School leadership preparation in Malaysia

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1002-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Yoon-Mooi Ng
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Leadership Training ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Educational Management ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Central Direction ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Training Programmes

This paper examines the preparation of school principals in Malaysia, and the aspiration of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school. It reports on the principal preparatory programme, the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders, which is mandatory to those who aspire to be school principals. Documentary analysis was undertaken on materials used for leadership training programmes by the National Institute of Educational Management and Leadership or Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB), which is the country’s main leadership training and development centre, equivalent to the National College for Teaching and Leadership in England. Eight primary and secondary schools, chosen by stratified purposive sampling, were selected for the study. Interviews were conducted with principals and assistant principals of the eight schools, to establish how they were selected and prepared for their leadership roles. Interviews with Ministry of Education and IAB officials offered a provider perspective while an interview with an education minister clarified the policy and political contexts of the study. The findings of the study draw attention to the need to refine the selection criteria, with a focus on higher entry standards to ensure excellent leadership in schools, an emphasis on instructional leadership to improve student learning in schools, the conflict between central direction and the importance of situational leadership, and the political imperative for programme outcomes.

Leading with humour and its effect on resilience in the workplace: The perspectives of principals in Kuwaiti secondary schools

2022 ◽  
pp. 089202062110722
Author(s):  
Meznah Saad Alazmi ◽  
Salem Saad Alhajeri
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Leadership Training ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Secondary School Principals ◽  
School Principal ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
The State Of Kuwait ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
Perceptions Of School

This study aimed to explore the extent to which the principals of secondary schools in the State of Kuwait said they practiced leadership with humour and if it impacts on their level of resilience in the workplace. The study sample consisted of 121 male and female secondary school principals from six educational districts in Kuwait who were selected using the random stratified method. The study findings showed that the perceptions of school principals regarding the extent to which they practice leadership with a sense of humour were moderate in all fields. The study also found that school principals enjoy high resilience in their workplace, especially when solving a problem. Finally, the results showed that the more a school principal used humour the more resilient he/she would be in the workplace. The study concluded that humour should be considered as one factor in effective leadership and that leadership training programmes should include this dimension. The level of resilience can be clearly predicted by identifying the extent to which school principals claim to practice leading with humour.

Principal leadership preparation towards high-performing school leadership in Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-439
Author(s):  
Donnie Adams ◽  
Ashley Ng Yoon Mooi ◽  
Vasu Muniandy
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Professional Qualification ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Comprehensive Plan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the Malaysian National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders (NPQEL), a principal leadership preparation programme and the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025, a comprehensive plan for a rapid and sustainable transformation of our education system through to 2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school.Design/methodology/approachIn understanding how the NPQEL operates and its effectiveness in preparing high performing school leaders, a research instrument of open-ended questions were administered to 102 principals from government-funded secondary schools, to establish how they were prepared for their leadership roles and their views of their leadership practices.FindingsThe NPQEL programme provides evidence of strong outcomes in preparing school leaders towards high-performing school leadership in Malaysia in combination of a variety of approaches with respect to its designs and competency standards. Findings indicate that the NPQEL contributes towards the development of the school leaders' attributes or skills for their leadership roles; and the NPQEL fulfils the aspirations set out in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025.Originality/valueThis paper explores the potential influence of Malaysian NPQEL and the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025 on preparing high-performing school leaders in every school.

SCHOOL CULTURE AND CLIMATE, FACTORS FOR AN EFFECTIVE SCHOOL

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 757-760
Author(s):  
Besa Dogani
Keyword(s):  
School Culture ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Effective School ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Controlled Systems ◽  
Adult Culture ◽  
Culture And Climate

The need for change is particularly expressed in educational organizations. In education, the changes are always associated with the reforms required by the Ministry of Education and Science, and much less often seen as a permanent process that is initiated and continues throughout each school. That is exactly why the school, especially at this time of decentralization, should appear as the initiator of the change. However, it must be noted that in the teaching, non-teaching staff, and in the school leadership, there is resistance to school changes. Hence the idea that resistance to change would be reduced if the director and employees feel the need for change, if they are the initiators of the change or at least participate in the planning and execution of the change. The complexity of the school stems from the everyday relations of a teacher - student, teacher - teacher, and pupil - student. The most frequent occurrence of this is the so-called collision of generations. It practically means a clash of two cultures - climates, an adult culture (teachers), and a culture of youth (students). It all takes place in an environment with its own surrounding called school. This environment and this surrounding are characterized by certain traditions, customs, norms, habits, achieved results, manners of behaviour and communication, religion and so on. All this together with all its complexity, dynamism and openness we call the culture of the school. The word culture has a Latin origin - colare, which means nurturing, developing and embellishing. Culture and climate are interactive states of common characteristics of group influence on the environment. The paradigm of school culture goes hand in hand with the paradigm of inequality and the option of greater autonomy in schools. According to several authors, schools should not be forced to produce quick results, only for the benefit of politicians and for public satisfaction. This means that the educated results should be held accountable by the school principals, not the ministers. This practically means penetration into management, from slow changes to controlled systems (top-down changes), to school support systems (bottom-up changes). It is important to note that each school has its own recognizable culture. The school's culture can be increased in different ways. Basically, it is a content of mutually divided values. Divided values can also be experienced in the form of rituals and repetition ceremonies. This paper aims to show that through the improvement of school culture and school climate, a positive atmosphere of order and discipline, a way of communicating staff, established vision for development will be ensured, and all this towards the construction of an effective and efficient school.

