out the task. The school administration should comprehend the characteristics of developing feedback to complete the task to boost the standard of educational quality. So, emerging feedback can help an organization run more efficiently. To balance developing plans and acting, leaders must be aware of the input, process, and output of feedback data as well as the impact and feedback of the teachers while creating educational strategic management. Leaders should establish fair performance criteria to clarify things for the teachers (Swain & Pradhan, 2020; Yaakob et al., 2019; Bahri, 2020).

According to Swain and Pradhan (2020), these institutions also frequently incorporate strategic planning, which enables organizations to respond to macroeconomic environmental and educational policies to improve the future.

Any organization must handle both internal and external environments. The shape, style, and nature of the interactions increase in complexity with the organization’s size. Because there are many various types of organizational leaders, it makes it more and more difficult for them to make decisions. Therefore, strategic and operational management must discover a fast and suitable solution (Ashittey, 2022; Sabaruddin et al., 2022; and Ramdhan, 2019).

Additionally, emerging feedback is essential to educational strategic management since it helps decision-makers in an organization make good choices.

Summary Of Suggestions From Various Literature

In providing a synthesis of the different recommendations from various works of literature, it used the four elements of strategic management, namely (1) environmental scanning, (2) strategy formulation, (3) strategy implementation, and (4) evaluation and control, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6  Synthesis of the Different Suggestions / Recommendations

With this scoping review, the authors aimed to contribute to educational strategic management, such as efficient organizational structure, dynamic management skills, maintaining long-term objectives, and emerging feedback that helps school leaders manage schools. Because leaders need to evaluate how to manage their loose and tight configurations and, as a result, reinforce simultaneous personal and organizational factors associated with school improvement, strategic leadership is becoming increasingly relevant. As a result of a deeper comprehension of the constructions, it is now time to advance the research into more intricate, longitudinal, and explanatory methods. This integrative and systematic evaluation of the educational literature on strategy and strategic leadership of determining the features of strategic management in education was an attempt to contribute to the overall goal of this project.

Research Agenda

Institutionalized education policies are derived from a wide range of short-term and long-term planning activities, such as development plans, government programs, and strategic plans, to find a solution to this issue and investigate the requirements that the field of strategic management will have shortly. Based on the demographics of the various literature, only some studies that the schools and school leaders must understand and realize the features of strategic management in education were noted in Southeast Asia. Hence, it can be a source of another similar study in the context of these countries. Lastly, the output of this study gains social relevance because the results can substantially satisfy all school leaders. They may utilize the results of this study in crafting and enhancing policy and implementation, and this can be an avenue to present this study in various local, national, and international forums, which will also have the potential to publish this work in a reputable journal.

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Review article, strategy and strategic leadership in education: a scoping review.

• 1 Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Research Centre for Human Development, Porto, Portugal
• 2 Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal

Strategy and strategic leadership are critical issues for school leaders. However, strategy as a field of research has largely been overlooked within the educational leadership literature. Most of the theoretical and empirical work on strategy and strategic leadership over the past decades has been related to non-educational settings, and scholarship devoted to these issues in education is still minimal. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant research regarding strategy and strategic leadership, identifying any gaps in the literature that could inform future research agendas and evidence for practice. The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework of Arksey and O’Malley . The results indicate that there is scarce literature about strategy and that timid steps have been made toward a more integrated and comprehensive model of strategic leadership. It is necessary to expand research into more complex, longitudinal, and explanatory ways due to a better understanding of these constructs.

Introduction

Strategy and strategic leadership are critical issues for school leaders ( Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2011 ). However, strategy as a field of research has largely been overlooked in educational leadership literature ( Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ). Most of the theoretical and empirical work on strategy and strategic leadership over the past decades has been related to non-educational settings, and scholarship devoted to these issues in education is still very limited ( Cheng, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ; Chan, 2018 ).

The concept of strategy appeared in educational management literature in the 1980s; however, little research was produced until the 1990s (cf. Eacott, 2008b ). Specific educational reforms led to large amounts of international literature mostly devoted to strategic planning ( Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Eacott, 2011 ). For a long period, the concept of strategy was incomplete and confusing. The word “strategy” was often used to characterize different kinds of actions, namely, to weight management activities, to describe a high range of leadership activities, to define planning, or to report to individual actions within an organization ( Eacott, 2008a ).

Strategy and strategic planning became synonymous ( Eacott, 2008b ). However, strategy and planning are different concepts, with the strategy being more than the pursuit of a plan ( Davies, 2003 , Davies, 2006 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ). Both phases of plans’ design and plans’ implementation are related, and the quality of this second phase highly depends on planning’ quality ( Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Eacott, 2011 ; Meyers and VanGronigen, 2019 ). Planning and acting are related and must emerge from the strategy. As stated by Bell (2004) .

Planning based on a coherent strategy demands that the aims of the school are challenged, that both present and future environmental influences inform the development of the strategy, that there should be a clear and well-articulated vision of what the school should be like in the future and that planning should be long-term and holistic (p. 453).

Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive and holistic framework of strategy, considering it as a way of intentionally thinking and acting by giving sense to a specific school vision or mission ( Davies, 2003 , 2006 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ).

The works of Davies and colleagues ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ) and Eacott (2008a , 2008b) , Eacott (2010a , 2011) were essential and contributed to a shift in the rationale regarding strategy by highlighting a more integrative and alternate view. Davies and colleagues ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ) developed a comprehensive framework for strategically focused schools , comprising strategic processes, approaches, and leadership. In this model, the strategy is conceptualized as a framework for present and future actions, sustained by strategic thinking about medium to long term goals, and aligned to school vision or direction.

Strategic leadership assumes necessarily a relevant role in strategically focused schools. Eacott (2006) defines strategic leadership as “leadership strategies and behaviors relating to the initiation, development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of strategic actions within an educational institution, taking into consideration the unique context (past, present, and future) and availability of resources, physical, financial and human” (p. 1). Thereby, key elements of strategic leadership can be identified as one that: 1) acts in a proactive way to contextual changes; 2) leads school analysis and response to changing environment; 3) leads planning and action for school effectiveness and improvement in face of contextual challenges and; 4) leads monitoring and evaluation processes to inform decision making strategically ( Cheng, 2010 ). This brings to the arena a complex and dynamic view of strategic leadership as it is a complex social activity that considers important historical, economic, technological, cultural, social, and political influences and challenges ( Eacott, 2011 ).

Along with these authors, this paper advocates a more comprehensive and contextualized view of strategy and strategic leadership, where strategy is the core element of any leadership action in schools ( Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ). Here, strategic leadership is not seen as a new theory, but an element of all educational leadership and management theories ( Davies and Davies, 2010 ). Even so, these concepts can inform and be informed by diverse leadership theories, a strategy-specific framework is needed in the educational field.

Considering all the above, strategy can be identified as a topic that is being researched in education, in the recent decades. Nonetheless, there is still scarce educational literature about this issue ( Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Cheng, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ; Chan, 2018 ). After 10 years of Eacott’s analysis of literature on strategy in education, it seems that this educational construct is being overlooked as there is still no consensual definition of strategy, different studies are supported in diverse conceptual frameworks and empirical studies about this topic are scarce ( Cheng, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ; Chan, 2018 ). Moreover, despite the interest of a multidisciplinary vision of strategy and strategic leadership, we agree with Eacott (2008b) about the need for a meaningful definition of strategy and strategic leadership in education, as it is a field with its specifications. Hence, research is needed for a clear definition of strategy, an integrated and complete framework for strategic action, a better identification of multiple dimensions of strategy and a comprehensive model of strategic leadership that has strategic thinking and action as core elements for schools improvement (e.g., Eacott, 2010a ; Hopkins et al., 2014 ; Reynolds et al., 2014 ; Harris et al., 2015 ; Bellei et al., 2016 ). This paper aims to contribute to the field offering a scoping review on strategy and strategic leadership in the educational field.

A clear idea of what strategy and strategic leadership mean and what theory or theories support it are of great importance for research and practice. This scoping review is an attempt to contribute to a strategy-specific theory by continuing to focus on ways to appropriately develop specific theories about strategy and strategic leadership in the educational field, particularly focusing on school contexts.

This study is a scoping review of the literature related to strategy and strategic leadership, which aims to map its specific aspects as considered in educational literature. Scoping reviews are used to present a broad overview of the evidence about a topic, irrespective of study quality, and are useful when examining emergent areas, to clarify key concepts or to identify gaps in research (e.g., Arksey and O’Malley, 2005 ; Peters et al., 2015 ; Tricco et al., 2016 ). Since in the current study we wanted to explore and categorize, but not evaluate, information available concerning specific aspects of strategy in educational literature, we recognize that scoping review methodology serves well this purpose.

