About
This report, Preparing future leaders: Effective preparation for aspiring school principals, highlights the key challenges in preparing principals for current and future school needs and provides an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of the current state of play across Australia.
The report makes 5 recommendations:
1. Take a systematic, standards-based and coherent approach
To be effective, principal preparation must be systematic and coherent, based on clearly articulated professional standards.
It should include the following elements:
a thorough appreciation of leadership demographics and trends
clear and shared understandings of the principal role, underpinned by professional standards
a focus on the attractiveness of the principal role so that teachers are eager to make the move into leadership
responsibility for identifying and preparing future leaders shared between employers, system leaders and the profession
structured professional development opportunities for aspiring principals that focus on leadership abilities.
2. Identify and nurture talent
Great principal preparation identifies and nurtures potential leaders early in their careers. It should give future leaders a range of opportunities to develop their leadership skills, as well as provide clear career pathways.
Successful succession planning requires:
3. Match learning to an individual’s capabilities, career stage and context
Pathways to advancement should be clear, with professional learning appropriate to each level explicit, well understood and sustained after appointment.
To be effective, learning for aspiring leaders should occur in three broad stages:
developing deep and comprehensive pedagogical knowledge as the foundation for strong instructional leadership. This learning can be done relatively early in the journey to principalship as it is compatible with a teaching role
developing the many higher-order and interpersonal skills required by principals, including strategic thinking, change leadership, and emotional and social intelligence. This learning is best developed over time and should occur well before an aspirant takes on the role of principal
developing management skills. This learning is best undertaken immediately prior to assuming a principal role, as it can then be consolidated through immediate practice.
4. Use evidence-based adult learning techniques
Highly effective preparation programs reflect a range of adult learning techniques. These programs use techniques that have been shown to be effective and allow for a diverse experience throughout the program.
They include:
discriminating application and selection processes matched to the learning opportunity
spaced delivery, blended learning and the opportunity to apply new skills and knowledge, collaborate, gain feedback and receive ongoing support
a degree of personalisation that takes into account the needs, career stage and context of the individual
an emphasis on learning from experts and practitioners
recognition for the learning undertaken.
5. Evaluate programs for impact
For principal preparation programs to remain accountable and continuously improve, they need to engage in rigorous evaluation.
Principal preparation evaluations should:
provide evidence of participant readiness for the role
measure impact upon take-up of role
demonstrate growth in the number of well-prepared aspirants available to take up future vacancies.