School leadership, teacher’s psychological empowerment and work-related outcomes

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1501-1514
Author(s):  
Kersti Kõiv ◽  
Kadi Liik ◽  
Mati Heidmets
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Psychological Empowerment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Perceived Leadership ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of teacher’s psychological empowerment between school leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A total of 711 teachers from 31 Estonian schools were surveyed with a questionnaire measuring four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self-determination and impact), school leadership characteristics (leadership style, leader’s empowering behavior and trust in leader) and teacher’s work-related outcomes (job satisfaction and workplace attachment). AMOS path analysis was used to investigate the direct and indirect relations between the teachers’ perceptions of school leadership, their psychological empowerment and their workplace attachment and job satisfaction. Findings This study found that psychological empowerment (subscales meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership empowerment behavior and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Also, the psychological empowerment (meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Trust in the principal has direct and indirect effect (through psychological empowerment) on job satisfaction, whereas there only seems to be indirect effect on workplace attachment through two components of psychological empowerment. Practical implications The mediating role of psychological empowerment includes an important message for school principals – in order to empower employees it is not sufficient to merely delegate formal power and decision-making rights. To facilitate the development of psychological empowerment, it is important to provide employees with an opportunity to experience agency, to experience that their voice and opinions are taken into account (perceived impact) and the purpose and targets of the whole organization are discussed with the employees and formulated in collaboration with them (perceived meaning). Originality/value Psychological empowerment as a mediating variable has not been widely researched, especially in school environment. The results will provide important signals for school principals, where and how to find leverage to improve teachers’ job satisfaction and workplace attachment.

Assistant principal leadership development: a narrative capture study

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Petrides ◽  
Cynthia Jimes ◽  
Anastasia Karaglani
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Assistant Principals ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Assistant Principal ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Teacher Professional

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge base on the ways in which assistant principals view their roles, and on the potential challenges involved in a distributed leadership model. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a narrative capture method, in which assistant principals from two large urban school districts were asked to relate and self-interpret two leadership stories through a web-based narrative capture form. A total of 90 stories were collected from 45 assistant principals. Participants rated their stories based on a set of leadership indicators (including method of decision making and type of teacher interaction present in the story, among others); the results were analyzed statistically. Findings – Overall, participants tended to view their roles in terms of instructionally focussed leadership. However, leadership challenges emerged in several areas of leadership practice, including operational management and teacher professional development (PD). Demographic factors were found to influence leadership perceptions and practices. Research limitations/implications – This study begins to fill the empirical gap on assistant principal leadership roles, practices, and perceptions. Further research, using other methods (e.g. observation), is needed to collect evidence of in situ leadership practices of assistant principals, and how those practices impact and relate to school objectives for teaching and learning. Practical implications – The study sheds light on the leadership development needs of assistant principals and on the importance of ongoing, tailored PD, based on factors including where leaders are in their careers and how they envision their roles. Originality/value – This paper contributes to nascent scholarship regarding assistant principal school leadership.

Shadowing school principals: what do we learn?

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Tulowitzki
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Leadership Research

While shadowing as a method has been analysed and discussed, these discussions have often been focused on (business) management research as opposed to school leadership research. Additionally, little attention has so far been paid to the parameters of shadowing. Without knowledge of these matters, the validity, merits and difficulties of shadowing and data collected through shadowing are impossible to assess. This contribution aims at tackling these issues. First, it attempts to offer an overview of shadowing. Next, studies on school principals making use of shadowing are analysed, guided by the following research questions: What are the aims of the studies? How is shadowing defined by the author(s)? What are the parameters of the shadowing activities (duration, observers, observed persons)? What are the categories of observation? In conjunction with what other – if any – methods is shadowing used? What – if any – merits or pitfalls of shadowing are discussed? Finally, implications of the current use of shadowing are discussed and suggestions are offered to address desiderata uncovered during the analysis as well as to further develop the method.

Workplace-based clinical leadership training increases willingness to lead

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleece MacPhail ◽  
Carmel Young ◽  
Joseph Elias Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Leadership Training ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Senior Executive ◽  
Clinical Leadership ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon a workplace-based, interdisciplinary clinical leadership training programme (CLP) to increase willingness to take on leadership roles in a large regional health-care centre in Victoria, Australia. Strengthening the leadership capacity of clinical staff is an advocated strategy for improving patient safety and quality of care. An interdisciplinary approach to leadership is increasingly emphasised in the literature; however, externally sourced training programmes are expensive and tend to target a single discipline. Design/methodology/approach – Appraisal of the first two years of CLP using multiple sourced feedback. A structured survey questionnaire with closed-ended questions graded using a five-point Likert scale was completed by participants of the 2012 programme. Participants from the 2011 programme were followed up for 18 months after completion of the programme to identify the uptake of new leadership roles. A reflective session was also completed by a senior executive staff that supported the implementation of the programme. Findings – Workplace-based CLP is a low-cost and multidisciplinary alternative to externally sourced leadership courses. The CLP significantly increased willingness to take on leadership roles. Most participants (93 per cent) reported that they were more willing to take on a leadership role within their team. Fewer were willing to lead at the level of department (79 per cent) or organisation (64 per cent). Five of the 11 participants from the 2011 programme had taken on a new leadership role 18 months later. Senior executive feedback was positive especially around the engagement and building of staff confidence. They considered that the CLP had sufficient merit to support continuation for at least another two years. Originality/value – Integrating health-care professionals into formal and informal leadership roles is essential to implement organisational change as part of the drive to improve the safety and quality of care for patients and service users. This is the first interdisciplinary, workplace-based leadership programme to be described in the literature, and demonstrates that it is possible to deliver low-cost, sustainable and productive training that increases the willingness to take on leadership roles.

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