Leading sustainable schools: exploring the role of primary school principals

The purpose of the paper is to identify the kinds of leadership that are likely to support implementing and sustaining education for sustainable development (ESD) effectively in a primary school. The paper identifies links between ESD and principal leadership literature and constructs a conceptual model of the leadership practices needed for reorienting a school to ESD/education for sustainability. Aspects of the model are explored through Cypriot principals' views on leadership and reported leadership practices. Data were obtained by a nationally administered questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes indicated some enabling factors for ESD implementation such as encouraging teachers to engage in ESD programmes, collaborate with others and other ways of support which nevertheless reflect what is generally expected of school administrators without seeking deep change. Constraining factors included principals' reported lack of confidence in administrative skills for sustainable schools, limited willingness to challenge the status quo, limited engagement in actions important for supporting ESD activities and features of the national educational policy. Constraining factors pointed towards principals' limited commitment to ESD. The practical significance of the findings is that they identify specific areas of needed professional development for principals such as empowering staff, encouraging critique of current approaches and exploring alternative possibilities for curriculum, pedagogy and policy.     

Positioning oneself for leadership: feelings of vulnerability among aspirant school principals

The research context for this article is the difficulty being experienced by a number of school systems, especially in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, in recruiting principals. In our discussion we draw on preliminary findings from ongoing research into the experiences of a cohort of aspiring primary and secondary school principals. Our data comprise the electronic journal (E‐journal) entries of the 21 aspirants. We characterize the E‐journal reflections as identity narratives in which the aspirants are able to explore a range of feelings, challenges and uncertainties associated with the possibility of future principal role incumbency. The significance of these E‐journalling narratives, therefore, is that they provide aspirants with an opportunity, through semi‐private reflection, to begin positioning themselves for leadership. For this reason we articulate the idea of ‘positioning space’, a supportive holding environment which facilitates the exploration of potential and possible selves and we explore some properties and protocols associated with occupancy of this space.     

Relationships and early career teacher resilience: a role for school principals

Given the current climate of high levels of teacher attrition, it is critically important that we understand what keeps early career teachers in the profession. This paper reports early findings from a project addressing the question: ‘What conditions are conducive to promoting teacher resilience and retention in the first two years of teaching?’ The research aims to identify the internal strengths and external strategies that promote resilience in early career teachers. School leaders and first year teachers from 59 schools across two states in Australia contributed to in-depth, open-ended interviews in which they talked about the experiences of beginning teaching. From this data, narrative portraits were developed and emerging themes documented and analysed. A strong emerging theme is how relationships with principals influence teachers’ feelings of personal and professional well-being, with both negative and positive effects reported. This paper uses portraits of two early career teachers to examine this theme. The findings provide important insights for principals who wish to foster resilience in early career teachers.     

建立政府间世界会计组织问题研究——会计假账治理的国际协调视角

会计假账在当今社会已经发展成为一种全球性公害和一个世界性难题。全球经济一体化进程的加快导致各国以跨国公司和国际证券市场为载体的会计关系日趋紧密和复杂,对会计假账的治理已非某个单一国家力量所能及,必须进行会计假账治理国际协调。由于目前国际会计准则委员会和国际会计师联合会等国际会计民间职业联盟存在明显的局限性,不利于全球会计假账治理,必须由世界各国政府共同联手,建立同步行动机制,成立由各国政府参加的世界会计组织(WAO),加大会计假账治理力度,逐步构建公正公平、规范有序、客观真实防治假账的国际会计信息新秩序。     

Female traditional principals and co-principals: Experiences of role conflict and job satisfaction

This paper presents a secondary analysis of survey data focusing on role conflict and job satisfaction of 102 female principals. Data were collected from 51 female traditional principals and 51 female co-principals. By examining the traditional and co-principal leadership models as experienced by female principals, this paper addresses the impact of the type of leadership model (traditional principalship or co-principalship) has on women principals with regard to role conflict and job satisfaction. The co-principals experienced lower levels of role conflict and higher levels of job satisfaction than did the female traditional principals.     

Socialising principals: early career primary school principals in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper utilises an interpretivist framework and recent developments in practice theory to examine the conditions which influence practices of socialising into the role of school principal in Trinidad and Tobago. The results indicate that for the 11 early career primary school principals, role socialisation occurs within complex practice landscapes, where the practices of preparing classroom teachers for the principalship materialise within a context of contest. There is conflict between historical antecedents and the expectations and practices of socialising institutions such as the church, the school, the community and the Ministry of Education. This small-scale study has implications for leadership preparation practices and highlights principal socialisation as a challenge of context and history.     

