Leadership, change and the school principal

Hibbs, James D. (1998) Leadership, change and the school principal. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (14MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

Paper one of this folio presents a research proposal that would examine, through ethnographic case study, the instructional leadership role of the principal during this tremendous period of educational reform. The study proposes to investigate the practices of a school principal in the area of instructional leadership to determine if principal practices are commensurate with increased leadership expectations, by educational authorities, in the areas of curriculum and instruction. A broader perspective will also be gained through survey data collected from all principals in one school district. Section I of the review of literature explored three overlapping periods of organizational and administrative study since the turn of this century: classical organizational thought, human relations approach and behavioural science approach. Section II focused on the shift in organizational thought to a new administrative model - School-Based Management This collaborative approach devolves greater decision making responsibility to schools and places significant emphasis on the instructional leadership role of the principal. -- Paper two reviewed the literature on the change process and the role of the principal in effecting school improvement during educational change. This review also examined the instructional leadership role of the principal and how the emerging practices of transformational leadership are reshaping the role of the principal. In addition, this paper advanced that a balanced leadership approach, which supports both instructional and transformational leadership practices, will create the second-order changes necessary for increased student achievement. -- Paper three reported on the Ocean Academy experience with educational change. The researcher examined the implementation of a change process to improve student achievement particularly the performance of students requiring special education services. This paper also detailed the instructional and transformational leadership practices of the principal and how the leadership approach was supported by the literature. The site for this analysis was the school in which the researcher was the principal.

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