In this study, Arksey and O’Malley (2005) five-stage framework for scoping reviews, complemented by the guidelines of other authors ( Levac et al., 2010 ; Colquhoun et al., 2014 ; Peters et al., 2015 ; Khalil et al., 2016 ), was employed. The five stages of Arksey and O’Malley’s framework are 1) identifying the initial research questions, 2) identifying relevant studies, 3) study selection, 4) charting the data, and 5) collating, summarizing and reporting the results. In the sections below, the process of this scoping review is presented.

Identifying the Initial Research Questions

The focus of this review was to explore key aspects of strategy and strategic leadership in educational literature. The primary question that guided this research was: What is known about strategy and strategic leadership in schools? This question was subdivided into the following questions: How should strategy and strategic leadership in schools be defined? What are the main characteristics of strategic leadership in schools? What key variables are related to strategy and strategic leadership in schools?

Identifying Relevant Studies

As suggested by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) , keywords for the search were defined, and databases were selected. Key concepts and search terms were developed to capture literature related to strategy and strategic leadership in schools, considering international perspectives. The linked descriptive key search algorithm that was developed to guide the search is outlined in Table 1 .

TABLE 1 . Key search algorithm.

Considering scoping review characteristics, time and resources available, inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed. Papers related to strategy and strategic leadership, published between 1990 and 2019, were included. Educational literature has reported the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership since the 1980s ( Eacott, 2008a ; 2008b ). However, it gained expansion between 1990 and 2000 with studies flourishing mostly about strategic planning ( Eacott, 2008b ). Previous research argues that strategy is more than planning, taking note of the need to distinguish the concepts. Considering our focus on strategy and strategic leadership, studies about strategic planning were excluded as well as papers specifically related to other theories of leadership than strategic leadership. A full list of inclusion and exclusion criteria is outlined in Table 2 .

TABLE 2 . Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The following six electronic databases were searched to identify peer-reviewed literature: ERIC, Education Source, Academic Search Complete, Science Direct, Emerland, and Web of Science. Additionally, a manual search of the reference lists of identified articles was undertaken, and Google Scholar was utilized to identify any other primary sources. The review of the literature was completed over 2 months, ending in August 2019.

Study Selection

The process of studies’ selection followed the Preferred Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement ( Moher et al., 2009 ). Figure 1 illustrates the process of article selection.

FIGURE 1 . PRISMA chart outlining the study selection process.

With the key search descriptors, 1,193 articles were identified. A further number of articles were identified using Google Scholar. However, a large number of articles were removed from the search, as they were duplicated in databases, and 231 studies were identified as being relevant.

The next phases of studies’ selection were guided by the inclusion and exclusion criteria presented above. A screening of the titles, keywords, and abstracts revealed a large number of irrelevant articles, particularly those related to strategic planning (e.g., Agi, 2017 ) and with general ideas about leadership (e.g., Corral and Gámez, 2010 ). Only 67 studies were selected for full-text access and analyses.

Full-text versions of the 67 articles were obtained, with each article being reviewed and confirmed as appropriate. This process provided an opportunity to identify any further additional relevant literature from a review of the reference lists of each article (backward reference search; n = 2). Ultimately, both with database search and backward reference search, a total of 29 articles were included to be analyzed in the scoping review, considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. During this process of study selection, several studies were excluded. As in the previous phase, examples of excluded papers include studies related to strategic planning where the focus is on the planning processes (e.g., Bennett et al., 2000 ; Al-Zboon and Hasan, 2012 ; Schlebusch and Mokhatle, 2016 ) or with general ideas about leadership (e.g., FitzGerald and Quiñones, 2018 ). Additionally, articles that were primarily associated with other topics or related to specific leadership theories (e.g., instructional leadership, transformational leadership) and that only referred briefly to strategic leadership were excluded (e.g., Bandur, 2012 ; Malin and Hackmann, 2017 ). Despite the interest of all these topics for strategic action, we were interested specifically in the concepts of strategy, strategic leadership, and its specifications in educational literature.

Data Charting and Collation

The fourth stage of Arksey and O’Malley (2005) scoping review framework consists of charting the selected articles. Summaries were developed for each article related to the author, year, location of the study, participants, study methods, and a brief synthesis of study results related to our research questions. Details of included studies are provided in the table available in Supplementary Appendix S1 .

Summarising and Reporting Findings

The fifth and final stage of Arksey and O’Malley (2005) scoping review framework summarises and reports findings as presented in the next section. All the 29 articles were studied carefully and a content analysis was taken to answer research questions. Research questions guided summaries and synthesis of literature content.

In this section, results are presented first with a brief description of the origin and nature of the studies, and then as answering research questions previously defined.

This scoping review yielded 29 articles, specifically devoted to strategy and strategic leadership in education, from eleven different countries (cf. Figure 2 ). The United Kingdom and Australia have the highest numbers of papers. There is a notable dispersion of literature in terms of geographical distribution.

FIGURE 2 . Number of papers per country.

A large number of these articles were published by Brent Davies and colleagues ( N = 9) and Scott Eacott ( N = 6). Without question, these authors have influenced and shaped the theoretical grounding about strategy and strategic leadership in educational literature. While Davies and colleagues have contributed to design a framework of strategy and strategic leadership, influencing the emergence of other studies related to these topics, Eacott provided an essential contribution by exploring, systematizing, and problematizing the existing literature about these same issues. The other authors have published between one and two papers about these topics.

Seventeen papers are of conceptual or theoretical nature, and twelve are empirical research papers (quantitative methods–7; qualitative methods–4; mixed methods–1). The conceptual/theoretical papers analyze the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership, present a framework for strategic leadership, and discuss implications for leaders’ actions. The majority of empirical studies are related to the skills, characteristics, and actions of strategic leaders. Other empirical studies explore relations between strategic leadership and other variables, such as collaboration, culture of teaching, organizational learning, and school effectiveness.

How should Strategy and Strategic Leadership in Schools be Defined?

The concept of strategy is relatively new in educational literature and, in great part, related to school planning. In this scoping review, a more integrated and comprehensive view is adopted ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2006 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ). Davies (2003) defined strategy as a specific pattern of decisions and actions taken to achieve an organization’s goals (p. 295). This concept of strategy entails some specific aspects, mainly that strategy implies a broader view incorporating data about a specific situation or context ( Davies, 2003 ; Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ). It is a broad organizational-wide perspective , supported by a vision and direction setting , that conceals longer-term views with short ones ( Davies, 2003 ; Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ). It can be seen as a template for short-term action . However, it deals mostly with medium-and longer-term views of three-to 5-year perspectives ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ). In this sense, a strategy is much more a perspective or a way of thinking that frames strategically successful schools ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies and Davies, 2005 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ).

Eacott (2008a) has argued that strategy in the educational leadership context is a field of practice and application that is of a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary nature. More than a single definition of strategy, what is needed is a conceptual understanding and articulation of its fundamental features, which removes the need to answer, “what is a strategy?” Understanding strategy as choosing a direction within a given context, through leadership, and articulating that direction through management practices ( Eacott, 2008a , p. 356) brings to the arena diverse elements of strategy from both leadership and management. From this alternative point of view, a strategy may be seen as leadership ( Eacott, 2010a ). More than an answer to “what is a strategy?”, it is crucial to understand “when and how does the strategy exist?” ( Eacott, 2010a ), removing the focus on leaders’ behaviors and actions per se to cultural, social, and political relationships ( Eacott, 2011 ). Hence, research strategy and strategic leadership oblige by acknowledging the broader educational, societal, and political contexts ( Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2010b ; Eacott, 2011 ).

Strategic leadership is a critical component of school development ( Davies and Davies, 2006 ). However, to define leadership is challenging considering the amount of extensive, diverse literature about this issue. Instead of presenting a new categorization about leadership, the authors most devoted to strategic leadership consider it as a key dimension of any activity of leadership ( Davies and Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2010b ; Eacott, 2011 ). Barron et al. (1995) stressed the idea of change. As mentioned by the authors, implementation of strategic leadership means change: change in thinking, change in the way schools are organized, change in management styles, change in the distribution of power, change in teacher education programs, and change in roles of all participants ( Barron et al., 1995 , p. 180). Strategic leadership is about creating a vision, setting the direction of the school over the medium-to longer-term and translating it into action ( Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ). In that sense, strategic leadership is a new way of thinking ( Barron et al., 1995 ) that determines a dynamic and iterative process of functioning in schools ( Eacott, 2008b ).

In their model of strategic leadership, Davies and Davies (2006) consider that leadership must be based on strategic intelligence, summarised as three types of wisdom: 1) people wisdom, which includes participation and sharing information with others, developing creative thinking and motivation, and developing capabilities and competencies within the school; 2) contextual wisdom, which comprises understanding and developing school culture, sharing values and beliefs, developing networks, and understanding external environment; and 3) procedural wisdom, which consists of the continuous cycle of learning, aligning, timing and acting. This model also includes strategic processes and strategic approaches that authors define as the centre of this cycle ( Davies and Davies, 2006 , p. 136).

