Neil Cranston

Forgotten leaders: what do we know about the deputy principalship in secondary schools?

This article examines the roles of deputy principals (assistant principals, deputy heads) in secondary schools and thus contributes to an under‐researched area often overlooked in discussions about school leadership. Typically, these discussions have focussed on the principalship alone. Data were collected from deputy principals in one large government education system in Australia using a specially designed questionnaire, comprising closed and open items. Respondents reported high pressure in the role, and an increase in recent times in the number of hours worked and in the variety and diversity of the role. Noteworthy is the fact that the majority were satisfied with their role as a deputy principal, with about 40% intending to seek promotion to the principalship. ‘Lifestyle decisions’ were the overwhelming deterrent to seeking promotion. The level of satisfaction with their role related to how well the notion of team among school administration team members was developed and the alignment in their roles between what deputy principals saw as their real role with their ideal role. The closer the real and ideal roles were aligned, the higher the level of satisfaction. Deputy principals identified strong interpersonal/people skills, inspiring and visioning change, delegation and empowerment and being a good manager as key skills for their role. Professional development areas of need for them included financial management and leadership skills.

Through the Eyes of Potential Aspirants: Another View of the Principalship.

Much has been researched and written about the principalship (or headship) in recent years. One aspect that has attracted attention of late is that of recruitment to the role, raising questions about just what potential aspirants think of the principalship, and what might be some of the reasons they see as motivation for seeking that next step on the ladder of school leadership. The research reported here answers such questions for potential aspirants (primary and secondary school deputy principals) from one large government education system in Australia. Data were collected via the Aspirant Principal Questionnaire (APQ), developed specially for the study. The findings illuminate our understandings of the principalship as seen through the eyes of those working most closely with principals, identifying both barriers and facilitating factors impacting on the decisions of potential aspirants about seeking promotion. Some recommendations for both policy and practice with respect to potential aspirant principals are identified.

Politics and School Education in Australia: A Case of Shifting Purposes.

Purpose – The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings – Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications – The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value – While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good.

Managing transnational education: does national culture really matter?

This article reports on an exploratory study that examined the effect of national culture upon the management of Australias provision of transnational higher education in Thailand. In particular, using Hofstedes national cultural value dimensions as an analytical tool, interviews with managers responsible for Australias provision of transnational higher education in Thailand were examined with the aim of exploring how they understood national culture to affect their work and working environment. The findings suggest that, in the case of transnational education partnerships between Australian and Thai universities, managers believe national culture affects both the academic and operational management of their transnational higher education programs. The findings also have possible implications for both transnational education managers involved with other countries and for researchers of transnational education.

The secondary school principalship in Australia and New Zealand: An investigation of changing roles

It has been well-documented in the literature that the roles and workloads of principals in many western countries have intensified in recent years, due to a range of pressures emanating from a changing turbulent policy environment. This study investigated the roles and workloads of secondary school principals from Queensland, Australia, and New Zealand. These were explored to determine if there was any discrepancy between how principals view their current practice and how they would desire their current practice to be. The study data drew on a specially developed questionnaire in addition to a small number of targeted interviews and focus groups. The findings indicated that for principals in Australia and New Zealand (i) pressure in the role and hours worked per week had increased compared with previous years; (ii) role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict now characterised the job to some extent; and (iii) principals devoted most of their time to management/administration and staffing issues, yet their ideal week was described as one where they would dedicate time to strategic leadership, curriculum leadership and parent/community issues. They were highly satisfied with their role, overall. The paper also provides a discussion of the skills and competencies required of the principalship and issues for the ongoing professional development of school principals in both countries.

Ethical Dilemmas: A Model to Understand Teacher Practice.

