OECD improving school leadership activity: Australia country background report

Prepared for the Australian Government by the Australian Council for Educational Research in 2006 and released in January 2008, this report provides information on school leadership in Australia, including school governance, the links between leadership and learning outcomes, the attractiveness of the leadership role, and training and professional development for school leaders. The report helped inform the OECD\u27s International Comparative Report on school leadership, due for release in April 2008

Submission to 'Valuing Australia’s Teachers: Parliamentary Inquiry into the Status of the Teaching Profession'

Parliament of Australia website. Together, over the last five years, through a series of research projects, the above colleagues at the University of Sydney, Curtin University, University of New South Wales (Australia) and the Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), have examined the issues of work, workload, and conditions of work of Australian school teachers and school leaders, drawing international comparison to Sweden and elsewhere. We have reported (in conjunction with the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF), and State School Teachers Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA)) on the largest, recent survey of teachers’ work and workplace conditions in the country through input and extensive responses from over 20,000 teachers and school leaders. We welcome this Parliamentary Inquiry as both timely and of great importance

Strategies for increasing community participation in school decision-making processes

The aim of this study is to develop, by a deductive approach, a framework of strategies which would assist school administrative teams to form a school-based decision making group. Specifically, the strategies are aimed to increasing the participation of non-school-based community members in decision–making processes. Three focusing themes - the need for an overall plan the availability of adequate time and the provision of sufficient financial resources - are used as the structure for the literature review. Within these themes a number of strategies are identified which are relevant to the purpose of this study. Using a deductive approach, these strategies are assembled into a conceptual framework. The developed conceptual framework is suitable for most school situations in systems where much of the administrative functions of schools has been devolved to the school level. Some of the significant strategies in the conceptual framework were found to be the formation of an implementation team; organization of a timetable; the development, implementation and consideration of a community analysis; anticipation of difficulties; the establishment of an effective communication system; the development and implementation of specific motivational strategies; and evaluation of the change process. Although the conceptual framework is suitable for most schools, there may be some schools with certain characteristics where implementation of the outlined strategies would not be appropriate. In these cases modifications should be made to the conceptual framework of strategies. This study examines two situations where modifications could be required. In discussing the suggested modifications, the versatility of the conceptual framework is established as well as its validity reliability

New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession

The paper highlights that the quality of teaching has one of the greatest impacts on student outcomes, and that all education systems in the global top tier of school performance have engaged in ambitious workforce reform

Becoming a primary school principal in Ireland: deputy-principalship as preparation

This thesis investigated influences on primary school deputy-principals’ motivations to apply for principalship in the early twenty-first century in the Irish Republic. This required the exploration of both principals’ and deputy-principals’ roles in management and leadership to discover how better to prepare deputies to continue to the principalship. The research approach sat firmly within the qualitative paradigm, using semi-structured interviews with twelve primary deputy-principals exploring their construction of deputyship and principalship from their professional socialisation experiences. Findings revealed the complex relationship which exists between both roles and the extent to which the pervading school culture determines how much meaningful leadership opportunity is distributed beyond the principal. A major outcome of the study is a constructed knowledge of the nature and culture of Irish primary deputyship. Three new typologies of deputy-principalship provide a new perspective on the deputyship role, concluding that the gap in experiences and knowledge between deputyship and principalship is so great that energy should flow into the formation of formal, planned and structured preparation for a deputyship transition into principalship

Managing change in schools: a review of the Western Australian project

In 1987, the Ministry of Education released a report entitled \u27Better Schools in Western Australia: A Program for Improvement\u27.l It outlined radical proposals to make schools more self-determining and accountable. Although much of the program has yet to be put into effect, the plan and steps taken to implement it caused a major upheaval not only to the system but also to people working in it. For example: the managers of change invested a huge amount of work and worry in the whole process; some of the \u27victims\u27 of change suffered personally and professionally; and a lot of those in between were left wondering about the educational value of the reform program and its viability in terms of the additional workload involved

ACER 1997-1998, 68th Annual Report

Contents: Valuing Educational Research, Research highlights, Benchmarking against the world, Social development, Indigenous education, Cambodia exams, Selecting tomorrow\u27s doctors, Assessing reasoning skills, Celebrating language learning, Monitoring standards in education, Education index onlin

The effects of COAG's national reform agenda on central agencies

This report examines the effect on Commonwealth and State central agencies of the reform agenda adopted by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), with a particular focus on the reforms proposed and undertaken since the federal election in November 2007. Collectively, these reforms could constitute the most significant changes to Australian federalism in a generation. This study considers the responses of central agencies to this COAG Reform Agenda. How are the Commonwealth and State central agencies responding, and what challenges do they face