Epistemological beliefs and leadership approaches among South African school principals

Studies on school restructuring and the leadership role of the principal in this process suggest that what has been the traditional leadership approach of the principal appears to be changing in relation to the substantial changes and school-wide reforms that are continually taking place in schools today. These school reform initiatives necessitate new and creative ways of thinking about our concept of educational leadership and its various approaches. It also became clear from the literature on leadership that a person’s assumption of various types of knowledge influence his or her leadership approach. The purpose of this study, based on a quantitative empirical study in selected South African schools, is to identify this impact of principals’ assumptions of knowledge on their leadership approaches. A total of 100 questionnaires with open-ended questions were sent electronically to school principals of randomly selected schools to assess the link between principals’ assumptions about the nature of knowledge and principal leadership. The t-test, Lambda test and an Analysis of Variances test were used to analyse the data. The findings confirm the relationship between core epistemological beliefs (EBs) and beliefs about leadership practices among South African school principals and provide substantial justification for using EBs in the study of school leadership.     

Meeting the Challenges of Cultural Leadership: The changing role of principals in Thailand

This paper examines the changing role of principals in Thailand using a cultural lens. Global educational trends and new expectations for school improvement have placed Thai principals firmly at the crossroads between tradition and change. The paper proposes several avenues that Thai principals may explore in order to manage the conflicting pressures for stability and change.     

Reconciling top-down policy intent with internal accountability: the role of Chinese school principals

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - The purpose of this paper is to explore the role school principals play in managing the intersection of external and internal accountability...     

挣扎与坚守:多重角色下乡村校长角色冲突的表征及动因——基于25位乡村校长的访谈研究

乡村校长在特殊的乡村社会环境制约下,长期处于严重的角色冲突之中.本研究以中、东、西部25名乡村校长及4名教育行政管理者为对象进行访谈研究,结果表明乡村校长扮演着垂直管理场域中的"边缘者"、政府统筹规划下的"妥协者"等多重社会角色,并揭示了其角色冲突的表征为行政逻辑与专业逻辑的矛盾、通过非正式方式行使正式权力的无奈和多重角色的力不从心.研究以角色互动模型为理论视角,从组织因素、人际因素和个人因素三个维度进行剖析,发现组织内部的权力博弈与体制性矛盾、以执行沟通为主的人际互动模式以及个体角色学习与角色调适能力不足是乡村校长产生角色冲突的内在原因,并从划清权力边界、完善评价方式、加强社会支持和角色建设四个方面提出对策建议.     

Perceptions of elementary teachers on the instructional leadership role of school principals

In this research, elementary school principals＇ instructional leadership behavior was evaluated based on the perceptions of elementary school teachers. The research is believed to contribute to the development of instructional leadership behavior of elementary school principals for the development of school organization. A ＂semi-structured interview technique＂, one of the qualitative research methods in the literature was used in the research. The study group was made up of elementary school teachers working in Nigde, Turkey, during the 2008-2009 academic year. For the study sample, one teacher from each school was selected at random, resulting in group of twenty elementary school teachers. Based on the content analysis, five themes of instructional leadership behavior were found. These themes are： （1） determination of the school＇s purpose; （2） management of instruction; （3） evaluation of students; （4） support to teachers; and （5） creation of a regular learning-teaching environment.     

The power of role design: Balancing the principals financial responsibility with the implications of stress

The Anglo-Saxon countries have implemented Management by Objectives (MBO) complemented with school-based management (SBM) fairly rapidly. Although these countries are considered something of a benchmark of stability, research on principals reveals that they experience high levels of stress and that this is associated with poorer job performance. These findings raise the question of whether increased stress and poorer performance are the result of the new SBM role. In this article, empirical research on Sweden is used to address this question. While Sweden has not come as far as England in the implementation of SBM, it is farther along than other European countries. Paying specific attention to the SBM role, the article uses a qualitative method to describe the implementation of MBO in two cases with different characteristics, one centralized and one decentralized. A quantitative method is also used to conduct a large scale study of stress levels among all principals in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The results indicate that the choice of whether to retain the traditional principal role, developed at a time of centralized management by rules, or to replace it with a new SBM role influences the level of stress that principals experience, although in different ways. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in the final section of the paper.     

