Leading Under Scrutiny: Exploring The Impact of Cyprus’s Teacher Evaluation System - A Systematic Review

Abstract

In the context of increasing global emphasis on accountability in education, teacher evaluation systems have become key mechanisms for monitoring and improving instructional quality. This systematic review investigates how Cyprus’s national teacher evaluation system influences instructional leadership practices in primary schools. Drawing on international and regional literature, the study aims to synthesise existing evidence on the intended and unintended consequences of evaluation frameworks on school leadership, with a specific focus on the Cypriot context. The review includes peer-reviewed articles, policy reports, and empirical studies published between 2005 and 2024, with emphasis on post 2010, selected through rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria. The analysis identifies four dominant themes: erosion and narrowing of instructional leadership under performative accountability; principals’ mediation and reframing of evaluation policy; structural constraints in small, centralised systems; and tensions between compliance, trust, and professional learning. Findings highlight how the Cypriot system, characterised by centralisation and high-stakes assessment, places significant pressure on school leaders, often constraining their instructional autonomy while demanding compliance with rigid performance indicators. The review concludes with recommendations for designing evaluation systems that balance accountability with professional trust and support instructional leadership development. Implications are discussed for policymakers, educational leaders, and researchers seeking to understand and improve evaluation-led reform in small-state education systems.