Session Information
26 SES 08 B, School Leadership Development: Emerging Trends and Topics (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 26 SES 14 B
Contribution
It is acknowledged that school leaders, in this case principals, deputy principals and head of departments have an influence on quality education. The challenge is to determine the development opportunities for school leaders for the complex and diverse contexts in which these leaders must function (Daniëls, Hondeghem and Dochy 2019). School leader’s professional development is an international phenomenon as indicated by Brauckmann, Pashiardis and Ärlestig (2023). Braukmann et al, supported Hallinger (2018) who emphasised that the context for leadership, which will provide the lens for the paper – must be considered for professional development for principals.
Leadership development as international phenomenon is situated in context of the diversity of schools; from urban inner-city schools to suburban school in diverse socio economic as well as mono and multi-cultural communities to rural schools. The cultural, language and socioeconomic diversity in South Africa is similar to what is experienced in Europe (Derring, Brundrett, Slavikova, Karabec, Murden and Nicolaidou 2005; Madalinska-Michalak, 2022) with challenges with regards to immigration and a movement towards a more (political?) preferred homogeneous (or less diverse) society which needs to be managed in society, which includes schools (Bush and Jackson 2002). The diversity context resonates strongly with social identity (in and out groups, us and them) which will also be part of the presentation (Heystek and Lumby 2011; Lumby and English 2009). The perspective from South Africa may contribute to the understanding of leadership development as indicated by Thody, Papanaoum, Johansson and Pashiardis (2007) and Karstanje and Webber (2008). Leadership development are therefore challenged to be at least aware of different forms of diversity and to take it into consideration.
Although there are no official requirements for any management or leadership development or qualification before promotion to any of the above-mentioned leadership positions in South African schools, there are different formats of professional development available for example university qualifications, development provided by unions, NGOs, departments of education as well in-school development opportunity (Bryan 2011; Kirori and Dickinson 2020). This paper based on a specific university-based qualification with the goal of the programme must be that the program must lead to improvement of quality of education at schools. The research question addressed in the paper is therefore: Are there any indications that students are able to improve their schools from what they learned in the two-year academic program in their divers’ contexts?
This is a key issue for any development programme since development cannot be a goal on its own; it must be contextual, and it can be expected that there must be some change and improvement from the development opportunity. School leaders, and specifically school principals, are expected to provide leadership for quality education and school performance (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, and McKee 2014) which must be linked to professional development of school leaders (Brauckmann, Pashiardis and Ärlestig 2023).
Except for the format of the program (university qualification in this case) other contextual factors has been explored in the research which may have an influence on the expected positive outcome of development (change and improvement): the funding of the programme (self or outside - sponsor), the selection for participation in the programme which may have an influence on the determination and motivation of participants in a programme, as well the question “what is in it for me?”. These factors may have different implications in different divers’ societies on the potential to change and improve schools. In the South African context, it becomes crucial questions (Moorosi and Grant 2018; Naicker and Mestry 2016).
Method
The paper is based on a qualitative project conducted in one of the nine provinces in South Africa. The participants are students enrolled for a university-based Advanced Diploma in education management, which is equal to an undergraduate level qualification. The students were selected by the provincial district officials and the program cost, from the program fee to the accommodation and travel, and provision of a laptop were sponsored by a mining company as part of their community engagement. Programme has been conducted by the University at a venue about 400 km from the main campus of the University in a province which is the least densely populated in South Africa. Schools are located large distances from each other (up to 200 km from some schools). It is therefore a convenient sampling with a captured audience with all the advantages and disadvantages linked to a captured audience. The necessary ethical clearance was completed at the University since the participants were official students in a university programme followed by their permission from to department as well as the funder who collaborated positively. As the researcher I was not part of the teaching staff members. I only researched the student’s (participants) experience of the programme with teaching staff’s consent and support. They were 61 students from 27 schools in this first cohort in 2021 and they completed the two-year diploma at the end of 2022 when I conducted the interviews. Six schools were selected based on convenience since the schools are all more or less 30 km from the basis where the researcher operated from as well as the time constraints when the participants were available. The six schools were purposefully selected since in some schools there were only one participant (student) while at other schools there were two or even three students at a school. This purposeful selection was done to get the experience of participants on their collaboration and participation in the programme and to determine if that had some influence on their learning and the expected change at the school. Ten participants were individually interviewed for an hour after which the interviews were transcribed, member checked and analysed. During the visits to schools, I was invited to walk through the school with the participants where they indicated some aspects the school what they did and indicate the potential problems with regard to facilities and learner conduct and classroom situations.
Expected Outcomes
The participants indicated that they learnt a lot from the programme. This programme was the first exposure for these participants in management or leadership development since they were all promoted to these promotional posts from being a level I teacher without any management development since is not a requirement to be promoted. They indicated specific aspects for example financial management, policy development and implementation or legal aspects about school management and leadership. Since this is the first cohort and the first assessment of the potential influence of this program, it is a limited and first attempt to determine if this program have an influence on these schools. This project continues with the next cohort which is already know in their second year while the third cohort stared their program at the beginning of 2023. It was evident from the participants answers that they worked hard to identify the specific issue which they wanted to improve and according to their own reflections, which is acknowledged that it may be more positive not to present themselves in a negative light (Brown and Militello 2016). They all attempted at different levels to succeeded and make some small changes at the school. The issues which they focused on was diverse, from specific subject areas for example mathematics or history where they were teaching and they attempted to improve the marks with different activities, to developing and improving the library (which is at most schools non-existent) and creating reading groups to motivate learners to read outside their own textbooks and examination focus.
References
Brauckmann S, Pashiardis Petros and Ärlestig H 2023. Bringing context and educational leadership together: fostering the professional development of school principals, Professional Development in Education, 49:1, 4-15, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2020.1747105. Bryan C. 2011. Professional development during a period of change: a small‐scale case study exploring the effect of context on practice in a South African rural school. Professional Development in Education, 37(1), 131–141. Brown C and Militello M. 2016. Principal’s perceptions of effective professional development in schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(6), 703-726. Bush T and Jackson D. 2002. A Preparation for School Leadership International Perspectives. Educational Management & Administration, 30(4) 417–429. Daniëls E, Hondeghem A, Dochy F. 2019. A review on leadership and leadership development in educational settings. Educational Research Review, 27, 110–125 Day D V. Fleenor J W, Atwater L E, Sturm R E and McKee R A. 2014. Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory. The leadership quarterly, 25, 63-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004 Derring A, Brundrett M, Slavikova L, Karabec S, Murden B and Nicolaidou M. 2005. Educational leadership development in Finland, the Netherlands and France: an initial comparative report. Management in education, 19(5), 34-37. Hallinger P. 2018. Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 46(1) 5–24. Heystek Jan and Lumby J. 2011. Identity and diversity: A case study of leaders in a South African primary school, Education as Change, 15:2, 331-343 Karstanje P and Webber C F 2008. Programs for school principal preparation in East Europe. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(6) 739-751. Kirori M and Dickinson D. 2020. Not a panacea, but vital for improvement? Leadership development programmes in South African schools. South African Journal of Education, 40(1) Lumby J& and English F. 2009. From simplicism to complexity in leadership identity and preparation: exploring the lineage and dark secrets, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12:2, 95-114 Madalinska-Michalak, J. (2022). School Policy and Reforms in Poland in the light of decentralization – between democratisation and centralization. Paper presented at the ECER 2022, Yerevan, August 2022. Naicker S and Mestry R. 2016. Leadership development: A lever for system-wide educational change. South African Journal of Education, 36(4), Thody A, Papanaoum Z, Johansson O and Pashiardis P. 2007. School principal preparation in Europe. International Journal of Educational Management, 21(1) 37-53.
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