Thinking about principals: How they cope with external pressures and internal redefinition of their role

Looking at recent changes in the educational policy context, it is difficult to underestimate the central role of the principal. Principals must simultaneously perform different roles and implement activities of a varied nature. As an ‘instructional leader’, he or she must be able to create supportive links between the school and the classroom level. Individual learning and teachers’ professional development must be linked to, and supported by, an appropriate organizational development. As a ‘project manager’, the principal is expected to develop and implement a specific plan in order to solve particular problems indicated by the inspectorate. Both tasks — instructional leader and project manager — are illustrated in this chapter.     

Gender differences in instructional leadership: how male and female principals perform their instructional leadership role

The current qualitative study sought to examine how male and female principals enact their instructional leadership. Data were collected through 59 semi-structured interviews with 36 female principals and 23 male principals from Israel, and analysed in a four-stage process – condensing, coding, categorising, and theorising. Findings presented two main differences between male and female principals’ instructional leadership: (a) the source of authority nurturing their instructional leadership; and (b) the integration of instructional leadership with principal-teacher relationships. Gender theories were employed to explain these findings and further research possibilities in this realm are discussed.     

The role of principals in creating inclusive school environments: insights from community national schools in Ireland

This article seeks to provide an insight into the role of school principals dealing with newly multicultural and multi-faith student populations by drawing on a mixed-methods study on state-funded multi-denominational community national schools in Ireland. The study explores the extent to which school principals address the increasing social and cultural diversity in their schools by helping to establish inclusive and supportive school environments. The study identifies the main agents in shaping the school culture, and how the multi-denominational ethos is experienced by students. The article endeavours to provide academics and practitioners with a better understanding of the importance of leadership in shaping school climate that promotes a sense of belonging for all the students.     

How schools train principals to use new teacher evaluation systems: A comparative case study of charter school and traditional public school principals

Over the past decade U.S. policymakers, practitioners, and researchers have sought to examine if changing teacher evaluation policies and systems have resulted in changes in identifying quality teachers and/or increased student achievement. This research generally shows most states have experienced little change in how teachers are rated. Researchers are now exploring why, in many cases, teacher evaluation reforms have failed to produce the desired systematic changes of better identifying quality teachers and better distinguishing teacher performance. Embedded within this line of inquiry is how principals (and other evaluators) are trained to use new teacher evaluation systems. This comparative case study observed six principals (three charter school principals and three traditional public school principals) in the U.S. state of Michigan as they learned and enacted a new teacher evaluation system. Additionally, all principals were interviewed three times throughout the school year, in an effort to examine how their initial teacher evaluation training impacted their evaluation of teachers. The research questions that guided this work were: (1) how are principals initially trained when their school adopts a new teacher evaluation system?; (2) in what ways does the training received by charter school principals compare to that of traditional public school principals?; and (3) how does initial training impact how principals evaluate teachers? Results indicate principals are trained to navigate the logistics of new teacher evaluation systems, but are not trained to evaluate teacher performance. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

The role of the elementary school principal — as perceived by Israeli principals an attempt at role analysis

The study aimed to define the role of principalship, necessary because of the conflicting loyalties and responsibilities inherent in this role. Four ‘facets’ were used to classify areas of principals' activities, from which a questionnaire was constructed. Ninety principals, representing most of those in the northern part of Israel, participated in the project. On the basis of the questionnaire, they related their role activities to the degree of autonomy they felt they were granted. The findings identify the main factors in the role of the principal and show that principals' activities may be defined according to (a) the degree to which they have been planned in advance or carried outad hoc; (b) their professional or bureaucratic character; (c) the goals which they are meant to serve and whether their aim is task/product-or person-orientated. In all of these areas the principal can act with varying degrees of autonomy. The techniques employed in obtaining and analyzing the results offer a means of creating and comparing principals' profiles, hence also of indicating the position of the principal in the more general system; producing a typology of administrative styles; and identifying personal styles of principalship.     

校长教学领导力初探

校长领导力指校长在学校领导实践中提出教学愿景、引领教学变革、促进师生发展的影响力,主要表现为教学价值观的塑造力、教学总目标的设定力、教学核心问题的捕捉力、教学组织的指导力、教学条件的保障力、教学质量的评估力。在学校生活中,校长正确地认识自我是提升教学领导力的前提条件,增强综合素养、注重实践锻炼是提升教学领导力的基本保证。