To deeply understand strategic leadership, it is necessary to explore strategic processes and approaches that leaders take ( Davies and Davies, 2010 ). In this sense, strategic leadership, strategic processes, and strategic approaches are key elements for sustainable and successful schools, which are found to be strategically focused. Davies (2006) designed a model for a strategically focused school that may be defined as one that is educationally effective in the short-term but also has a clear framework and processes to translate core moral purpose and vision into an excellent educational provision that is challenging and sustainable in the medium-to long-term (p.11). This model incorporates 1) strategic processes (conceptualization, engagement, articulation, and implementation), 2) strategic approaches (strategic planning, emergent strategy, decentralized strategy, and strategic intent), and 3) strategic leadership (organizational abilities and personal characteristics). Based on these different dimensions, strategically focused schools have built-in sustainability, develop set strategic measures to assess their success, are restless, are networked, use multi-approach planning processes, build the strategic architecture of the school, are strategically opportunistic, deploy strategy in timing and abandonment and sustain strategic leadership ( Davies, 2004 , pp.22–26).

What Are the Main Characteristics of Strategic Leadership in Schools?

Davies (2003) , Davies and Davies (2005) , Davies and Davies (2006) , Davies and Davies (2010) discuss what strategic leaders do (organizational abilities) and what characteristics strategic leaders display (personal characteristics). The key activities of strategic leaders, or organizational abilities, are 1) create a vision and setting a direction, 2) translate strategy into action, 3) influence and develop staff to deliver the strategy, 4) balance the strategic and the operational, 5) determine effective intervention points ( what, how, when, what not to do and what to give up ), 6) develop strategic capabilities, and 7) define measures of success ( Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ). The main characteristics that strategic leaders display, or their characteristics, are 1) dissatisfaction or restlessness with the present, 2) absorptive capacity, 3) adaptive capacity, and 4) wisdom.

Two specific studies explored the strategic leadership characteristics of Malaysian leaders ( Ali, 2012 ; Ali, 2018 ), considering the above-mentioned model as a framework. For Malaysian Quality National Primary School Leaders, the results supported three organizational capabilities (strategic orientation, translation, and alignment) and three individual characteristics of strategic leadership (dissatisfaction or restlessness with the present, absorptive capacity, and adaptive capacity). For Malaysian vocational college educational leaders, the results were consistent with seven distinct practices of strategic leadership, such as strategic orientation, strategic alignment, strategic intervention, restlessness, absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and leadership wisdom.

Other studies were also focused on the characteristics of strategic leadership with different populations and countries. Chatchawaphun et al. (2016) identified the principles, attributes, and skills of the strategic leadership of secondary school administrators from Thailand. The principles identified within the sample of principals included appropriate values, modern visionary, future focusing strategy, empirical evidence focus, intention toward accomplishment, decency, and making relationships. The attributes found were strategic learning, strategic thinking, and value push up. The skills were learning, interpretation, forecasting, planning, challenge, and decision making. Chan (2018) explored strategic leadership practices performed by Hong Kong school leaders of early childhood education and identified effective planning and management, reflective and flexible thinking, and networking and professional development as variables. Eacott (2010c) investigated the strategic role of Australian public primary school principals concerning the leader characteristics of tenure (referring to the time in years in their current substantive position) and functional track (referring to the time in years spent at different levels of the organizational hierarchy). These demographic variables have moderating effects on the strategic leadership and management of participants. These five studies seem to be outstanding contributions to solidify a framework of strategic leadership and to test it with different populations in different countries.

Additionally, Quong and Walker (2010) present seven principles for effective and successful strategic leaders. Strategic leaders are future-oriented and have a future strategy, their practices are evidence-based and research-led, they get things done, open new horizons, are fit to lead, make good partners and do the “next” right thing—these seven principles of action seem related to the proposal of Davies and colleagues. Both authors highlighted visions for the future, future long-term plans, and plans’ translation into action as important characteristics of strategic leaders.

One other dimension that is being explored in research relates to ethics. Several authors assert that insufficient attention and research have been given to aspects related to moral or ethical leadership among school leaders ( Glanz, 2010 ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ; Kangaslahti, 2012 ). The seventh principle of the Quong and Walker (2010) model of strategic leadership is that leaders do the “next” right thing. This relates to the ethical dimension of leadership, meaning that strategic leaders recognize the importance of ethical behaviors and act accordingly. For some authors, ethics in strategic leadership is a critical issue for researchers and practitioners that needs to be taken into consideration ( Glanz, 2010 ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ). Glanz (2010) underlined social justice and caring perspectives as required to frame strategic initiatives. Kangaslahti (2012) analyzed the strategic dilemmas that leaders face in educational settings (e.g., top-down strategy vs. bottom-up strategy process; leadership by authority vs. staff empowerment; focus on administration vs. focus on pedagogy; secret planning and decision making vs. open, transparent organization; the well-being of pupils vs. well-being of staff) and how they can be tackled by dilemma reconciliation. Chen (2008) , in case study research, explored the conflicts that school administrators have confronted in facilitating school reform in Taiwan. The author identified four themes related to strategic leadership in coping with the conflicts accompanying this school reform: 1) educational values, 2) timeframe for change, 3) capacity building, and 4) community involvement. These studies reinforce the idea that school improvement and success seem to be influenced by the way leaders think strategically and deal with conflicts or dilemmas. Researchers need to design ethical frameworks or models from which practitioners can think ethically about their strategic initiatives and their dilemmas or conflicts ( Chen, 2008 ; Glanz, 2010 ; Kangaslahti, 2012 ).

Despite the critical contribution of Davies’ models ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ) and subsequent works, Eacott (2010a) questions the production of lists of behaviors and traits. This is likely one of the main differences between Davies’ and Eacott’s contributions in this field. While Davies and colleagues include organizational abilities and personal characteristics in their model of strategic leadership, Eacott (2010a , 2010b) emphasizes the broader context where strategy occurs. These ideas, however, are not contradictory but complementary in the comprehension of strategy as leadership in education since both authors present a comprehensive and integrated model of strategic leadership. Even though Davies and colleagues present some specific characteristics of leaders, these characteristics are incorporated into a large model for strategy in schools.

What Are Other Key Variables Related to Strategy and Strategic Leadership in Schools?

Other studies investigated the relationship between strategic leadership and other key variables, such as collaboration ( Ismail et al., 2018 ), the culture of teaching ( Khumalo, 2018 ), organizational learning ( Aydin et al., 2015 ) and school effectiveness ( Prasertcharoensuk and Tang, 2017 ).

One descriptive survey study presented teacher collaboration as a mediator of strategic leadership and teaching quality ( Ismail et al., 2018 ). The authors argue that school leaders who demonstrate strategic leadership practices can lead to the creation of collaborative practices among teachers and thus help to improve the professional standards among them, namely, teaching quality ( Ismail et al., 2018 ). One cross-sectional study identified positive and significant relations among the variables of strategic leadership actions and organizational learning. Transforming, political, and ethical leadership actions were identified as significant predictors of organizational learning. However, managing actions were not found to be a significant predictor ( Aydin et al., 2015 ). One other study establishes that strategic leadership practices promote a teaching culture defined as the commitment through quality teaching for learning outcomes ( Khumalo, 2018 ). These three studies provide essential highlights of the relevance of strategic leadership for school improvement and quality. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that in a research survey that examined the effect of leadership factors of administrators on school effectiveness, the authors concluded that the direct, indirect, and overall effects of the administrators’ strategic leadership had no significant impact on school effectiveness ( Prasertcharoensuk and Tang, 2017 ). These studies introduce important questions that need to be explored both related to strategy and strategic leadership features and its relations and impacts on relevant school variables. Such studies stimulate researchers to explore these and other factors that relate to strategic leadership.

The knowledge about strategy and strategic leadership is still incomplete and confusing ( Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ). From the 29 studies selected, divergent data and multiple concepts of strategy can be identified which reinforces the confusion about these issues. Some integrative clarification is still needed about the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership as about its core features. In this section, it is intended to contribute to the clarification and integration of the concepts considering the studies selected.

The emergence of politics and reforms related to school autonomy and responsibility in terms of efficacy and accountability brings the concept of strategy to the educational literature ( Eacott, 2008b ; Cheng, 2010 ). It first appeared in the 1980s but gained momentum between 1990 and 2000. However, the main focus of the literature was on strategic planning based upon mechanistic or technical-rational models of strategy. Authors have criticized the conceptualization of strategy as a way for elaborating a specific plan of action for schools ( Davies, 2003 ; Davies, 2006 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2008b ; Quong and Walker, 2010 ). These same authors adopted a more comprehensive and holistic model of strategy. The concepts have been developed from a more rational and mechanistic view related to planning processes to a more comprehensive and complex view of strategy and leadership that take into consideration a situated and contextual framework. Considering the contribution of these studies, strategy incorporates three core dimensions, articulated with a schoolwide perspective 1) Vision, mission and direction (e.g., Davies, 2003 ; Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ; Eacott, 2008a ) 2) Intentional thinking (e.g., Barron et al., 1995 ; Davies, 2003 ; Davies and Davies, 2005 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ): and; 3) Articulated decision-making and action (e.g., Davies, 2003 ; Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Davies and Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2006 ; Davies, 2007 ; Eacott, 2008a ; Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2010b ; Eacott, 2011 ).

