Störf deildarstjóra í grunnskólum. (Icelandic)
In: Netla: Online Journal on Pedagogy & Education, 2016, S. 1-19
academicJournal
Zugriff:
Middle leaders have been at the forefront of leadership research for the past15 years. Bush (2013) maintains that distributed leadership has „become the normatively preferrred leadership model of the 21st century“ (p. 543). While it is the principal who is responsible for building the leadership capacity within schools in order to enhance its performance, it is middle leaders who are the main implementors of improvement efforts (Harris, 2011, 2013). This paper presents findings from a study on middle leaders in 17 Icelandic schools. Data was gathered from interviews with 17 middle leaders in the 20 participating schools. The purpose of the study was to explore middle leaders' roles and their vision of it. The findings show that some of the middle leaders were in a full-time position as middle leaders while most of them divided their work between regular teaching and middle leading. Most of the interviewees were satisfied with their role as middle leaders. Their role is a busy one and their task areas quite varied, such as administrative matters concerning students, staff and parents, dissemination of information, and management of social events. Some of the middle leaders worked in all these areas while others in some of them. While the diversity of tasks makes the work interesting this could cause frustration when middle leaders felt as if they were being pulled at from many directions simultaneously. The formal organisational chart in all the schools was similar, consisting of a principal, an assistant principal and one or more middle leaders depending on the size of the schools. All the middle leaders were in leadership teams with the other school leaders. The teams met to discuss day-to-day activities, make plans and delegate tasks. In some instances, the meetings were used to discuss matters related to teaching and learning. In these schools it is not only the principal who decides who does what but other team members as well. Middle leaders in these schools, therefore, had the opportunity to lead at the level, or within the area, they were responsible for. At the same time they were able to have an impact on the work in the school at large through their participation in the leadership team. The middle leaders did not feel as if their contribution was unappreciated or misused in the manner Gunter og Rayner (2007) have critizised in the UK. This, however, does not mean that the full potential of Icelandic middle leaders, is being used. Their job is comphrehensive and hectic and the demands on them are various and at times contradictory. Some of the middle leaders saw it as their primary role to provide leadership in the area of teaching and learning. Others were more preoccupied with administrative matters. However, their leadership in the area of teaching and learning seems to be very limited despite their expressed interest in the area. While most of the principals seem to have harnessed middle leaders' capacities, it is not clear to what degree middle leaders facilitate school improvement. It is therefore questionable whether principals have succeeded in distributing leadership in a manner which leads to higher quality of educational provision. The role of principals is changing and now they are held responsible for facilitating teachers' leadership capacities in their schools (Harris, 2013). In this way they are expected to distribute leadership and utilize the human resources as well as providing teachers with an opportunity to have an impact beyond their classroom. This puts principals in a somewhat contradictory position where they are given the authority to distribute leadership by allocating leadership positions to those they choose. Icelandic principals may, moreover, not see it as beneficial to distribute leadership or possess the necessary knowledge and skills in order to do so successfully. Therefore, principals need to take a stand as to what the objective with distributed leadership is. They need to consider whether they see it mainly as an opportunity to lighten their own workload or as a tool to facilitate school improvement, increase democratic procedures or empowering teachers. These and other questions, relevant to distributed leadership and middle leaders need to be answered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Í kjölfar tilfærslu grunnskólans frá ríki til sveitarfélaga breyttu skólar smám saman stjórnskipulagi sínu og komu á dreifðri forystu með því að fjölga millistjórnendum. Flestir fengu þeir starfsheitið deildarstjórar. Í greininni segir frá niðurstöðum rannsóknar meðal deildarstjóra í 17 íslenskum grunnskólum. Meginmarkmið rannsóknarinnar var að draga upp mynd af störfum deildarstjóra með því að kortleggja helstu viðfangsefni og kanna sýn þeirra á hlutverk sitt. Gagna var aflað með viðtölum við 17 deildarstjóra. Niðurstöðurnar sýna að störf þeirra eru erilsöm og fjölbreytt. Fram kemur að þeir vildu hafa meiri tíma til að sinna faglegum hluta starfa sinna. Þeir virðast ekki veita mikla forystu á sviði náms og kennslu. Þessum niðurstöðum ber saman við niðurstöður fyrri rannsókna. Höfundar benda á mikilvægi þess að skólastjórar sem eru ábyrgir fyrir því að dreifðri forystu sé komið á í skólum hafi skýra sýn á markmiðið með slíku skipulagi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Titel: |
Störf deildarstjóra í grunnskólum. (Icelandic)
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Hansen, Börkur ; Lárusdóttir, Steinunn Helga |
Zeitschrift: | Netla: Online Journal on Pedagogy & Education, 2016, S. 1-19 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2016 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1670-0244 (print) |
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