Management and professional leadership of compulsory schools

Samfara aukinni valddreifingu í íslensku skólastarfi hefur umfang starfs skólastjóra grunnskóla aukist verulega. Í skólastjórn felst bæði stjórnun og fagleg forysta en skólastjóra er fengið það hlutverk samkvæmt lögum að móta stjórnskipan síns skóla og skipta verkum á milli kennara og stjórnenda. Sjónir fræðimanna hafa í vaxandi mæli beinst að hlut skólastjóra í að bæta námsárangur en sýnt hefur verið fram á að skýr tengsl eru á milli faglegrar forystu skólastjóra og árangurs nemenda. Með kjarasamningum 2001 var samið um störf aðstoðarskólastjóra og deildarstjóra í þeim tilgangi að efla kennslufræðilega forystu í grunnskólunum og fjölgaði stjórnendunum talsvert fram til ársins 2008. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var að kanna hverjar væru starfsaðstæður og bakgrunnur skólastjóra og hvaða viðfangsefni hann kysi sjálfur að axla í stjórnkerfi skólans. Gagna var aflað með rafrænni spurningakönnun sem send var öllum stjórnendum í grunnskólum með meira en 100 nemendur. Niðurstöður sýna að skólastjórar grunnskóla hafa umtalsverða starfsreynslu og mikill meirihluti þeirra hefur lokið framhaldsnámi í stjórnun. Þrátt fyrir viðleitni til að binda skólana saman sem faglegar stofnanir virðast þeir enn vera talsvert laustengdir. Tilhögun stjórnkerfis skólanna er óljós og hefur í för með sér ákveðin einkenni óreiðu fremur en fagveldis. Hlutverk aðstoðarskólastjóra og deildarstjóra eru óljóst skilgreind en algengast er að skólastjóri gegni sjálfur hlutverkum stjórnenda. Hinum mikilvægu faglegu forystuhlutverkum er skipt með óljósum hætti milli stjórnenda og oftar en ekki er vísað til ábyrgðar stjórnendateymis. Benda niðurstöður til þess að áform kjarasamnings árið 2001 um að efla kennslufræðilega forystu í grunnskólum hafi ekki gengið eftir.In the last decades the Icelandic compulsory school system has become increasingly decentralized and the scope of the school principals’ responsibilities has widened. Principals have the responsibility of organizing their schools’ managerial structure and divide the workload between teachers and administrators. Their responsibilities include both management and professional leadership. Research points to a clear correlation between the professional leadership of principals and academic achievement. The collective agreement from 2001 between the teachers union and local authorities contained clauses on the posts of vice principals and heads of departments and the number of people hired into those positions grew rapidly until 2008. The purpose of this study was to examine background and working conditions of principals and which tasks within management and professional leadership they choose to take on. Data was collected by questionnaire which was sent to principals of schools with more than 100 students. Compulsory school principals have considerable work experience and the vast majority of them have completed post-graduate education in management. The managerial structure of the schools seems quite vague and this has led to certain symptoms of chaos rather than professional bureaucracy. The role of assistant principals and head of departments are vaguely defined but the principals shoulder most of the management roles. The important professional leadership roles are often said to be the common responsibility of the administrative team. The results indicate that the intention of the collective agreement in 2001 to promote academic leadership in schools has not been realized.Peer ReviewedRitrýnt tímari

Polyostotic Fibrous Dysplasia With and Without McCune-Albright Syndrome-Clinical Features in a Nordic Pediatric Cohort

Objective: Fibrous dysplasia (FD) presents as skeletal lesions in which normal bone is replaced by abnormal fibrous tissue due to mosaic GNAS mutation. McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) refers to FD combined with skin (cafe-au-lait) and endocrine manifestations. This study describes the clinical childhood manifestations of polyostotic FD and MAS in a Nordic cohort. Patients and design: We retrospectively reviewed a cohort of pediatric patients (n = 16) with polyostotic FD with or without MAS diagnosed and followed in two Nordic Pediatric tertiary clinics between 1996 and 2017. Results: Half of the 16 patients with polyostotic FD presented with MAS. All patients with MAS (n = 8) had cafe-au-lait spots, and either gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty (PP) (girls; n = 5) or abnormal testicle structure (boys, n = 3). None manifested hyperthyroidism or growth hormone excess. Mild hypophosphatemia was common (11/16), but none had signs of hypophosphatemic rickets. Craniofacial bone involvement was found in 12 patients (75%); in 5 of these, skeletal lesions were limited to craniofacial area. One child with craniofacial disease had lost vision due to optic nerve damage. Eleven (69%) patients had sustained a fracture at FD lesion, over half of them requiring surgical fixation of the fracture, most commonly in the proximal femur. The first symptoms leading to FD/MAS diagnosis included skull/facial asymmetry (n = 4), PP (n = 3), abnormal gait (n = 3), pathologic fracture (n = 3), wide-spread cafe-au-lait spots (n = 1), headache (n = 1), and vision loss (n = 1). Conclusion: Polyostotic FD and MAS remain diagnostic and therapeutic challenges because of the broad clinical spectrum. Recurrent fractures, pain, and even vision loss may impair the quality of life in children with FD.Peer reviewe