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Dobson, David
(1994).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000ff28
Abstract
This research examines the role and development of senior management teams in secondary comprehensive schools. It was undertaken by a deputy headteacher with seven year's experience as a member of a senior management team, three years as a senior teacher and four years as deputy head. The research is a response to both the changing nature and role of senior management and the need for recommendations for future INSET of senior management teams.
An opportunity sample of four senior management teams of comprehensive schools in Cambridgeshire and North London was selected. The research was carried out by in-depth interviews and periods of observation in the four schools, and informal conversation with informants. This followed a literature survey of existing research into the skills and training of school managers. The interviews were taped and focused on the role and needs of serving senior management teams in order to provide a basis for a future development programme. Attempts were made to pick out those issues which brought about anxiety amongst senior management teams and to identify those skills which underpin their performance and those where assistance and support would be welcome in their acquisition thereof.
Major categories emerged from the interviews :-
(a) The tasks of senior management teams.
(b) The demands made on them and their coping strategies.
(c) The needs of senior management teams
Recommendations were made that a development programme for all senior management teams in secondary schools should be established. This would include a policy for training the whole team, a training programme for senior managers prior to their commencing an appointment, an induction programme which meets the specific needs of individuals and a policy for training existing deputies for headship.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
