INSTRUCTIONAL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP SCENARIOS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CROATIAN HIGH SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS

This paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted on a sample of high school principals in Croatia. The study has focused on the description and understanding of instructional school leadership (ISL) characteristics as well as certain specific circumstances that could, according to principals’ opinion, affect ISL practice. In order to set research questions, a basic qualitative interpretative approach has been chosen. Data was gathered using a written interview that encompassed a purposive sample of 16 high school principals in Croatia. Thematic content analysis was conducted while an inductive approach was used in order to identify two key thematic categories and associated themes, subthemes, and their variations in practice. The first category reveals characteristics of ISL priority activities focused on strengthening students, teachers, and schools’ capacities, which can also reflect characteristics of either principals’ development-competitive or prevention-corrective instructional activities. The second category reveals circumstances that can affect ISL characteristics which are referred to as those that can leave an impact on either school or education policy level. The results of this study describe and explain in more detail several instructional school leadership scenarios present in Croatian high schools that can be used in order to understand and interpret circumstances that can affect the development of various ISL characteristics

Activities and Characteristics of Instructional School Leadership from The Perspective of Elementary School Principals

This paper shows results of an empirical study on characteristics of instructional school leadership conducted on the sample of 30 Croatian elementary school principals. Two research questions were asked: 1. How elementary school principals describe and comment instructional school leadership activities that they conduct in their schools, observing them from their own role’s perspective and instructional goals that they want to achieve and 2. How elementary school principals describe and experience circumstances that have an impact on initiation and implementation of previously described instructional school leadership activities. In regards to set questions, elementary qualitative interpretative research approach was used. Data was gathered using written interview, whereas the results of thematic content analysis revealed two key thematic categories: the list of most conducted instructional school leadership activities and key interactions of principals during the implementation of instructional school leadership. Variabilities in the implementation of instructional school leadership in several aspects were observed, out of which key instructional school leadership’s contents and outcomes focused on the strengthening of students’ and teachers’ capacities are singled out as well as roles and principals’ relationship in interaction with various subjects

Ansätze zur Analyse der Bildungspolitik

U radu je riječ o vrlo aktualnoj interdisciplinarnoj temi, a osobito važnoj hrvatskoj pedagogiji. Naime, ovime se u nas još bavimo najviše na razini dnevne politike, a ne jedne, u svijetu inače vrlo važne i razvijene, pedagogijske znanstvene discipline. Zato se ovdje najprije daje pregled pojmova i njihovih sadržaja u traženju odgovora na pitanje: Što je zapravo obrazovna politika? Rad s pravom upozorava na nedostatak naših znanstvenih pedagoških istraživanja ove problematike i njezina nedovoljnog studiranja u sklopu pedagogije kao nastavne discipline na sveučilištima u Hrvatskoj. Osobit je prilog ovoga rada u komparativnoj analizi obrazovnih politika u svijetu i poruka međunarodnih organizacija glede suvremenih pristupa tretmanu obrazovnih politika na nacionalnim i širim (europskim i svjetskim) razinama. Zato na kraju rada i apel za profesionalizacijom svakodnevne obrazovne politike u našoj pedagogijskoj teoriji i praksi.The paper explores a popular interdisciplinary topic, very important for Croatian pedagogy. Namely, in Croatia this topic is still discussed at the level of contemporary politics and has not yet gained the significance it has in other parts of the world, where it is dealt with within the context of pedagogy as a highly developed and important scientific discipline. The paper gives an overview of certain terms and their meaning, which might help us answer the question: What are, in fact, educational policies? The author is justified in warning about the lack of Croatian scientific pedagogical research into this topic and in stressing the fact that it is insufficiently dealt with in pedagogical study programmes at Croatian universities. An especially valuable contribution of this paper is a comparative analysis of educational policies worldwide. It also passes on the message of international organisations regarding contemporary approaches to the treatment of educational policies at the national and upper (European and international) levels. At the end, the author calls for more professionalism in the contemporary educational policy in pedagogical theory and practice in Croatia.In der Arbeit handelt es sich um ein brisantes fachübergreifendes Thema, das in der kroatischen Erziehungswissenschaft eine besondere Bedeutung hat. Bei uns beschäftigen wir uns nämlich damit höchstens auf der Ebene der Tagespolitik, und nicht einer, in der Welt sonst sehr wichtigen und entwickelten, pädagogischen wissenschaftlichen Teildisziplin. Deswegen wird hier zunächst eine Übersicht von Begriffen und deren Inhalten in der Suche nach einer Antwort auf die folgende Frage gegeben: Was ist eigentlich die Bildungspolitik? Die Arbeit weist mit Recht auf fehlende Erforschung dieser Problematik in der kroatischen Erziehungswissenschaft sowie ihr unzureichendes Studium im Rahmen der Pädagogik als Unterrichtsdisziplin an den kroatischen Universitäten. Ein besonders wertvoller Beitrag dieser Arbeit besteht in der vergleichenden Analyse von Bildungspolitiken in der Welt und Botschaften internationaler Organisaitonen hinsichtlich gegenwärtiger Ansätze zur Behandlung von Bildungspolitiken auf der nationalen und weiteren (europäischen und weltweiten) Ebene. Deswegen wird am Schluss der Arbeit ein Apell zur Professionalisierung der alltäglichen Bildungspolitik in unserer erziehungswissenschaftlichen Theorie und Praxis gerichtet