Session Information
26 SES 04 A, School Leadership, Autonomy and Change
Paper Session
Contribution
Research context:
- Impact of New Public Management
- Democratic processes (openness, public involvement)
- Tendencies of decentralization/recentralization – a clear tendency towards bigger schools autonomy
In the Commission staff working document ‘Supporting the Teaching Professions for Better Learning Outcomes’ (SWD(2012) 347 final) which accompanies the Communication from the Commission ‘Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes’ it is stated that school leadership is second only to teaching among the school-related factors that determine what students learn and how successfully. This document also states that the impact of school leadership tends to be stronger where there is a higher degree of perception of school autonomy.
As one of the reasons why schools autonomy creates little added value to the quality of school performance, the researchers point out insufficient attention paid to shaping schools management capacities (Malen and , 1990; Briggs, Wohlstetter, 1999; Woessmann, 2005; Hanushek ir kt., 2013; Honig, Rainay, 2012; and others). Hallinger, Snidvongs (2005) argues that the skills of school leaders have a direct impact on the implementation of reforms. Therefore, in the context of decentralization and deregulation policies there is an increased need to analyse the preconditions leading to effective school leadership; the activities of school principals, their contribution to the improvement of school performance as well as academic achievement of pupils have become objects of research. (Sleegers, 1999; Caldwell, Spins, 1992; Heck, Hallinger, 2002).
Thus, there is a strong interdependence between autonomy of schools, triggered by the ongoing global public management decentralization processes, and school leadership development. The success of school autonomy largely depends on the managerial capabilities at the school level. The school will be as much autonomous, as much advantage school leaders are able to take of the autonomy granted to them and their ability and willingness to share increased responsibility and leadership with other members of school community.
The aim of the research:
This research is designed to research school leadership and school autonomy by identifying and analysing different elements and factors influencing school, revealing principles of autonomous school management and preconditions for successful school leadership development. The research examines the conceptual models of school autonomy and its characteristics, perception and expression of autonomous management principles in schools; substantiate the characteristics of school leadership (transactional, transformational or distributed) expression in the context of school autonomy.
Research questions:
- How school communities evaluate the leadership at schools and how they perceived the principles of self-governance/ autonomous governance?
- What are theoretical precondition for leadership having a varied degree of autonomy in school management?
- What are the factors determining the success of leadership in a decentralized/autonomous school?
- What problems arise for school leaders while applying self-management model in schools?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Briggs, K., Wohlstetter P., 1999. Key Elements of a Successful School-based Management Strategy. Working paper, University of Southern California; Caldwell B. J., 2005. School-based Management. Education Policy Series. The International Institute for Educational Planning and The International Academy of Education, Paris and Brussels; Caldwell, B.J., and Spinks, J.M. (1992). Leading the Self-Managing School. London: Falmer; Clark, Damon,2009.The performance and competitive effects of school autonomy. Journal of Political Economy, 117(4), p. 745–783; Cook D. T., 2007. School Based Management: A Concept of Modest Entitivity with Modest Result. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education. Netherlands: Springer, 20 (3-4) ir kt. Di Gropello E., 2006. A Comparative Analysis of School-Based Management in Central America. World Bank Working Paper No. 72, Washington DC; Hallinger P. and Snidvongs K., 2005. Adding Value to School Leadership and Management. A review of trends in the development of managers in the education and business sectors. Paper commissioned for the National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, England. Hanusheka E. A., Link S., Woessmann L., 2013. Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates fromPISA. Journal ofDevelopment Economics, 104 (2013), p. 212–232. Hallinger, P. & Heck, R. (2002). What do you call people with visions? The role of vision, mission and goals in school leadership and improvement. In K. Leithwood, P. Hallinger and Colleagues (Eds.), The Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration (Second Edition). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Honig, M.I., & Rainey, L.R. (2012). Autonomy and school improvement: What do we know and where do we go from here? Educational Policy. DOI: 10.1177/0895904811417590; Leithwood, K., Harris, A. and Hopkins, D. (2008). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership School Leadership & Management:Formerly School Organisation, 28 (1): 27-42. Malen, 1990. What we Know about Site based Mangement: a Case Study of the Literature – A Call for Research. Choise and Control in American Education, Nr. 2, p. 289-342; OECD, 2011. School autonomy and accountability: Are they related to student performance? Pisa in Focus, 2011/9 (October). Sleegers, P.J.C. (1999). Leidinggeven aan leren. Nijmegen Katholieke Universtiteit Nijmegen.; Woessmann L., Luedemann E., Schuetz G., West M. R., 2009. School Accountability, Autonomy, and Choice Around the World. Edward Elgar, Chelten- ham, UK.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.