Competence of the leadership influence school improvement

Abstract

school leadership is now an education policy priority around the world. As countries are seeking to adapt their educational systems to the needs of contemporary rapidly evolving society, expectations for schools and school leaders are changing. school leadership practice has been greatly influenced by changes in educational governance and school contexts. Many researchers agree that school leaders are crucial for school success and sustainable educational reform, and there is a strong need for leaders who demonstrate key attributes and qualities of professionalism. In these circumstances, the attention should be drawn to professional training and development opportunities for school leaders as well as to knowledge and skills that today's school leaders should possess in order to manage schools successfully.

A Preliminary Study Comparing Pre-service and In-service School Principals’ Self-Perception of Distributed Leadership Competencies in Relation to Teaching and Managerial Experience

“…Leadership competencies include the management of different processes such as educational, strategic, operational, interpersonal and intrapersonal together with reflective practice and continuous learning ( Trakšelys et al, 2016 ). Precisely this continuous learning is a factor that is closely related to professional experience, which allows school principals to have the ability not only to manage external pedagogical axes for the benefit of student learning, but also the development of skills that involve listening and intervening in specific social circumstances, understanding individual subjectivities, and being resilient showing the ability to respond efficiently to unpredictable events ( Leithwood et al, 2008 ; Male and Palaiologou, 2015 ).…”

Leadership Competencies: a School Leader Evaluation

“…Handling curriculum and program development are some of the competencies that should be mastered by school leaders. According to Trakselys et al (2016), school leadership becomes a recent priority of education policy. As many countries are adapting their educational system to the contemporary needs rapidly evolving society, the expectations for schools and school leaders are also changing.…”

Paradigmatic Changes In School Heads' Attitudes Towards Leadership Functions

“…Lithuanian research studies on school heads' leadership mostly cover the problems of leadership style and personal competence, leadership training and qualification improvement, and analyse school heads' approaches to the development of managerial competence (Žvirdauskas, 2006;Baronienė, 2008;Želvys, 2010;Malinauskienė, Augienė, 2010;Kontautienė, Melnikova, 2010;Cibulskas, Žydžiūnaitė, 2012;Cibulskas, 2013;Melnikova, 2013Melnikova, , 2014Navickaitė, 2012Navickaitė, , 2013. The role and functions of a school head have been more widely studied by a few researchers (Želvys, 1999, 2003Indrašienė, Merfeldaitė, & Petronienė, 2008;Mečkauskienė, 2009Mečkauskienė, , 2010Trakšelys, Melnikova, & Martišauskienė, 2016). The study done by examining Lithuanian scientific literature on leadership (Valuckienė, Balčiūnas, Katiliūtė, Simonaitienė, & Stanikūnienė, 2015) concurs with the researchers, who point out that the existing body of European scientific literature "provides an insufficient basis for analysing the work of the head as organizational leader" (Ball, 2012, p. 80), and "little attention has been paid to the investigation of how principals reshape their leadership role and leadership practices" (Abrahamsen, Aas, & Hellekjaer, 2015, p. 62).…”

“…Researchers began to analyse management not only in the context of the traditional paradigm of "public management", but also in the context of the paradigms of "new public management" and "systemic change" (Melnikova, 2014;Trakšelys, et al, 2016). The new paradigm of public management was shaped by applying business management principles in the education system, seeking for efficiency and quality, decentralisation and privatisation, focusing on public services and a wider involvement of staff and other stakeholders in management processes (Mulford, 2008;UNESCO, 2009;Melnikova, 2013).…”