Purpose: Reorganizing schools and managing through teams is seen as a way to achieve school goals, especially in educational contexts that are highly focused on measurable student achievements. This shift to shared leadership requires principals to play a key role in promoting school management team (SMT) outcomes. Accordingly, this study aims to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how primary school principals in Israel cope with the gaps between authority and responsibility in their work, deriving from partially implemented decentralization processes, and how this relates to school-based management (SBM) and accountability principles. Design/methodology/approach: Using…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how principals' leadership approaches to teacher professional development arise from school banding and may impact upon teacher professional capital and student achievement. Design/methodology/approach: The case study is situated within the context of school-based management, comprising reflective…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the issue of school-based management (SBM) in elementary schools in the Arab education system in Israel, comparing schools experienced in SBM, schools beginning to use SBM and schools that do not use SBM. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative research used a structured questionnaire to…

Purpose: The paper seeks to apply the theory of the democratic deficit to school-based management with an emphasis on Australia. This theory was developed to examine managerial restructuring of the Australian Public Service in the 1990s. Given similarities between the use of managerial practices in the public service and government schools, the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine first the job responsibilities undertaken by vice-principals and second to investigate the respective contribution of each job responsibility in preparing them for the principalship. Because new principals are drawn predominantly from the ranks of vice-principals in Hong Kong, it is important to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the current school-based management (SBM) policy reform in Indonesia, with an emphasis on the impacts of shifting authority and responsibility to school level, as well as challenges confronted by the school council members, followed by remedial measures to minimize the problems.…

Purpose: The primary purpose is to present empirical measures of variables relating to practices engaged in by site-based teams, and then to use these variables to test a model predicting significant outcomes of site-based decision making. The practice variables of site-based management (SBM) teams are essential in promoting research within a…

Summarizes a study using latent-trait theory to construct a variable that conceptualizes practitioner perspectives about the deputy principalship in self-managing (Australian) primary schools. A sample of 403 deputy principals, 179 principals, and 138 teachers was analyzed according to both actual and ideal situations, using a Rasch measurement…

The first education reform wave stressed top-down state initiatives identifying educators as the problem and prescribed greater accountability, closer supervision, tighter regulation, better teacher screening, tougher graduation standards, and a longer school year. The second reform wave saw educators as the solution and advocated bottom-up…

Develops a profile of preferred conflict-management behaviors and strategies of a sample of principals in a large urban school district with site-based managed schools. Results reflect principals' preference for solution-oriented conflict strategies, where differences are resolved through collaborative and integrative problem solving. (Contains 85…

Chronicles perceived dilemmas of 20 Australian principals whose work lives were preoccupied with school restructuring. Findings suggest two main types of dilemmas: general, personal/professional "states of mind" and specific, practical organizational dilemmas. Research is needed on devising management solutions and improving leadership…

Principals' job orientation has recently changed from school management to instructional leadership, though research indicates principals are instrumental in influencing student achievement gains. Effective schooling characteristics are synthesized, a diagnostic instrument of principals' training relative to instructional leadership is discussed,…

Confronts possibilities and problems associated with creating diverse, multicultural, inclusive schools. Illustrates how schools can better serve students by fostering a sense of community while advancing both solidarity and diversity. Inclusive schools maintain and expand the focus on contiguity-based solidarity begun with site-managed schools…

Summarizes a Louisiana study that asked teachers and new principals in 24 restructuring schools to assess their level of involvement in shared decision making, the kinds of information used to reach decisions, and their perceptions of various information sources' usefulness. Results showed high involvement but little valuing of information beyond…