Strategic leaders have an important role in strategy but, even considering this comprehensive and holistic concept of strategy, research poses the question of what are the main characteristics of strategic leaders in schools? From the literature reviewed, specific abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics may be identified. Looking for an integrated picture of strategic leadership, Table 3 represents the main contributions of the studies selected.

TABLE 3 . Strategic leadership: Main features.

Despite the contribution of these studies to deep knowledge about strategic leadership, the discussion here considers whether it is worthwhile to produce lists of behaviors and traits for strategic leaders in the absence of an integrated model that acknowledges the broader educational, societal and political context ( Dimmock and Walker, 2004 ; Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2010b ; Eacott, 2011 ). Eacott (2011) argues that strategy, as constructed through analysis, is decontextualized and dehumanized and essentially a vacuous concept with limited utility to the practice that it seeks to explain (p. 426). Without a comprehensive and contextual model of strategy and strategic leadership, supported by research, the topics may still be overlooked and misunderstood. With this in mind, Figure 3 attempts to represent the core dimensions of strategy from a comprehensive perspective.

FIGURE 3 . Strategy and core dimensions from a comprehensive perspective.

As this is a scoping review, we tried to display a general view of the literature that can serve as a basis for a specific strategy theory in education and to more in-depth studies related to strategy and strategic leadership in schools. Nevertheless, we need to identify some methodological limitations of this study. As a scoping review, methods and reporting need improvement ( Tricco et al., 2018 ) and we are aware of this circumstance. Also, our search strategy may have overlooked some existing studies, since grey documents (e.g., reports) and studies from diverse languages than English were not included, that can misrepresent important data. Besides, inclusion criteria focused only on studies specifically devoted to strategy (not strategic planning) and strategic leadership (no other theories of leadership), but we acknowledge important contributions from this specific literature that were excluded. Finally, in our study there is no comparative analysis between the western and eastern/oriental contexts. However, we are aware that these contexts really differ and a context-specific reflection on strategy and strategic leadership in education would be useful. More research is needed to overcome the limitations mentioned.

Besides, the pandemic COVID19 brought new challenges in education, and particularly, to leaders. This study occurred before the pandemic and this condition was not acknowledged. However, much has changed in education as a consequence of the pandemic control measures, these changes vary from country to country, and schools’ strategies have changed for sure. Future research needs to explore strategy and strategic leadership in education considering a new era post pandemic.

With this scoping review, the authors aimed to contribute to enduring theories about strategy and strategic leadership in education. From our findings, it appears that this issue is being little explored. Despite the important contributions of authors cited in this scoping review ( Aydin et al., 2015 ; Chatchawaphun et al., 2016 ; Prasertcharoensuk and Tang, 2017 ; Ali, 2018 ; Chan, 2018 ; Ismail et al., 2018 ; Khumalo, 2018 ), minor advances seem to have been made after 2010. This is intriguing taking into account the leaders’ role in the third wave of educational reform, where strategic leadership pursues a new vision and new aims for education due to maximizing learning opportunities for students through “ triplisation in education’ (i.e., as an integrative process of globalization, localization and individualization in education)” ( Cheng, 2010 , p. 48). It was expected that research moved from rational planning models towards a more complex view of strategy in education ( Eacott, 2011 ). This review brings the idea that some timid and situated steps have been made.

Since the important review by Eacott, published in 2008, a step forward was made in the distinction between strategy and planning. Despite the significant number of papers about planning that were found during this review, the majority were published before 2008 (e.g., Nebgen, 1990 ; Broadhead et al., 1998 ; Bennett et al., 2000 ; Beach and Lindahl, 2004 ; Bell, 2004 ). Also, most of the papers selected adopt a more integrative, comprehensive, and complex view of strategy and strategic leadership (e.g., Eacott, 2010a ; Eacott, 2010b ; Davies and Davies, 2010 ; Eacott, 2011 ; Ali, 2012 ; Ali, 2018 ; Chan, 2018 ). More than identifying the “best of” strategy and strategic leadership, alternative models understand strategy as a way of thinking ( Davies and Davies, 2010 ) and a work in progress ( Eacott, 2011 ).

This also resonates with the educational literature about loosely coupled systems . There is evidence that loosely coupled educational organizations continue to exist and that resistance to change is a characteristic of school organizations ( Hautala et al., 2018 ). Strategic leadership gains relevance since leaders need to consider how to manage their loose and tight configurations and, hence, reinforce simultaneous personal and organizational dimensions related to school improvement. It is time to expand the research into more complex, longitudinal, and explanatory ways due to a better understanding of the constructs. This scoping review was an attempt to contribute to this endeavor by integrating and systematizing educational literature about strategy and strategic leadership.

Author Contributions

MC-collected and analyzed data, write the paper IC, JV, and JA-guided the research process and reviewed the paper.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the support to this publication (Ref. UIDB/04872/2020).

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.706608/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: strategy, strategic leadership, school leadership, scoping review, education

Citation: Carvalho M, Cabral I, Verdasca JL and Alves JM (2021) Strategy and Strategic Leadership in Education: A Scoping Review. Front. Educ. 6:706608. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.706608

Received: 07 May 2021; Accepted: 23 September 2021; Published: 15 October 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Carvalho, Cabral, Verdasca and Alves. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Marisa Carvalho, [email protected]

5 Steps To Highly Effective Strategic Planning In Higher Education (FREE template)

A crystal clear strategic plan can be the big difference between becoming the leading university… VERSUS ending up at the bottom. You know - where you struggle to attract students, the right staff members or even funds to support your institution.

So, in order to achieve your university’s goals, you need to learn how to build an effective strategic plan. 

In this blog post, we will reveal:

• The #1 reason university strategies fail
• The overlooked role of a strategic plan for higher ed
• The 5-step process you can follow to build a plan with your team

What is strategic planning in higher education? 

Strategic planning is the process an institution follows to realize its vision of its ideal future state. It’s a roadmap for getting there. Your vision becomes a reality through the process that defines specific goals, needs, and actions. It helps you to structure and contextualize information leading to important decisions. 

Sounds obvious, right? 

So, the question is:

Why do so many universities fail at strategic planning?

Because they forgot what the main role of a strategic plan is.

Most universities and colleges work on some form of strategic planning, but they usually come out as a 28-page PDF. They create an impressive presentation with shiny headings, upload it to their website and consider themselves successful. 

The end result is a ‘strategic plan’ that serves more as a marketing brochure and less like a roadmap to success.

What’s wrong with this usual approach?

Most vice-chancellors and vice presidents are not even aware of what they are losing. Staff members and faculty members work in silos with no focus on the big picture. Departmental plans are unaligned with the overall strategic plan. This leads to inefficiency, wasted resources, and things getting missed.

Clearly, this approach lacks the organization and accountability necessary for success. As a result, some institutions are losing their reputation, while others are losing program accreditation, experiencing declining student success, or having fewer funds available.

Sometimes all of the above. 

Strategic planning goes beyond ambitious and attractive presentations that describe the organization’s state in the next 5, 10 or more years.

Now let's take a closer look...

What is the real purpose of the strategic plan in higher education?

Your first and foremost goal should be to stay true to the promises you made to your stakeholders.

Think of your strategic plan as the foundation to achieve your long-term goals.

It’s supposed to help you translate high-level ambitions into tangible actions at a departmental level. Furthermore, it organizes everyone so that they can do those actions and report on them in a systematic and transparent manner. 

It serves as a guiding light for your staff, allowing them to focus on the things that drive real progress towards the university's strategic goals. 

On top of that, it’s an important resource for planning your yearly budget allocation. Even in the most difficult financial times, integrating strategic planning and budgeting throughout the organization creates opportunities for success.

It's obvious, isn't it? You need to stop treating your strategic plan as merely a glorified marketing document.

What are the 5 steps in the strategic planning process?

This five-step process will help you to craft a strategic plan that goes beyond marketing and delivers on promised results.

1. Understand your current situation

An effective planning process starts with a thorough understanding of your current situation. 

You can start by asking these questions: 

• What are our core competencies?
• Which important KPIs are trending over the last few years upwards? 
• Where do we notice a drop in performance? What led to this drop?
• Where do we want to be in 5 or 10 years?
• Do we need to develop new programs?
• How do we get there? 
• What external factors can impact us in the future?

Search for answers and go deep into every department and aspect of your institution. From financial health and university rankings to student enrollment, retention rates, and placement rates.

