Principals’ delegation and posts of responsibility in Dublin national schools

Abstract

Effective school administration is seen as important and is the task not only of the principal but also of promoted senior teachers in national schools today. Information on principals’ involvement in tasks that may be viewed as not exclusively theirs was gathered as part of a project on principals’ work behaviour in national schools. Some principals appeared to perform duties that could be delegated. One‐quarter of the national schools in the survey either had no delegated areas of responsibility or did not delegate duties to all promoted teachers. The emphasis in delegation is strongly towards organisational and support duties (and even chores) and to insignificant degrees in the areas of curricular responsibilities or leadership and co‐ordinating roles and duties. The level of professional development involved for promoted senior teachers is not considered adequate.