Making inroads in educational leadership within the Euro-Mediterranean context : a collaborative initiative between Italy and Malta (original) (raw)

Authentic educational leadership for 21st century Malta : breaking the bonds of dependency

1999

Currently educational leadership in Malta is undergoing a radical transformation at both systems and school level. The Maltese education' authorities are decentralising a number of responsibilities to the school .site. This paper argues that whilst creating the self-managing school is the way forward to improve the quality of education there is doubt as to what leadership model, if any, central authorities are trying to institutionalise at both systems and school level. It is argued that central authorities need to project a clear vision which will help schools establish a professional culture which offers choice, authority and responsibility. Whilst the changes that await us call for adaptive and technical challenges, a claim is madefor afocus on the human side of management. The paper highlights the importance of principle-centred leadership, a leadership which finds its source in the intellect, heart, mind and _ souls of individuals and one which is sustained through meaningful relationships. Educational managers need to be given opportunities to develop as persons with special focus on areas like learning, creativity, values, empowerment and collegiality.

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 ...

Contending with Governance and Leadership as Critical Issues within the Maltese Educational System

The Open Education Journal, 2012

In a context of reform aimed at providing a quality education for all children, governance and leadership play a crucial and central role. Hence, it has been deemed essential to study the way governance and leadership are being tackled and introduced by central authorities as they move towards greater devolution of authority to the micro level, represented in Malta through a College network system. The article takes cognisance of the fact that we are still in the initial stages of the reform and that the reflections are based on initial studies that have been carried out over the past few years and a critique presented by the authors. Striking the balance between centralized and decentralized practices, focusing on different forms of professional development, a heavy emphasis on cooperation and sharing of good practices have been identified as essential ingredients that have to be addressed in a strategic manner and sustained over time.

Leading futures: Global perspectives on educational leadership

Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 2019

Introduction In the last two decades improving student achievement(s) became one of the key issues among global and national policymakers, along with an increased focus on quality school leadership when discussing changes and issues of excellence in schools and education systems (Vaillant, 2015). System and school leaders’ contributions towards the improvement of education systems, along with student learning outcomes, became a part of key educational policy that travelled globally among nations (Schleicher, 2012). In their enactment, these policy ideas and initiatives, once constituted globally (by supra-national institutions like UNESCO and OECD) and nationally, took on different forms when they entered the landscape of national policy, as the processes of reshaping such initiatives and ideas into national and local policy are complex and multifaceted. Consequently, an increasing number of scholars in the field of policy and educational leadership started to investigate some of th...

Leading schools from the 'Middle' in Italy. Middle leadership in a context of distributed leadership

Current education reforms have resulted in enhanced responsibilities and accountabilities for all schools while leadership responsibility is now stretched over a range of different actors. Following with this, the centrality of distributed leadership reinforces the importance of the middle tier to generate improvement and to influence teaching and learning processes in schools. Unfortunately this is not the case of Italy, where any attempt to introduce and recognize intermediate layers of management have been unsuccessful. In this sense, Italy lacks an organizational component that the literature has identified as crucial to improving the quality of education. By reviewing international studies in the field of school leadership, the author will discuss middle management in schools in relation to the current discourse on distributed leadership in the attempt to pave a debate on middle leadership in Italy

Investigating School Leadership within a European Project

ECPS - Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies, 2015

This article draws on the work conducted within the context of the European Policy Network on School Leadership. Its aim is to discuss and reflect upon school leadership policy development in the context of European education systems. The first section focuses on the concept of school leadership, identifying connections between school leadership practices and the promotion of equity and learning in schools. The second section discusses critical factors in policy implementation that shape the capacity of school leaders to combat inequalities and promote learning performance in schools. The article ends with an outlining of key policy actions for the promotion of distributed leadership practices in schools. In effect, this section stresses the need for a conceptual shift in understanding school leadership, from the position, roles, responsibilities, traits and capacities of the individuals holding formally assigned leadership roles in schools, to leadership as a function inside schools. As it is argued, such a conceptual shift calls for a policy shift in school leadership capacity-building that strengthens, but also goes beyond, the traditional repertoire of policies that focus on the preparation and professional training of school heads or other members of formal teams responsible for school management.

European Training Path for 21st Century School Leaders

This article investigates the competences of school leaders needed to develop learning communities (LCs) in the context of European school governance systems. It shows the output of a two-years project “School Governance to build a Learning Community” supported by European Union, with the involvement of Sweden, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Romania. Basing on an empirical research, we designed an “European Training Path” for school leaders who want to build LCs. The training path is planned to be sharable in the EU countries and, at the same time, differentiable on the basis of each country’s particular needs.

This way please! Improving school leadership: the OECD way

Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2010

The main objectives of these reports were to compare school leadership policy between participating countries and to identify innovative practices and options for policy development. As part of the preparation for the final report, a background report on school leadership in the Republic of Ireland was prepared by the Department of Education and Science in 2007. This report will be analysed in this paper in order to identify the degree to which the background report achieved the objective of capturing the current and emerging issues facing school leaders in Ireland. A critique of the 'one size fits all' approach to policy in the area of school leadership detailed in Volume 1 of the OECD report follows. This critique contests that some of the policy recommendations contained in the report are based on a narrow and selective range of supporting evidence. A number of these are a cause of some concern particularly when considered in the context of specific features of the schools in the Republic of Ireland.

Improving School Leadership - OECD Review

2006

Background Report for Flanders Geert Devos Melissa Tuytens 18/10/2006 This report was prepared for the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training for the OECD Activity Improving School Leadership following common guidelines the OECD provided to all countries participating in the activity. Country background reports can be found at www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership. Flanders has granted the OECD permission to include this document on the OECD Internet Home Page. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the national authority, the OECD or its Member countries. The copyright conditions governing access to information on the OECD Home Page are provided at www.oecd.org/rights CHAPTER 4: SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND STIMULATING LEARNING 36 4.1 Points of interest in the policy regarding quality of education 36 4.2 Accountability of the school in relation to pupil learning 36 4.2.1 The curriculum and pupil assessment 36 4.