Next, understand the expectations and needs of your internal and external stakeholders.

Remember, top-down approach doesn’t work for universities. Higher education institutions are highly interconnected with their community and shouldn’t neglect its interest when making strategic decisions.

Collect feedback from every stakeholder group whose expectations affect your performance:

• Alumni members
• Faculty members & campus community
• Community groups
• Senior administrators
• External partnerships

Include their input into planning and translate it into the institution’s major goals. Embrace this collaborative approach and prevent too many unexpected "buts" in the future.

Don’t forget that you’re only collecting information at this stage, not brainstorming solutions or action plans. 

‍ Cascade tip:

The SWOT analysis framework  is still one of the most effective methods for evaluating internal operations and the external environment. Be honest and thorough in your evaluation. You can use it numerous times through strategic planning but you should start early in the planning process.

2. Lead with vision and values

Your university's vision is a part of its identity and a powerful latent tool.

Higher ed institutions of any size can utilize it, but they usually don’t. They don’t believe that people care about the big picture or that it affects the university's daily operations.

However, a clear and unique vision statement will set you apart from the competition and make you more memorable to potential students. They will know exactly what to expect from studying at your university and why they should come. 

At the same time, it gives a strong sense of pride and belonging to current students, faculty, and alumni. It becomes an emblem that attracts the right students, staff members, and funding opportunities. 

Here’s  an example  of a vision statement for the university: 

We will work as one Oxford bringing together our staff, students and alumni, our colleges, faculties, departments and divisions to provide world-class research and education.

- University of Oxford

You can take it one step further and include your institutional mission statement. 

And don’t forget about the values. They define your university’s culture. They determine how people act, which behaviors are praised and which are condemned. 

When you build a culture intentionally, then everyone inside and outside your school knows what you stand for, reinforcing all the benefits of a harnessed vision.

Cascade tip:

One of the biggest blockers to the successful execution of a strategic plan is the attempt to accomplish too much at once.  Creating a Vision Statement  will help you to avoid that trap right from the start. It becomes your north star guiding your strategy. It will be easier for you to identify what is relevant and worthy of your attention versus what isn't.

3. Concentrate your strategic planning efforts on key areas

There's a problem most presidents and strategic planning committees face: they don't define the real focus of their plans. 

You see, you can’t achieve everything, everywhere, all at once.

Your resources are limited, and you should prioritize accordingly. 

I’m glad you followed the first two steps. Now you have all the information you need to identify the biggest and most urgent challenges your university faces.

Clarifying the obstacles ahead of time helps you prioritize your strategic goals and develop focused efforts to achieve them.

For example, let’s say you’re creating a 5-year strategic plan. Here are some key focus groups you might want to focus on: 

• Provide superb undergraduate experience 
• Ensure graduate education and lifetime learning 
• Increase community engagement 
• Increase research excellence 
• Optimize financial resources

Focus areas help you decide what falls outside the university's priorities and prioritize your strategic planning efforts. 

We usually suggest creating between 3 to 5 Focus Areas. Any fewer and they will probably be too vague. Any more, and well..... you lose your focus. Dive deeper into focus areas with this  guide . 

4. Translate plan into tangible actions

This is the part that turns your strategic plan into reality. 

If you ever want to achieve your goals, you need to break down the plan into smaller, granular pieces specific to each department. Start by adding strategic objectives to your focus areas. 

The secret to  writing great strategic objectives  is simplicity and specificity. Avoid jargon and use a verb to indicate action. Accompany it with a deadline and preferably an owner (or two).

Here is an example:

Increase citations per faculty by 5% by May 2024, owned by Jane Doe.

The next step is to migrate from goal-setting to action-planning with projects. Projects describe what you’ll do to accomplish your objectives.

Projects  articulate a set of actions within a certain timeline. They include specific tasks, milestones, dependencies and dates (deadlines). Every objective should include at least one project or action-like event. Otherwise, you’ll never achieve any progress towards it.

Of course, nothing is so linear, but this process forces you to come up with action plans to support every strategic initiative and allocate funds and your staff’s time appropriately.

One of the most important steps in the planning process is to take the high-level plan and break it down into tangible actions at the departmental level. 

Cascade  helps you to achieve that with  planning models completely customizable  to your strategic planning approach. 

You can create a university-wide strategic plan and then break it down into  portfolio or departmental plans.  Clarify their goals, projects and key metrics. Collaborate with your teams to build multiple inter-connected plans and tie them back to the overall plan.

You get complete  visibility into how different plans or projects are connected  and contribute to the overall strategic plan. 

5. Don’t forget to measure progress

There is no perfect strategic planning for higher education (or anywhere for that matter). 

Every plan can be derailed by events beyond our control (such as a pandemic, change in public policy, or an unstable economic environment on a global scale). There is, however, disciplined execution through regular reviewing habits. The secret lies in the way you measure your progress and the frequency of reviewing it.

Determine the indexes that you want to improve and then  set key performance indicators (KPIs)  to drive and measure your performance against set targets. 

Here are some examples of KPIs you might want to keep track of:

• University ranking
• Post-graduation placement rate
• Number of students involved in undergraduate research
• Fundraising ROI

Establish the KPIs you will be reporting on in advance, and always end your reviews with a "next steps" discussion.

Create dashboards to measure progress in real-time.  Cascade’s customizable dashboards  help you to quickly identify areas that are underperforming and act before it’s too late.

Zoom your screen in on the screenshot below to check out Cascade's beautiful dashboards!

Extra tip:  Use Cascade reports to help you demonstrate your success in a transparent way and attract more investments in the key areas of your university. 

What’s next for your university?

Most university’s failure to reach their strategic goals isn’t because of bad strategy, but because strategy is constrained by PowerPoint. Kept miles from those who can make it happen. The best in Advancement, the finest HR, the most profound ideas - they’re all framed in slides rather than shaping every day’s activities for everyone across the university.

Remember, a strategic plan isn’t just a glossy presentation to attract new students or to get that accreditation approval for your academic program. It’s a manifesto for every employee to embrace and enact in whatever they do at your university. 

So, the next step is to transform your strategy from an intellectual exercise to an executable plan. It’s just a matter of shifting your approach and using the right tools. 

And once you make that shift, you’ll be able to create  an organized and aligned approach  to make your strategic goals happen.

Do that and get your plan to everyone, and your competition will be choking in your dust.

Are you ready to create your plan and start executing it? Turn your strategic plan into a competitive advantage with our 100% free, battle-tested strategic plan template , built for teams in higher education. 

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Strategic Planning in Higher Education

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 23 January 2018
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Tatiana Fumasoli 3  
• University Strategic Planning
• Core University Business
• Public Management Characteristics

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Fumasoli, T. (2018). Strategic Planning in Higher Education. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_530-1

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The Importance of Strategic Planning in Education

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Strategic planning is a method used in various industries to deliberately guide decision-making. In education, strategic planning provides leaders with guidance to keep the institution operating, carry out its missions and comply with regulations. Educational strategic planning focuses on the future of a college or university, providing an intentional way to reflect on performance and determine where to implement initiatives to make positive changes for the future.

To create effective university strategic plans, administrators and stakeholders must understand the ins and outs of how they work and how they can apply them.

In This Article

• Lack of Ownership
• Poor Strategic Alignment
• Poor Communication
• Slow Plan Adoption
• Improve Efficiency
• Engage Stakeholders and the Community
• Form a Focus
• Plan a Future
• Test Your Hypotheses
• Use Specific Language
• Make Implementation a Priority
• Hold Team Members Accountable

Transform Strategic Planning and Execution Within Your Education Institution With AchieveIt

The challenges of strategic planning in education.

Universities and colleges face several pressures and challenges that can complicate strategic planning in educational environments. Understanding some of these challenges can help you overcome them to create an impactful approach.

1. Lack of Ownership

While strategic plans involve feedback and participation from all of your institution’s departments and entities, you should limit ownership of the plan and documentation to one person. Without explicit ownership over the strategic plan, initiatives are more likely to be lost, forgotten or overlooked. With one person in charge, your school is more likely to achieve success.

2. Poor Strategic Alignment

Alignment and representation across your university are crucial to success. Universities and colleges often experience a lack of strategic alignment because the church and state divisions typically have different goals for schools. These clashing perspectives lead to poor strategic alignment and a stand-still in decision-making.

3. Poor Communication

Many educational institutions also struggle with strategic planning due to poor organizational communication. Effectively implementing a strategic plan requires institutional-wide teamwork. Poor communication significantly increases the difficulty of agreeing upon and executing effective solutions and setting attainable goals.

4. Slow Plan Adoption

With a significant focus on innovation and growth, universities may make numerous changes in a year. Constant changes often lead to low motivation to adopt new plans. The longer your teams take to implement a strategic plan, the more likely it is to become outdated. When this situation happens, the plan becomes irrelevant to your current processes.

Why Education Institutions Need Strategic Planning

Despite the inherent challenges, educational strategic planning is necessary for a successful institution operation. A strategic plan can help you improve several aspects of your educational institution through intentional goal-setting and initiative implementation. Strategic planning for colleges and universities helps students, staff and the community progress toward a better future.

Here are a few reasons you should use strategic planning in education:

1. Improve Efficiency

One of the biggest reasons to begin strategic planning is the opportunity for improved efficiency in numerous areas of your organization. The challenges of educational planning often lead to a lack of efficiency. Strategic planning for schools allows leaders to determine more effective ways to streamline processes.

For example, your decision-making teams may take significant time to agree on new policies or procedures. Strategic planning helps your institution use time more efficiently because it allows you to form decision-making strategies.

Improved efficiency also results in better cost-effectiveness. The less time is wasted, the more money you’ll save, especially over time.

2. Engage Stakeholders and the Community

Strategic planning involves more people than only the primary decision-makers — your planning should involve your community and stakeholders. Feedback from these entities can help you develop a more beneficial and strategically targeted plan based on what these entities want or need from you. Engaging the stakeholders and community also shows you value their input and want to create an environment where they want to be.

3. Form a Focus

Determining a focus for the school year ahead can be challenging without clear objectives. Without focus, your institution will struggle to grow and attract students and staff. For example, you may have vague expectations for the upcoming school year, which prevents decisions and progress from being made. A strategic plan allows you to determine your goals and focus for the upcoming year and beyond while also helping you track your progress.

4. Plan a Future

Strategic planning is ideal for planning a successful future for your institution. Developing a plan for your future helps ensure your school can grow and continue benefiting from its offerings. Rather than being unprepared for the next year and future school years, you can effectively strategize to make the most of your school year.

Strategic Planning Tips for Education Institutions

While every school’s strategic plan will look different depending on its goals and resources, the strategic planning process is often similar for colleges and universities. Explore a few tips for educational strategic planning to help you get started:

1. Test Your Hypotheses

You’re ultimately hypothesizing the outcome when you set initiatives in your strategic plan. These hypotheses are often based on assumptions, though it’s typically best to experiment to determine what would work and what may not. For example, if you ask your faculty to begin submitting weekly reports, conduct a quick test to ensure they can do so and have time to do so.

2. Use Specific Language

Using vague or wordy language increases the risk of confusion and the possibility of initiatives being misunderstood and ignored. Swapping out complicated words for simpler, more specific words can help ensure everyone understands your plan. It can help to have someone review the language you use to ensure nothing is confusing and everyone is on the same page.

3. Make Implementation a Priority

Because schools involve numerous departments and divisions, implementing a plan can be difficult without prioritization . Make your plan a priority to ensure it’s properly implemented. Doing so is often easiest when leaders promote and require implementation.

4. Hold Team Members Accountable

Another way to make university strategic plans stick is by holding team members accountable. School performance management software allows you to track reports and other strategy-related information to determine who’s completing their duties so you can keep them accountable.

Educational institutions require significant planning to ensure a successful school year. Strategic planning software for higher education can help you focus your strategy despite your institution’s challenges. Software like AchieveIt has features that help your team turn ideas into actions.

A few things you can do with our software include:

• Solve common implementation challenges: AchieveIt makes connecting members of your team and various initiatives easy. You can track projects, keep everyone on the same page and quickly send updates.
• Gain comprehensive visibility: Our platform lets you see every initiative in real time, providing comprehensive visibility over progress.
• Consult with our experts: Our strategic plan experts help you execute your plan effectively. Draw on our expertise for inspiration or customize one of our templates to create your plan.

Let’s actually do this. Request a demo of AchieveIt to see what we can do for you today.

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Strategic Planning

7 reasons why schools need strategic planning.

By Mary King

20 march 2023.

• 1 1. A strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values
• 2 2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools, staff, and time
• 3 3. A strategic plan defines how success is measured
• 4 4. A strategic plan helps with decision-making, responsiveness, and innovation
• 5 5. A strategic plan increases communication and engagement
• 6 6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—from teachers to administrators—connected
• 7 7. The best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s number one priority: students
• 8 Download the guide ↓

The past three years have been disruptive for every sector. For educational institutions, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone–from staff and teachers, to the students who had to switch to a new modality of learning, to the parents supporting them. Strategic planning in education has revealed itself to be a very important part of recovering. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic forced nearly 55 million children home in the US alone—and at least 1.4 billion children out of school or child care across the globe. Higher education institutions have been profoundly financially impacted , and both the learning experience and mental wellbeing of the students has been negatively affected.

While every educational institution was impacted by this, some schools were more prepared than others to face the unique challenges COVID-19 posed–those schools who had previously established strategic plans were better prepared to navigate the pandemic than those without.

It’s clear to us: Schools that embrace a great strategic plan, and commit to strategic planning in education, have clear advantages over schools that don’t.

We’re going to talk about some of those advantages now, look at some examples of strategic planning in education, and give 7 reasons for why every school with a vision of excellence for their students should embrace a strategic planning process for schools. Whether it’s getting back on track after a hugely disruptive, global event like COVID-19, identifying the most important strategies to improve student outcomes, or increasing staff engagement, all schools benefit from strategic planning and strategic plan implementation.

1. A strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values

The ability for schools to collaborate, share, and communicate short and long term goals is a critical part of moving plans forward in line with a vision, mission, and values. Schools benefit from a well communicated and executed strategic plan that keeps everyone informed of their strategic goals, and how their actions are contributing to the achievement of these goals. This enables parents, staff, community members, and stakeholders to work towards a common vision.

A major additional benefit of strategic planning in education is that it provides an opportunity for active employee engagement across an organization. When it comes to strategic planning for educational institutions, that benefit remains present. Research suggests that a leading cause for employee discontent (in general, but especially in the public sector) is that employees don’t understand how the work they’re doing helps their greater organization.

If the school is able to clearly define and remind employees and stakeholders of the shared vision, employees are more likely to feel connected to the work they are doing within that organization. Whether that work is educating students, organizing reports, performing critical administrative duties, or coordinating the process of standardized testing, everyone plays a part in a student’s success.

2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools, staff, and time

We understand that schools–whether they are elementary schools, high schools, or higher education institutions– are complex institutions, with boards, committees, districts, unions, and many different types of stakeholders involved. Because the organizations themselves are so large, and plans are often multi-year, complex entities built up by multiple stakeholders and workers, struggles with organization and effective time management are common.

Envisio provides strategic planning software for educational institutions , and because Envisio works exclusively with the public sector, we understand the unique, complex, and often large scale planning needs of public sector organizations.

“I see Envisio very much as a focusing tool as I work with my team. If you’ve got great people, your primary job is not to get in their way […] I can stay on top of performance in a way that is really unobtrusive, and I don’t have to necessarily interact directly with an individual to get a sense of what’s going on. I can stay abreast of the action plans in the communications department or the action plans in a particular school. If we’re missing the mark on a key performance measure, I can focus more time on having the right conversations.” – Peter Hilts, Chief Education Officer for District 49

3. A strategic plan defines how success is measured

In order to achieve success, it’s important to know what success means, and where to take action first. It is difficult to get a strategic action plan underway without a firm understanding of what problems you’re wanting to solve. When it comes to strategic planning in the public sector, determining clear benchmarks for success is especially important, because the goals are often a combination of abstract, impact-based metrics, and concrete, output-based goals.

Different types of educational institutions are going to have different challenges, and different metrics of success: the educational strategic plans of a public school board district are going to look a lot different from a college or university! The shared reality is that every school with a strategy is better able to monitor its progress toward key outcomes and evaluate where and how it may have gotten off track. Using a strategy implementation software like Envisio can help with measuring success.

At Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), in Portage County, Ohio, they are measuring success across six pillars, with forty two strategic initiatives . Many of their strategic plan elements (goals, strategies, and actions) include promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for their students, staff, and employees. Being a major medical research university that is training future medical professionals, diversity, equity, and inclusivity is a critical—and practical—metric! Some of the performance measures that NEOMED tracks include gender demographics, and actionable items towards decreasing disability stigma as part of their Strategic Plan: Creating Transformational Leaders Dashboard .

No matter what your benchmark for “success” is—be it a more impact-focused concept such as “be more welcoming” or more concretely articulated in output terms such as “create a low-cost tutoring center using the library after school”, your strategic plan will provide you with the steps to make get that success underway, and stay on track.

4. A strategic plan helps with decision-making, responsiveness, and innovation

A strategic plan helps educational institutions remain agile during times of change, and also helps them better define what they intend to achieve when it comes to their student success objectives and their greater organizational goals. With a strategic plan in place, educational institutions have a roadmap which they can use to track, evaluate, and modify plans to facilitate better governance decisions and provide clearer direction for the future of the school. This helps a school maintain a steady rhythm of progress towards their goals, and remain ahead of the curve–both in terms of educational innovation, and when (not if) a disruptive change occurs.

