Shared Leadership in Schools: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Effective leadership is increasingly recognized as emerging from mutual understanding and shared responsibility. Shared leadership places greater emphasis on the sharing of leadership roles and influence. However, current understandings of shared leadership in the school context remain limited and inconsistent. This systematic-narrative review aimed to identify and analyze studies on shared leadership published between 2004 and 2025. It encompassed 41 articles selected through a systematic search using Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. It distinguishes shared leadership as the allocation of leadership roles and responsibilities within a team, emphasizing collaborative decision-making and shared influence among members, whereas distributed leadership refers to how leadership is spread across multiple individuals within an organization, highlighting interactions, interdependencies, and collective agency. Second, the review critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current shared leadership research designs, while offering suggestions to enhance the methodological rigor. Finally, the study examines the practices, antecedents, and enablers of shared leadership, providing a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms required to foster and sustain leadership in educational organizations.