Contribution
Description: Micropolitics of The Headteacher Selection: A Case Study in TaiwanIn 1999, the implementation of the Compulsory Education Amendment changed the procedures of headship's appointment and selection in Taiwan. One of the essential regulations was to change the appointment of headship by the local educational authority and dilute this 'old-fashioned' approach of selecting headteachers. The more concrete procedure of headteacher selection was to legislate parental involvement in the internal decision-making processes of the school to select the prospective candidate(s). This was the first time to allow parental involvement in the mechanism for selecting and appointing headteachers in Taiwan. The second step of selecting headteacher was to send the list to the local educational authorities who organised the headteacher selection committee composed of local educational officers, parental representatives, teacher delegates and educational experts or scholars (Walker, 2002: 130). Generally, headteacher selection is described as a process rather than as an event. As a process, selection involves at least two separate but related decisional stages that need to satisfy to local schoolteachers and parents as well as the LEA. The first stage is to select the prospective candidate who needs to be recommended by the school-based selection committee; then the second stage involves interviewing the prospective candidate by the LEA's headteacher selection committee. If the prospective candidate was satisfactorily accepted by both the school's and the LEA's selection committees, his four-year term would be secure and his appointment would be by the local paramount, such as the mayor or the county magistrate. Once appointed, the successful candidate would be given a tenured position in a specific school and could remain in his post for a four-year period. With the implementation of the headteacher selection policy, two requirements could be seen as conflicting: the need for impartial technical assessment methods to gather the evidence of candidate fitness for headship, and the need to satisfy demands for a visible democratic accountability and social legitimation by the local community (Hall et al., 1986: 161-2). Particularly, the parent representatives are involved in selection for two reasons. The first is to legitimate the selective procedure, which they can do by overseeing and being involved in the assessment procedure; the second aspect of parental involvement is to consent to the appointment on behalf of the school's local community (Morgan et al., 1984: 20).
Methodology: This project was basically of an ethnographic approach, via participant observation, interviews, and collecting written documents, under the lens of micro-politics in order to portray the reality of the headteacher selection in the investigated school.
Conclusions: The research findings reveal that the implementation of headteacher selection is not merely viewed as a technical activity but also as a political process, which is embedded in macro-societal political democratisation and traditional Confucian value in Taiwan. More specifically, if a headteacher tends to extend his tenure at the same school he has to achieve local parental support which is regarded as a critical hinge. This may fit within what Phillip Brown (1990) calls the 'ideology of parentocracy'. Since the top-down imperative introduces community members and parents into the process of headteacher selection, and in particular, they act as the critical crux of selection procedure, this would have an impact on headteachers' professional prospects regarding their appointments, career advancements and other career aspirations (Alexander, 1997).
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