Leadership and Management Development in Education (Education ...

PREPARING AND SUPPORTING LEADERS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES61is a ‘wide market of accredited programmes … [and] school management mastersdegree programmes are very popular among … deputies, prospective headsand teachers’ (Gergely 2003: 112). Similarly, in Iceland, teaching qualificationsand experience are the only formal requirements for principalship but ‘teachersin management positions in schools have been entering a GraduateDiploma programme in school management … in order to prepare themselvesfor school management’ (Hansen 2003: 121).Most of the countries featured in this section appear to recognise the importanceof pre-service preparation for aspiring principals and many such leadersare accessing such opportunities. Elsewhere, however, there is little interest informal leadership learning and apparent satisfaction with the existing arrangements.In Cyprus, for example, ‘few [aspirant principals] engaged in substantialand proactive preparation’ (Pashiardis and Ribbins 2003: 29). Those principalswho have taken short courses were sceptical of their value, describing them astoo ‘theoretical’ (ibid.). In practice, most had experienced an ‘apprenticeship’model where they learned from working with ‘good and supportive’ (ibid.)principals. One woman principal, interviewed by Pashiardis and Ribbins (2003:30), commented that ‘in Cyprus, in education, there is really no such thing aspreparing for the post’.In Denmark, there are no national guidelines, formal expectations or competenceobjectives for educational leadership. There is no nationally run or certifiededucation or training of aspiring school leaders. ‘There seemed to be aconsensus that leadership did not require any education beyond the initialtraining of teachers and perhaps some years of teaching’ (Moos 2003: 60). Thereis now some discussion about a national leadership diploma course but this isconceived as a generic feature with all kinds of leaders, in the public and privatesectors, taking the same programme.The extent and nature of pre-service provision influence, to varying degrees,the selection of school principals.Leadership selectionCentralised systemsThe recruitment and appointment of school principals follows the ‘succession’processes discussed above. In centralised systems, selection criteria are developedby senior personnel in the Ministry of Education or related bodies. InCyprus, for example, teachers are appointed, located, transferred and promotedby the Educational Service Commission (ESC), an independent body appointedby the President (Pashiardis and Ribbins 2003: 14). The ESC supposedly hasregard to three factors when choosing assistant principals and principals: