1 ‘School Leadership’ as perceived by School Leaders undergoing Transformation through Leadership Development Programme: A Case Study from Karnataka Saswati Paik Faculty, School of Education, Azim Premji University, Bangalore Abstract School leadership is a well-researched domain in the context of western countries. In India, it is still a nascent domain that requires focused study and research. India has almost 1.3 million Government schools, but the construct of school leadership, the enactment of school leadership in schools, and the notion of leadership practices required for improving these schools require contextual research and understanding. Also it is not very clear whether and how structured leadership development programmes have a bearing on developing effective school leaders that may lead to sustainable change among the leaders and visible change in school and student outcomes. A longitudinal study was initiated by Azim Premji University in collaboration with the Karnataka State Institute (of Azim Premji Foundation) to explore the notion of school leadership existing in India and to study the effect of one structured school leadership development programme (SLDP) in Karnataka. The SLDP programme was conducted across seven districts in Karnataka for HTs and CRPs from select blocks in these districts. This paper explores findings based on one set of data collected from participants from one of the districts - Ramanagara. The findings will help explore and provide preliminary answers to the following questions –  What do school leaders (head teachers) perceive as effective leadership practices to aid in school improvement? How are school developmental processes impacted by particular types of leadership practices? What are the factors that influence this process?  How do structured, focused leadership development programme influence the development of school head teachers?  What models of leadership does this particular leadership development programme encourage and why?  What factors mediate the transformation process so that effective leadership programmes that have long-lasting behavioural change effects on participants can be designed and developed? Contact details: Pixel A, 7 th Floor, Azim Premji University, PESSE Campus, Hosur Road, Bangalore – 560100. Email ID: saswati@apu.edu.in, sujatha.rao@apu.edu.in Contact no: +91-9632351994 (Saswati)