Leadership and Management Development in Education (Education ...

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT27first time. Walker and Qian (2006: 297) use dramatic imagery to stress the difficultiesfacing new principals.The rigours involved in the climb [to headship] … accentuate during thefirst few years of the principalship. The energy previously needed to climbmust be transformed into quickly balancing atop an equally tenuous surface– a spot requiring new knowledge, skills and understandings. In toomany cases, the experience of the climb has done little to prepare beginningprincipals for the balancing act they are asked to perform.The increased demands on school leaders emanate from two contrastingsources. First, the accountability pressures facing principals are immense andgrowing, in many countries. Governments, parents and the wider public expecta great deal from their schools and most of these expectations are transmittedvia the principals. Crow (2006: 310), referring to the USA, points to enhancedsocietal demands within an ‘increasingly high stakes policy environment’:The higher expectations for US principals in the area of instructional leadership… increased public scrutiny of public schools, and the promotionof privatisation as a public policy agenda, have significantly changed therole of school principal in the USA. US principals [also] work in a societalcontext that is more dynamic and complex that in the past. Changing studentdemographics, the knowledge explosion, the larger web of roles withwhich the principal interacts, and the pervasive influence of technologyare a few features of this complex environment.The pressures facing leaders in developing countries are even more onerousthan those in the world’s richest countries. In many countries in Africa,principals manage schools with poor buildings, little or no equipment,untrained teachers, lack of basic facilities such as water, power and sanitation,and learners who are often hungry (Bush and Oduro 2006). The Zambianeducation system, for example, is said to face ‘wholesale systemic decay’(Harber and Davies 1997). Sapra (1991: 302) also notes the pressures arisingfrom the ‘phenomenal’ expansion of the education system to fulfil theeducational needs of the growing population in India.The role of school principals is also expanding as a consequence of devolutionin many countries.Devolution to school levelOne of the main global policy trends is the devolution of powers to site level.
28LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONIn many countries, the scope of leadership and management has expanded asgovernments have shifted responsibilities from local, regional or nationalbureaucracies to school principals. This trend was noted in Australia as long agoas 1991. ‘The control of many educational decisions is being transferred toschools … and principals … are being called upon to accept new responsibilities.Accordingly, politicians, management consultants, bureaucrats and educatorsalike are asserting the need for management training at all levels’ (Johnson1991: 275).Brundrett et al. (2006: 89) make the same point in their comparative studyof England and New Zealand. They say that the ‘single largest change’ in bothcountries has been the introduction of site-based management, linked toincreasing accountability, leading to principals being positioned as ‘the publicface of the school’ (ibid.: 90). Similar trends are evident in post-Socialist EasternEurope. In the Czech republic, for example, schools have been given theopportunity to have their own resource management and significant freedomin staffing and pedagogic domains (Slavikova and Karabec 2003). Watson(2003b) notes that this is part of a Europe-wide trend, arising from the followingcircumstances:• Increasing demands from local communities to have a greater say in the waysthey are governed, notably in Eastern Europe• A belief that exposure to market forces will raise standards.Watson (2003b: 6) shows that devolution produces increasing complexity inthe role of the head of the school and heightened tensions for principals: ‘Itleads to the need for the exercise of judgement in particular situations, ratherthen the simple following of rules.’ We turn now to consider the extent andnature of this enhanced complexity.The increasing complexity of school contextsHallinger (2001: 61) notes that ‘the rapid change around the world is unprecedented’.This arises from global economic integration leading to widespreadrecognition that education holds the key to becoming, and remaining, competitive.Inevitably, this has led to increased accountability pressures, as wenoted earlier. Because of the devolved nature of leadership in many educationsystems, these pressures are exerted on site-based leaders, notably school principals,who have to deal with increasing complexity and unremitting change.Huber (2004a: 4) makes a similar point, arguing that:The school … cannot any longer be regarded as simply imparting tradi-
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