School Leadership Study 2012 in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland: Preferences and Stress in School Leaderhip Practices

Author(s):

Stephan Gerhard Huber(presenting / submitting)Christine Wolfgramm Selin Kilic

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

26. Educational Leadership

Format:

Paper

Session Information

26 SES 06 B, Emotions, Stress and Health in Times of Change

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

D-307

Chair:

Klaus Kasper Kofod

Contribution

This study in the German speaking countries aims to gain empirical insights in the worksetting of school leaders. Its goal is to demonstrate which of their professional activities school leaders like to do (preferences) and which are a strain on them (stress). Moreover, on the basis of their preferences and their stress experiences, types of school leaders will be outlined and correlations between the perception of strain and individual factors (e.g. aspects of one’s occupational biography) as well as institutional factors (e.g. conditions of the worksetting) will be determined. For operationalization purposes, Huber’s (2008, 2009a,b, 2012) model of school leadership practices was used and Böhm-Kasper’s (2004) model of school-related stress was adapted to the contextual specifics of school leadership.

Method

The School Leadership Study is conducted in the following steps: 1. A general inquiry using a web-based questionnaire. It focused on e.g. the occupational biography, the school related work setting, and general and specific stressful worklife conditions. 2. In a third step, the daily professional practices and activities of school leaders were recorded via an end-of-day-log covering three work weeks distributed across the school year (in which the participants entered their activities during the day every evening, indicating what they had done, when,with whom, for how long, and where). Altogether 5394 school leaders participated in the study (which is a response rate of 49%),. A sub-sample in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg participated in the end-of-daylog (Nsome eod-logs=900 / N all 21 eod-logs completed=60; altogether 4998 diaries). For the analysis of quantitative data, structure equation modelling as well as hierarchical linear modelling was used.

Expected Outcomes

The analysis of the specific stress experiences, that is the strain by specific concrete activities, types of activities and areas of practices clearly gives evidence that organizational and administrative activities are perceived as particularly stressful and disliked most. Activities closely connected with teaching and education proved to be very popular and were perceived as only little stressful. The same pattern can be found in the analysis of the types of activities: All school leaders experience activities that are close to education, close to classroom teaching and professional exchange with colleagues as less stressful than others. Furthermore, tasks that belong to the traditional range of tasks of teachers are more popular among school leaders and are experienced as less stressful than tasks that have been added to school leadership responsibilities only recently through changes in the school system as a consequence of decentralization (new public management). Compared to their Swiss colleagues, German school leaders demonstrate a lower job satisfaction and a higher occupational stress and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the analysis of the conditioning factors for job satisfaction, occupational stress and emotional exhaustion shows the strongest effects for the individual stress resilience, and the social support by colleagues.

References

Böhm-Kasper, O. (2004). Schulische Belastung und Beanspruchung. eine Untersuchung von Schülern und Lehrern am Gymnasium. Münster: Waxmann. (Pädagogische Psychologie und Entwicklungspsychologie Bd. 43). Huber, S.G. & Schneider, N. (2007). Anforderungen an Schulleitung: Was wird in den Ländern von pädagogischen Führungskräften in der Schule erwartet? In A. Bartz,. J. Fabian, S.G. Huber, C. Kloft, H. Rosenbusch, H. Sassenscheidt (Hrsg.), PraxisWissen Schulleitung (10.24). München: Wolters Kluwer. Huber, S.G. (2008). Steuerungshandeln schulischer Führungskräfte aus Sicht der Schulleitungsforschung. In R. Langer (Hrsg.). „Warum tun die das?“ Governanceanalysen zum Steuerungshandeln in der Schulentwicklung (S. 95-126). Wiesbaden: VS. Huber, S.G. (2009a). Steuergruppen - eine Einführung. In S.G. Huber (Hrsg.), Handbuch für Steuergruppen. Grundlagen für die Arbeit in zentralen Handlungsfeldern des Schulmanagements (S. 1-10). Köln: Link-Luchterhand. Huber, S.G. (2009b). Schulleitung. In: S. Blömeke, T. Bohl, L. Haag, G. Lang-Wojtasik & W. Sacher, Werner (Hrsg.). Handbuch Schule Theorie – Organisation – Entwicklung. (S. 502 – 511). Bad Heilbrunn: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt Huber, S.G. & Muijs, D. (2010). School Leadership Effectiveness The Growing Insight in the Importance of School Leadership for the Quality and Development of Schools and their Pupils. In S.G. Huber (Hrsg.). School Leadership - International Perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer Huber, S.G. (2011a). School Governance in Switzerland: Tensions between New Roles and old Traditions. Educational Management Administration Leadership, 39(4), 469-485. Huber, S.G. (2011b). Research on Principals in the German Speaking Countries. In O. Johansson (Hrsg.) Rektor – En Forskningsöversikt 2000-2010 (S. 230-254). Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet Rosenbusch, Heinz, S. (2005): Organisationspädagogik der Schule. Grundlagen pädagogischen Führungshandelns. München, Neuwied: Luchterhand. Huber, S.G. (2012). Schulleitung – eine Einführung. In S.G. Huber (Hrsg.), Jahrbuch Schulleitung 2012. Befunde und Impulse zu den Handlungsfeldern des Schulmanagements (S. 1-8). Köln: Wolters Kluwer.

Author Information

Stephan Gerhard Huber (presenting / submitting)

University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland (PHZ) Zug, Switzerland

Christine Wolfgramm

University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland (PHZ) Zug, Switzerland

Selin Kilic

University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland (PHZ) Zug, Switzerland

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