The role of the school principal is critical in ensuring positive educational outcomes for all students, particularly those with special educational needs. The focus of the research reported in this paper was to identify the personal and professional attributes of school-leaders in the area of special needs and to assess the extent to which this might be sufficient to give them the confidence necessary to be a role model for their staff. Data was collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of school leaders in Australia, in both special and mainstream schools, to determine their perceived level of confidence and competence. Amongst the study’s conclusions is the notion that in order to be successful in this dimension of their work the leader required a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children’s developmental milestones. Furthermore, the study found that the leaders themselves needed to understand how to differentiate the curriculum in order to identify and support quality teaching and learning processes in their schools. Leaders with this knowledge were able to demonstrate to teachers how these quality teaching and learning strategies were then suitable across the whole range of ability types. This research supported the notion that school-principals see the need to be instructional leaders, not just managers. It was clear that most principals required additional professional learning and support for this to occur, particularly in the context of special educational needs students.

A sample of 100 school principals across Australian from all sectors, primary, secondary and specialist facilities were randomly selected and sent via email the leadership survey. The survey contained a covering letter which outlined the aims and purpose for the data collection. The respondents were invited to complete the survey and offered two options for remittance of their responses. In the first instance the respondence could fill out the survey as it was in electronic form using written answers in full text, lists or dot points. In the second instance the respondents were able to phone the researcher and give their responses to the written section orally as well as sending in their electronic form. These two methods were used in order to minimise the time factor involved in survey completion and to minimize the workload for busy leaders. The responses were then collated and are the basis of the presented views of Australian school leaders in this paper.

The paper highlights the international implications of this research for both policy-makers and practitioners, and concludes with a discussion regarding the potential to develop its findings on a comparative basis.