“It’s difficult, because you’re trying to help students prepare for the future – to prepare for jobs that might not exist yet. You’re trying to develop educators and an education that gives them the skills to think critically.” – Dr. Alison Gillespie, the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning with White Bear Lake Area School District (WBLAS) in Ramsey County, Minnesota

White Bear Lake Area School District (WBLAS), MN, was able to leverage their strategic plan as a way to embrace change and turn obstacles (like COVID-19) into opportunities for success. They embraced active learning techniques and, through their strategic plan, were able to think ahead to turn disruptions into teachable moments that engaged students and staff alike.

5. A strategic plan increases communication and engagement

A strategic plan ( and particularly, one that is publicly communicated on a dashboard ) helps with overall communication and engagement. For a school board, communicating that your plans and your metrics for success are part of a larger, holistic plan, is critical to building trust with stakeholders and maintaining effective engagement—both internally, and externally.

Strategic planning in education is critical in settings where trust is paramount. Educational institutions—at all levels—work on the understanding that one group (the educators) has knowledge they can impart, share, or coax out in another group (the students). The need for a trusting relationship with the students and everyone involved in that student’s success needs to be central to a positive educational environment.

A strategic plan that can be easily found, referenced, and understood helps assure everyone involved that the school in question is aware of their plans, has them in focus, and has a plan for their shortcomings. Educational strategic planning also has the additional benefit of keeping stakeholders—such as donors—excited about the school’s vision. When it comes to fundraising, donors are more likely to support a school that has a clear vision and a strategy to make it happen.

6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—from teachers to administrators—connected

A well implemented and communicated strategic plan holds all staff accountable for their actions and encourages collaboration. In educational settings, this circle of responsibility is extended out towards the community; providing excellent and accessible education is an effort that requires all hands on deck. Being able to simplify the strategic planning process and make it visible and easy to use is one way to ensure everyone stays connected.

One of the benefits of using a strategic planning software partner like Envisio is that individual action plans (from individual schools or departments) can be aligned, all the way up to a greater strategic objective. For multi-year, complex plans, such as setting a national standard of excellence, or incorporating culturally significant teachings—it’s important that teachers and staff are able to understand who is working on what, and where it fits into the greater whole.

7. The best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s number one priority: students

Best of all, strategic planning in education provides a framework so that the most important priority of the school – students’ educational achievement – is taken care of. Having a sturdy educational strategic plan helps keep issues like digital equity , accessibility , literacy , preparation for an ever changing workforce , and social and environmental enrichment , front of mind. When the experience of the student is the priority for the school, the strategic plan becomes a collaborative effort to figure out how best to set students up for success.

Being on the same page for these goals is extremely important for schools: sound planning and communication helps ensure that stakeholders, including parents, teachers, administrators, principals, board members, and the greater community, are all striving for the same overall vision. And, when it comes to putting those plans into action, schools especially benefit from the habit of consistent performance measurement, which is something a strategic plan can help in ingraining.

For complex, multi-layered institutions such as an educational institute to successfully reach their goals—particularly after being so dramatically impacted by COVID-19—it requires not only proper management of human, budgetary, and time resources, but the creation of high-output teams, engaged and effective staff and teachers, and the consistent monitoring of progress. For schools, a strategic plan provides a north star for deepening a sense of community and knowledge, and breaks down the actionable steps to reach critical goals.

Download the guide ↓

Mary King is a professional writer and researcher based in Toronto. She comes to Envisio with a Masters Degree, where she researched the relationship between the disappearance of urban public spaces, and high level decision-making processes in local governments. For nearly a decade, Mary has worked as a community organizer, promoter, and supportive researcher in a variety of nonprofits and think-tanks, and her favorite area of focus was in connecting local artists with marginalized youth. Since 2017, her writings and research on policy, local governance, and its relationship to public art and public space has been presented at conferences internationally. She has also served as both a conference chair and lead facilitator on professional and academic conferences across Canada on how to better bridge academic research with local change-agents, policy makers, artists, and community members. Envisio’s mission of excellence and trust in the public sector maps onto Mary's interest in local government and community mobilization. She loves working at Envisio because she cares about having well organized, strategic, and transparent public organizations and local governments. Mary is also a creative writer and musician and has been supported in her practice by the Canada Council for the Arts. Her stories can be found in literary journals across Canada.

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Leadership and Strategic Management in Education

• Tony Bush - University of Nottingham, UK
• Marianne Coleman - Institute of Education, University of London, UK
• Description

`This is one of very few texts to give recognition to the difficulties in large institutions and to give practical advice about the degree to which collegiality can be built into strategic planning. The authors provide an overview of all aspects of leadership within education, giving ample references within each section for more detailed study'- Mentoring & Tutoring

`The book would constitute a good starting-point for anyone wishing to understand contemporary developments in educational management' - Educational Research

Leadership and strategic management are both issues of central importance in raising achievement in schools and colleges and thus are at the heart of the educational debate today.

This book is concerned with such major issues as: the nature of strategic management in education; the importance of vision, and mission; styles of leadership; models of educational management; and the purposes of strategic management, which here are equated with the effectiveness and improvement of the institution.

It will be invaluable for students of educational management, such as those following masters degrees. It is also directly relevant to teachers and lecturers and schools of all phases and in further education colleges, particularly those who have, or aspire to, management responsibilities.

The textbook is designed to be used either to accompany a taught course, or for self-study via distance-learning, thus practical and reflective activities are included.

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

For assistance with your order: Please email us at [email protected] or connect with your SAGE representative.

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`This is one of very few texts to give recognition to the difficulties in large institutions and to give practical advice about the degree to which collegiality can be built into strategic planning. The authors provide an overview of all aspects of leadership within education, giving ample references within each section for more detailed study' - Mentoring & Tutoring

This book is accessible in its straightforward, uncomplicated and straight-forward introduction to practitioner research. The different sections are clarity to some complex issues and aspects of research necessary for postgraduate study. The critical perspectives covered, aided by useful diagrams and identified Action Research case studies, makes this an informative read.

Considered an essential book to master degree students in educational management. In a very simple and efective way this book from Tony Bush and Marianne Coleman adresses the major issues of education leadership and management.

A good author but not his best publication.

informative very detailed slightly specific to schools so elements would be not relevant for the sessions however concepts are useful.

An added benefit to the course bringing a wider context to the youth work students

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Management in education by applying strategic planning

Revista e-TECH: Tecnologias para Competitividade Industrial - ISSN - 1983-1838

Strategic planning is vital in all organizations, including the management of an educational institution. In this context, the study seeks to present the application of strategic planning in educational management. The methodology used was an applied theoretical and conceptual essay with descriptive and bibliographic characteristics and a qualitative approach to data. We searched management journals for articles that addressed strategic planning in educational management. Thirty articles that addressed strategic planning in education management were investigated in the title, abstract, and keywords. Twenty-one articles were selected that carried out empirical studies in educational institutions that prepare strategic planning in their management or aim to implement it. Among the results achieved, we found that the main reason that facilitates or inhibits the implementation of strategic planning in the management of educational institutions is the transparency of the objectives to pr...

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STRATEGIC PLANNING IN EDUCATION: analysis of a case in a technological universities (ATENA EDITORA)

Atena Editora

Strategy means leading armies and overcoming enemies. This is the “base” concept of this article and, through it, large and small businesses are raised. There is no known standard strategy or one that works for all institutions, so analyzing institutions that were successful and understanding what works best is an important function of the manager. Strategic planning makes the decision-making process efficient and continuous, enabling the results achieved to be optimized and, in many situations, obstacles are overcome. Education is also an essential concept in this research. Developed over centuries, from its primitive form to its current model, it is understood as a real necessity. D education are conceived Universities, public or private institutions, which form thousands of individuals annually, providing them with employment, income and, above all, knowledge. Connecting the subjects, it is possible to state that the strategy in the educational context must be constantly planned and improved. It must be considered “essential”, since colleges, universities and other Universities are organizations centered on knowledge and consumers of better management techniques. These need to adapt the strategy to its context. Aiming to understand how is the process of elaboration of strategic planning in universities (using as an example of technological universities located in the interior of the state of São Paulo), to multiply consolidated strategies aimed at education in universities, exploratory, descriptive, bibliographical methods were used., documentary and field. With that, as recorded in the final sections, improvements and better results were found in the work of coordinators, teachers and students.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE – PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED – CASE STUDY IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES (Atena Editora)

This article seeks to verify whether in the implementation of Strategic Planning (SP) the Organizational Culture (OC) in Universities is a relevant factor, by investigating scientific productions in the last decade (Google Scholar, Web Science and EBSCO) and interviewing managers of Public Universities of the State from Mato Grosso do Sul. This is a basic research, with descriptive and explanatory objectives, a qualitative approach with bibliographic, documentary and interview procedures characterizing a case study. Despite the scarcity of articles, there is a growing relevance of the theme in the scenario of changes that managers face at Universities. After the interviews with three former deans, it is observed that the adoption of the NP requires adaptations in symbiosis with the Organizational Culture. Strategic Planning adherent to the Organizational Culture must meet internal and external expectations and the mesodeterministic perspective.

