Are Principals of Russian Schools Ready for Transformational Leadership

Abstract

Abstract. Based on results of TALIS-2013, of which Russia was a participant for the first time, we analyze the demographic characteristics, years of work experience and workload of school principals, their competencies and opportunities for professional development, as well as their working conditions, responsibilities and priorities. We also discuss how principals participate in teacher performance assessments and delegate their school management powers, which resources they need, and how they assess the performance of their schools. Research was conducted in 14 regions of Russia and revealed different levels of leadership potential in educational institutions. The recent changes to the education system (the new Federal Law "On Education" and the new Federal State Educational Standards) require principals to work in a transformational leadership style, but only few of the respondents appear to succeed in this. Principals prefer "operating manually" and interacting with individual teachers, not staff groups. Authoritarianism and unwillingness to delegate power are the major handicaps to the transformational leadership of schools principals. There has been no established system for school principal training in Russia so far. Only a few of the regions are reported to have trained over 20 percent of candidates prior to employment; meanwhile, there are some regions with no principal training at all. It is imperative that school principal training programs teach teambuilding, delegation of power and distributed leadership skills.

Complex Strategy Of Differentiated Development Of Managerial Staff Of Educational Organisation

“…These findings did not contradict the results of the study of the readiness of Russian schools' principals for the work in the transformational mode, undertaken by the employees of Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences and the Institute of Education of Higher School of Economics (Lenskaya, Brun, 2016), which allowed characterising them as valid.…”

“…and Morozova O.P. rightly note, an expert begins to form long before entering primary school and proceeds with formation after graduating from higher school for the rest of one's life (Morozova, 2015, p. 18 (Lenskaya, Brun, 2016). Therefore, the study of the managerial staff of educational organisations was integrated, included self-evaluation and mediated diagnostics of professional managerial qualities.…”

Challenges and opportunities for culturally responsive leadership in schools: Evidence from Four European countries

“…Most school principals in the Russian Federation belong to the majority ethnic group. School leaders spend most of their time on administrative and leadership tasks, including meetings, writing reports and responding to requests and much less time on curriculum and teaching-related tasks (Lenskaya and Brun, 2016). According to Part 2, Article 26 of the Federal Law dated 29 December 2012, No.…”

Management Team Of Educational Organization: Definition, Essential Features, Development Incentives

“…The efficiency of implementing management functions as such will determine efficiency and performance of educational organizations. This assumption is confirmed in the works of domestic and foreign scientists (Kasprzhak, & Bysik, 2014;Lenskaya & Brun, 2016;Ushakov, 2013;Witziers, Bosker, & Kruger, 2003). In this regard, Prof. M. Barber and others think that in order to achieve the relevant tasks of education there is a need for professional managers possessing the required qualities and skills (Barber, Donnelly & Rizvi, 2012, p. 3).…”