Introduction 11 1 & VO-raad, 2021; Fullan, 2016; Knies et al., 2018; Knies & Leisink, 2014; OECD, 2016; Onderwijsraad, 2018). In particular, based on the Dutch Education Agreement, 10 million euros will be invested per year in the professional development of school principals (Rijksoverheid, 2022). However, leading innovation processes in schools involve school principals and teachers, referring to forms of distributed leadership. Distributed leadership means that multiple team members can be considered leaders and leadership is a fluid co-performance process (Daniëls et al., 2019; Harris & Spillane, 2008; Spillane, 2005). Such collaborative approaches to innovation in schools raise new situations of leadership and call for new roles, attitudes, and acts among school principals and teachers. It is yet unclear how leading collaborative innovation actually happens, and what it asks from both teachers’ and school principals’ leadership practices in day-to-day working contexts. That is why we initiated this study. 1.2. Research objective and question The aim of this dissertation is to understand better how collaborative innovation is led in schools by school principals and teachers. Working on collaborative innovation in schools calls for changes in leadership practices of both school principals and teachers, going beyond more traditional “cultures of individualism” (Vangrieken et al., 2015, p. 36). Insights into their leadership practices will contribute to scholarly knowledge on leading collaborative innovation in schools and on school practices in which collaborative innovation can be designed, initiated, and led. Against this background we will answer the following main research question: How do school principals and teachers lead collaborative innovation in schools? In order to answer this main research question, we have set up four related studies, each with a specific sub-question. The first study focuses on working relations among teachers and between teachers and school principals and how these affect collaborative innovation practices in schools: 1. How do horizontal and vertical working relations in school affect collaborative innovation practices? The second study examines the role of school principals in leading collaborative innovation: 2. How do school principals enact leadership practices in leading collaborative innovation?
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