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Why Is Strategic Planning & Education Management Important for Schools?

School administration requires the combined efforts of everybody involved: school leaders, educators, and their communities. All must work together to ensure students have access to adequate resources and support.

Supervision of educational strategies involves setting goals and accommodating students as they work to reach them. Educators need to know how to implement classroom procedures that will assist their students throughout their educational journeys.

What Is the Value of Data for Schools?

Student success is only possible with the right tools. Collecting and analyzing information related to student learning provides a window into how each individual’s educational career should be planned. Data for schools gives decision-makers a clearer picture of student achievement so they can set goals and manage progress.

Behavioral assessments, report cards, and other personal information can give educators insight into how a student might respond to specific policies. For schools, this means that important metrics, such as teacher performance, student progress, and graduation rates, can be assessed over time.

The Power of Strategic Planning and Education Management

Strategic planning and education management are important to schools because they bring crucial insights that allow decision-makers to adjust their student goals and provide the necessary resources to give learners the best opportunities possible.

Having a formal system for considering the long-term consequences of specific strategies and communicating expected results is essential for properly allocating a school’s resources where they’re needed.

Think Through Outcomes

Education management involves directing individual learners so they can continue to progress. With strategic planning, teachers can consider student goals and lead them in the right direction. This allows educators to consider their expectations for student outcomes.

Strategic planning and education management allow decision-makers to create useful policies and make better decisions in the moment.

Create a Shared Vision

Education management is much easier when everybody is on the same page. Making sure educators, administrators, and leadership have a clear picture of performance and pain points can go a long way toward improving student outcomes.

Strategic planning and education management also allow school administrators to create a shared vision to reinforce a sense of collective responsibility.

Leverage Available Resources

Schools are often working with limited resources. Being able to take advantage of whatever is available to drive student learning is essential for education.

Combining strategic planning with education management allows decision-makers to effectively allocate available resources to ensure student success.

Education management software makes it easier for educators to accomplish common tasks and manage student data. With Inno™ by Innovare , educators have all they need to help their students succeed.

Innovare Understands the Importance of Strategic Planning for Education Management

Strategic planning and education management require a concerted effort on the part of school administrators. This can be difficult when resources are already stretched thin. Inno™ by Innovare gives educators a valuable asset when planning and implementing their educational strategies.

Inno™ provides detailed insights that help education professionals make decisions informed by real-world data that can create a positive impact on students and their communities.

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• Education & Training
• NICCS Education & Training Catalog
• Tonex, Inc.

Leadership Level: Strategic Planning and Management in CBINT

• Online, Instructor-Led

This training course, “Leadership Level: Strategic Planning and Management in CBINT,” offered by Tonex, is designed to equip leaders with the essential skills and knowledge needed to navigate the complexities of strategic planning and management in the field of Critical Infrastructure and National Security. Participants will gain insights into effective decision-making, risk assessment, and the integration of critical infrastructure protection measures.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the key principles of strategic planning in the context of CBINT (Cross-Border International Trade).
• Develop skills in analyzing market trends and competitive landscapes to inform strategic decision-making.
• Learn to formulate and articulate a clear organizational vision and mission aligned with CBINT goals.
• Explore techniques for effective resource allocation and budgeting in international business environments.
• Gain proficiency in risk assessment and mitigation strategies specific to CBINT challenges.
• Enhance leadership skills for guiding teams through the strategic planning and implementation process.
• Examine case studies and real-world examples of successful strategic planning in CBINT.
• Collaborate on group projects to apply strategic planning concepts to practical scenarios.
• Evaluate the impact of cultural, legal, and geopolitical factors on strategic decision-making in CBINT.
• Assess the performance and effectiveness of implemented strategic plans and make necessary adjustments.

Framework Connections

• Operate and Maintain
• Protect and Defend
• Securely Provision

Content Search

Case management officer.

General Description of the Organization:

Orange is a non-governmental civil society organization devoted to alleviating the suffering and improving the sustainability mechanisms of the conflict-affected population. Since its establishment, Orange has partners directly with affected Syrian populations delivering programs spanning sectors, including humanitarian and development programs, in the Early Recovery and Livelihoods, Food Security and agriculture, Education and Protection, WASH, and Shelter, in addition to long-term impact interventions focusing on the economic empowerment and the local value chains improvements to enable targeted communities to improve their living practices and their sustainable mechanisms. Orange collaborates with a variety of national and international non-governmental organizations, as well as local initiatives, to adopt a community-based approach that leads to improving the response’s impact on the humanitarian crisis and provides sustainable and alternative solutions.

Job Purpose:

The Case Management Officer is tasked with overseeing the provision of personalized support and services to beneficiaries, ensuring their needs are met efficiently and effectively. This role involves conducting assessments, planning, facilitating, and advocating for options and services to meet an individual's and family's comprehensive needs through communication and available resources. The Case Management Officer acts as a liaison between beneficiaries, families, and service providers, coordinating care plans, monitoring progress, and evaluating outcomes to ensure optimal service delivery and BNFs satisfaction. This individual plays a pivotal role in improving children and adults well-being, enhancing the quality of service delivery, and contributing to the organization's mission of providing exceptional care and support.

Duties, objectives, and competencies:

A. Expertise and Capacity Building:

• Oversees the implementation and follow-up of individual case management and specialized support plans, ensuring adherence to best practices by case workers.
• Develops and conducts professional development seminars and workshops for beneficiaries, partner organizations, and stakeholders on navigating service access, utilizing social safety nets, and understanding protection services, among other topics.

B. Service Excellence Management:

• Facilitates effective communication with service providers to guarantee impactful interventions and follow-ups.
• Maintains robust coordination with all partnering entities to ensure timely and suitable referral and support processes for beneficiaries.
• Oversees the referral mechanisms to and from partner organizations, serving as the primary contact point for receiving and managing referrals.
• Collaborates extensively with internal teams involved in emergency shelter repair, nutrition, winterization, education, and protection to streamline referral processes and integrate services across departments.
• Directs and supports case workers in case assignment, discussion, follow-up, and the successful, timely implementation of case plans.

C. Documentation and Reporting:

• Manages confidential and accurate BNF records, ensuring appropriate documentation of data related to protection services under Case Management and Emergency Cash Funds.
• Produces regular, detailed reports on case management and emergency fund activities, complying with organizational reporting requirements.

D. Quality Monitoring:

• Ensures the delivery of high-quality interventions through consistent monitoring, evaluation, and follow-up of services.
• Oversees the monitoring of service quality as per organizational standards.
• Upholds the highest standards of confidentiality and client rights throughout all operations.

Requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree in social sciences or a related field is required**.**
• At least 4 years of experience in a comparable role**.**
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel and Word**.**
• Experience with technical report writing**.**
• Good command of both written and spoken Arabic, English writing skills is desired.
• Capable of working autonomously and collaboratively, demonstrating a proactive attitude and a focus on finding solutions**.**
• Adaptable to shifts in priorities and capable of performing well under stress in demanding situations**.**

We strongly encourage applications from individuals with disabilities and women, as we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

Orange’s Values and Principles:

We believe that:

• Maintaining a positive, healthy, and trusting relationship are central to making the partnership a success.
• Appropriately trained and resourced staff and volunteers are key to effective and efficient service and program delivery in the development sector.

We are committed to:

• Shared responsibility, accountability, and decision-making in any partnership.
• Providing access to high-quality learning to empower people and professionals in the development sector, particularly in the developing world.
• Learning from each other to strengthen and enhance the long-term sustainability of our services and programs for the benefit of children and communities that we serve.

Child Safeguarding & PSEAH policy

Orange aims to create an organization that is safe for children and women but is also aware of the need to keep child protection concerns proportionate and to guard against over-zealous attitudes. Child and women abuse thrives in closed and secretive atmospheres. Orange’s best protection is to create an open and aware culture where people are not afraid to speak about their concerns.

Any employee, consultant, contractor or supplier undertaking an activity on behalf of Orange must sign the Child Safeguarding and PSEAH– Declaration of Acceptance Form and comply with the Orange child safeguarding and PSEAH Policy which is a statement of Orange commitment to preventing abuse and protecting children with whom it comes into.

How to apply

• Kindly submit your application through this link: https://apps.orange.ngo/jobs/apply/74663f78-24fc-4f4e-af5b-b7d47ddb7ed6

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not have heard from us within two weeks after the application deadline, please consider your application as being unsuccessful.

•The position is to be filled ASAP.

• Women are highly encouraged to apply for this position.

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