Over recent decades, the field of ethics has been the focus of increasing attention in teaching. This is not surprising given that teaching is a moral activity that is heavily values‐laden. Because of this, teachers face ethical dilemmas in the course of their daily work. This paper presents an ethical decision‐making model that helps to explain the decision‐making processes that individuals or groups are likely to experience when confronted by an ethical dilemma. In order to make sense of the model, we put forward three short ethical dilemma scenarios facing teachers and apply the model to interpret them. Here we identify the critical incident, the forces at play that help to illuminate the incident, the choices confronting the individual and the implications of these choices for the individual, organisation and community. Based on our analysis and the wider literature we identify several strategies that may help to minimise the impact of ethical dilemmas. These include the importance of sharing dilemmas with trusted others; having institutional structures in schools that lessen the emergence of harmful actions occurring; the necessity for individual teachers to articulate their own personal and professional ethics; acknowledging that dilemmas have multiple forces at play; the need to educate colleagues about specific issues; and the necessity of appropriate preparation and support for teachers. Of these strategies, providing support for teachers via professional development is explored more fully.

School leaders leading: Professional responsibility not accountability as the key focus

The last decade or so has seen an emerging literature supporting the position that school leaders and school leadership are important. This article argues, however, that recent developments in the area of school leadership have led to an orthodoxy that needs to be challenged and tested. It is an orthodoxy that has been driven essentially by those outside the school leadership profession and is one constrained by external accountability demands. The arguments here are that school leaders should be the ones driving a critical examination of their profession whereby the shackles of accountability on them are replaced by a new liberating professionalism for school leaders framed around notions of professional responsibility. To this end, three propositions are considered to stimulate debate among the school leadership profession. The first is that we need to frame school leadership by critically examining the question: school leadership for what and about what? Second, we need to shift the debate about school leadership from one dominated by accountability to one grounded in notions of professional responsibility. And finally, that the profession needs to be leading the debates and setting the agendas about school leadership, not simply responding and reacting to externally determined agendas.

Primary school principals and the purposes of education in Australia: Results of a national survey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a national survey of government primary school principals in Australia, investigating the purposes of education, in terms of the importance and level of enactment of those purposes in schools.Design/methodology/approach – In 2009, an electronic survey was distributed to government primary school principals in Australia seeking their views on the purposes of education. The survey comprised 71 items of a closed format and three items of an open‐ended format. Respondents rated first the importance they ascribed to particular purposes of education, then second the degree to which they believed these purposes were actually enacted in their particular school. Factor analyses were conducted on the item responses. Differences between importance and enactment of purposes are discussed together with reasons for these differences.Findings – The findings overwhelmingly point to tensions between what they, the principals, believe ought to be the purposes ...

Going up? Women in the public sector

Purpose – This paper aims to document womens reflections on their careers over a ten‐year period to provide quantitative baseline data on which to frame follow‐up in‐depth interviews. The participants work in the public service in Queensland (Australia) and had been recommended for, and participated in, women in management (WIM) courses conducted in the early 1990s.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by means of a survey (containing closed and open items) which gathered demographic data and data related to employment history, perceptions of success and satisfaction, and the womens future career expectations.Findings – Findings revealed that the percentage of women in middle and senior management had increased over the ten‐year period, although not to the extent one might have anticipated, given that the women had been targeted as high flyers by their supervisors. While not content with their classification levels (i.e. seniority), the majority of the cohort viewed their careers as being su...

Preparing Teachers for the New Millennium: are we doing enough?

Abstract Those working in and around schools are well aware that as we move toward the new millennium education and schools are changing, and changing fast. The expectation is that the breadth and pace of that change will increase such that the demands on teachers and administrators will require different mind-sets and new skills. Tertiary institutions and others providing pre- and in-service programs for these groups must not only raise awareness and stimulate debate about the changing demands on the teaching profession, but they must ensure that they provide meaningful responses. This paper explores some of the changes impacting on education and schools and identifies some key agendas for addressal in readying teachers for the new millennium. It argues that while the front-line professionals - teachers and administrators - have and are changing, a re-invention of their roles and hence the necessary skills and mindsets will be needed for the future