Megapolis A, one of the biggest megacities of Russia, experienced major changes in the educational system (starting from 2012) which implied reconstructurisation of the schools and school organizational structure. Today schools of Megapolis A are huge educational complexes, where about 80% of schools comprise 5 and more buildings which can be located in different parts of Megapolis A. School management team consists of a principal and 4 deputies. During the process of reconstructurization there have been launched a variety of studies focusing on leadership and management practices of principals (Kasprzhak, Kobtseva & Tsatrian, 2022, 2020; Kasprzhak et al., 2016; Kasprzhak, Isaeva &  Bayburin, 2015 ). With the reform coming to the end, we suppose that there are shifts not only in the practices of principals, their priorities and the level of distribution of responsibility among the deputies but also in the role of a principal. Today a school principal is seen not only as a head of one school but a leader of a huge educational complex whose prior goal is to work for the goals of Megapolis A educational system.  In fact, school management which is concentrated in the hands of a principal only became impossible in the existing context. In this study we are basing on the professional standard for school principals (2021) to identify the core leadership practices of the school management team, their focus.

Research questions:

What issues/tasks are in the focus of a school principal within the domains of existing standards?

Is there a correlation between the principals’ background and his/her focus?

How is the responsibility for tasks distributed among the members of the school management team?

We developed a conceptual framework of a principal’s leadership profile to serve as a basis for the research The standard of a Russian school principal (2021) served as a basis for the framework, in this way we picked out the key leadership direction of a school principal: educational process, administration of the school, school improvement, interaction and collaboration with stakeholders. To ensure the sufficiency of the framework that it covers all the leadership tasks:

•  we analyzed existing professional profiles and dimensions of successful leadership of other countries (UK, the U.S., the Netherlands, Finland, Malaysia etc). The analysis allowed us to see the differences and priorities set for school leaders from different perspectives.  

• we carried out interviews with school principals and their deputies to unpack their leadership practice, key tasks and also get their feedback on the framework (is it mirroring the key leadership dimensions of a principal?)

• we carried out a focus group session with principals and deputies

All this allowed us to develop the framework taking into account peculiarities of the context.

We used a mix-method approach to carry out the research. In this way, the study consists of quantitative and qualitative approach: conducted 10 interviews with principals and 20 interviews with their deputies. The interview helped to unpack the real practices of the school management team within the domains of the Professional standard and served as a basis for development of a survey. The survey instrument was developed basing on the conceptual framework of a principal’s leadership profile. In this way, the items of the survey were developed in the four main directions: educational process, administration, school improvement, interaction and collaboration with stakeholders. The survey aimed at identifying how tasks are distributed among the members of the school management team. Principals and deputies were asked to prioritize the tasks by their level of involvement and importance. We sent emails to principals using the database of Megapolis A to reach the sample. As a result 120 principals and 120 deputies took part in the study (24% of schools of the Megapolis A).

The study results will provide us with the information of the tasks prioritized by principals as well of the tasks delegated to the deputies of a Megapolis. Correlation analysis will help to identify the relation of the principals’ background and the tasks prioritization. We assume that depending on the principals background, previous position (deputy of education content, deputy of education quality, deputy of finances) the focus on tasks will differ. What is more, it seems to us that the list of the tasks which principals devote most of their time to and the list of the tasks they mentioned as the most crucial will differ.

1. Day, C., Sammons, P., & Gorgen, K. (2020). Successful School Leadership. Education development trust. 2. Gurr, D. & Drysdale, L. (2021). International Perspectives on Successful School Leadership. The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse (pp. 1-28). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-39666-4_58-1 3. Improving School Leadership - OECD Review Background Report for the Netherlands José Bal, Jos de Jong Zoetermeer, March 2007 4. Kasprzhak A.G., Filinov N.B.,.Bayburin R.F, Isaeva N.V., BysikN.V. (2016) School Principals as Agents of Reform of the Russian Education System / Пер. с рус. // Russian Education and Society - Vol. 57. No. 11. P. 954-978. 5. Kasprzhak, A., Kobtseva, A., & Tsatrian, M. (2022). Instructional Leadership Models in Modern Schools. Образование и саморазвитие, 99(2). Ministry of Education, Finland. (2007). Improving School Leadership, Finland Country Background Report. 6. National Institute of Education. (2015). Leaders in education programme international. Singapore: National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved from http://www.nie.edu.sg/niei/programmes-courses/leadership-courses/leaders-education-programme-international-lepi 7. Prikaz Ministerstva truda i sotsial'noy zashchity Rossiyskoy Federatsii ot 19.04.2021 № 250n “Professional’nyy standart rukovoditel’ obrazovatel’noy organizatsii (upravleniye doschkol’noy obrazovatel’noy organizatsiyey i obsheobrazovatel’noy organizatsiyey)” [the order of the Minister of Labor and social protection of the Russian Federation, 19.04.2021 №250n “Professional standard of a Principal of an educational organization (management of preschool educational organization and general educational organization)”]