Educational leadership in the Republic of Croatia (original) (raw)

Leadership in education: the case of Serbia

2019

The paper deals with major aspects of educational leadership in Serbia. First, the legislative framework is presented which, in the last several years, has considerably focused on the roles and obligations of principals, as well as their formal training and licensing. Then, the findings of the research on principals’ needs, problems and perspectives on leadership since 2000 are described. This section shows that principals are aware of the multitude of competencies that they need to have in order to professionally fulfill their duties, but that they also believe that many problems hamper them in their jobs: insufficient school funding, teacher employment policies, inconsistent legislation, poor selection procedures of principals, inadequate support from higher administrative levels and so on. Subsequently, the paper gives an overview of seminars, trainings and academic programs that comprise the current offering of professional development opportunities for principals. Among them, t...

Analysis of elements and process of school principals' professionalization in Croatia

Management

By combining the attributive-taxonomic and process approaches to the profession, resulting from different sociological traditions, the professional elements and the professionalization of school principals in Croatia are analysed. The research was conducted by survey method in 2017. The sample was convenient and included 73 principals who participated in the research activities of the Centre of Scientific Excellence for School Effectiveness and Management. Our results suggest that the job of school principals in Croatia cannot be considered a profession yet. There are no fundamental elements that differentiate the profession from an ordinary occupation. More specifically, there is a lack of expertise in the area of educational management and leadership (authority), cooperation with professional associations in defining the professional socialization (autonomy), as well as high social status (attractiveness) as a result of the state of previous elements. Given the contextual specific...

Leadership Characteristics of Employees in School Systems in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia / Liderske Karakteristike Zaposlenih U Školstvu Na Području Republike Hrvatske I Republike Srbije

Croatian Journal of Education-Hrvatski Casopis za Odgoj i obrazovanje, 2012

The aim of this research was to determine the presence of leadership characteristics and features in the employees of the educational institutions in Croatia and Serbia. Research tasks have been realized by comparing the answers of the respondents from Croatia and Serbia in relation to the evaluation of professional and leadership characteristics and personality traits, examined by the survey and scaling techniques, instruments in the form of a questionnaire and an attitude scale. The research population consists of elementary and secondary schools found on the territories of the entire Croatia and Serbia, while the research sample consists of 237 principals, teachers, professors, assistants in schools who have participated in the research in Croatia and 252 respondents who have participated in the research in Serbia. The statistical SPSS package was used for data processing (factor scores at Promax extracted dimensions, correlations and discriminant analysis). The data point to the more favourable results in the case of the participants from Croatia who, in relation to their colleagues in Serbia, show more expressed leadership characteristics 1 .

Leadership Characteristics of Employees in School Systems in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia

The aim of this research was to determine the presence of leadership characteristics and features in the employees of the educational institutions in Croatia and Serbia. Research tasks have been realized by comparing the answers of the respondents from Croatia and Serbia in relation to the evaluation of professional and leadership characteristics and personality traits, examined by the survey and scaling techniques, instruments in the form of a questionnaire and an attitude scale. The research population consists of elementary and secondary schools found on the territories of the entire Croatia and Serbia, while the research sample consists of 237 principals, teachers, professors, assistants in schools who have participated in the research in Croatia and 252 respondents who have participated in the research in Serbia. The statistical SPSS package was used for data processing (factor scores at Promax extracted dimensions, correlations and discriminant analysis). The data point to the more favourable results in the case of the participants from Croatia who, in relation to their colleagues in Serbia, show more expressed leadership characteristics

Leadership in Education . Initiatives and trends in selected European countries

2021

This book is one of the outcomes of a TEMPUS project (EdLead) coordinated by the Faculty of Education of the University of Kragujevac in Serbia, implemented in cooperation with three other Serbian universities (Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad) and the Institute for Educational Research (Belgrade) between 2013 and 2017.2 The project has aimed to develop a master’s programme for school leaders in Serbia with the support of three international partners: the Netherlands School for Educational Management (Netherlands), the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), and the University of Szeged (Hungary). The EdLead project included several knowledge-generating events and activities. One was an international scientific conference entitled ‘Challenges and dilemmas of professional development of teachers and leaders in education’, organised in Belgrade in 2015. This event contributed to the birth of the idea to produce a collection of analytical national case studies presenting the state of the art and ...

Psychological and Sociological Determinants of Educational Management and Leadership in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina: Results of Empirical Research

2017

In this study, authors analyze the practices and effectiveness of educational management and leadership, according to the selected psychological and sociological characteristics of school principals in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The selected psychological traits have been already analyzed in the case of entrepreneurial orientation and proved to be relevant for differentiation of schools and principals, according to their inclination to entrepreneurship. In this paper, more comprehensive, analytic criteria are used to explore the effectiveness of educational management and leadership practices in the sample of Croatian and B&H principals. The objective of the study is to determine the significance of the psychological and sociological variables for the practice of school management and leadership, as well as to suggest potential implications for school leaders’ professional orientation and development.

Instructional Leadership of Private and Public Schools in Kosovo

SEEU Review

Managing a company or organization in today’s market is a challenge that each leader has to face. Companies have to adapt and embrace challenges, or they will be left behind by the competitors in the market. The leadership of a company has to be creative in order to fulfill the needs of the customers, the market, and its employees. The same rules apply for language teaching organizations, which have to follow the rapid changes in the field of education, technology and marketing all the same. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to acquire knowledge of key aspects of instructional leadership in private and public schools, to find the parameters that make an organization successful, and to compare key management decisions taken by organizations over the years. In focus of this paper is a case study with two primary schools in Kosovo, one public and one private, how they operate, how are they managed and the possible ways of further development. Interviews with the leaders of the sc...

Educational leadership in Hungary

2019

The paper deals with school leadership in Hungary, providing a historical perspective. We review the system changes from the decentralization process following the change of the regime in 1990 to the current centralization process initiated with the 2011 Law on National Public Education. The article focuses on school and leadership autonomy as linchpins of national education systems, analysing different roles (operation, control, maintenance, professional operation) of different stakeholders (maintainer, school, principal, educating staff). We describe the process and requirements of becoming a principal in Hungary, directly focusing on education programmes for school leadership and the evaluation and assessment system of acting principals. The final section deals with different research projects which aim to better understand school leadership through the lenses of organizational culture and effectiveness (Competing Values Framework) and the rhetoric of the learning organization, m...

Correlation of Leadership with Professional Characteristics of Principals in Serbian Schools

 e aim of this research is to connect leadership and pedagogical characteristics of school principals in Serbia. Techniques of interviewing and scaling, instruments in the form of questionnaire and attitude scale have been applied in this paper. Research sample included 75 principals and deputy principals. Data obtained are processed in statistical SPSS package (factor scores on extracted Promax dimensions, Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis) and point to a statistically signifi cant relationship between leadership and pedagogical characteristics of respondents