Comparing school leadership frameworks in New South Wales and Catholic Victoria

School Leadership: Personal and Symbolic

The objective of this work is to compare and contrast the leadership frameworks presented in two separate works. The first of these is a New South Wales, Department of Education and Training publication entitled: "School Leadership Capability Framework" and the work entitled: "Leadership In Catholic Schools: Development Framework and Standards of Practice" a resource that has been developed through a collaborative effort between the Catholic Education Offices of Melbourne and Sale in partnership with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). This has been endorsed by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) and is termed a resource that is "valuable for leadership development in Catholic primary and secondary schools across Victoria." (New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2006)

INTRODUCTION

This work intends to examine the two leadership frameworks which have been introduced and to do so from the standpoint of leadership both in terms of the personal perspective and the symbolic representation of leadership that is necessary for consideration. Specifically this will be examined from the relevance of employment in an independent Australian girl's school. Toward this end, this work will first examine the New South Wales publication as well as the resource published by the Catholic Education Offices of Melbourne and Sale and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Specifically the two shall be compared and contrasted one with the other followed by a brief summary and statement of findings.

Higher Order Leadership Skills Centric to Five Domains

Centric to each of these five stated domains are three higher order leadership skills including: (1) Emotional intelligence; (2) Way of thinking; and (3) Diagnostic maps. (New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2006)

The precise model that builds upon this framework can be visualized as follows:

Figure 1

New South Wales School Leadership Capability Framework: Conceptual Model

Source: Adapted from the work of ( )

Referenced in the work of the NSW DET is the work of Kimball, Milanowski, and McKinney (2009) entitled: "Assessing the Promise of Standards-Based Performance Evaluation for Principals: Results from a Randomized Trial" and stated is that since principal performance is being used as a measure more than ever before of the "...school outcomes, standards-based approaches to evaluating principals' performance have become more common..." (Kimball, Milanowski, and McKinney, 2009)

Reported is a study in which 76 primary and secondary principals from the same school district underwent evaluation through use of the old evaluation system of the district and a new "standards-based system.' (Kimball, Milanowski, and McKinney, 2009)

Reported are findings that include that both of the groups of principals "saw improving student achievement as the main expectation of them, but principals evaluated under the new system also identified instructional leadership as a district expectation, reflecting the more specific guidelines of the new system." (Kimball, Milanowski, and McKinney, 2009)

Findings in this study who that standards-based evaluations for principals should be implemented properly and given recognition as being "only one evaluative influence in a larger context, and to be aligned with performance and accountability expectations." (Kimball, Milanowski, and McKinney, 2009)

II. CATHOLIC EDUCATION COMMISSION OF VICTORIA (2005)

It is stated by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria that the 'Leadership in Catholic Schools: Development Framework and Standards of Practice' has as its aims the: (1) The description of complex work of Catholic school leaders; (2) The support of leaders and aspiring leaders; (3) The provision of teachers with a professional learning guide as they work towards formal leadership positions; and (4) The forming of the basis for a system of assessment against the standards. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005) The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria states that the 'Framework' has two facets as follows: (1) A guiding conception of leadership; and (2) Areas of leadership action. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2009)

The following diagram of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria lists the guiding conceptions of leadership as well as the areas of action for leadership.

Figure 2

Framework Diagram

Source: Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (2005)

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria states that the Catholic school leader receives guidance from "religious, professional and ethical principles and purposes" and that leadership is "not confined to management roles; any individual may demonstrate leadership." (2005) In fact, schools that are effective are those who "foster leadership initiatives from all members of the professional community." (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

Five Key Principles -- Five key principles on leadership primarily adapted from the work of Elmore (2000) and Fullan (2001, 2004) are stated to be those deemed critically important by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (2005).

Those five key principles include the following: (1) The need to have a clear purpose drive by ethical standards and a stated need; (2) Building and maintaining relationships; (3) Understanding and managing the complexities of the change process and most particularly changes in attitudes and teaching practices; (3) The creation of shared knowledge; and (4) Ensuring alignment of the structures and coherence. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

Leader Characteristics - The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria additionally relates that there are certain dispositions "that serve to inspire and motivate others in their pursuit of improved student learning." (2005) Stated to be inclusive in these are the following characteristics:

risk-taking;

open-mindedness; optimism; confidence; decisiveness; reflectiveness; enthusiasm; perseverance; respect; courage; integrity; resilience; empathy. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (2005) states that specific knowledge that is required to be in the repertoire of the school leader are those listed as follows: (1) the capacity to think creatively, build and communicate effective concepts that serve to inform actions; (2) the ability to think creatively and build and communicate concepts that inform action; (3) the ability to understand, rationalize and defend a point-of-view; (4) The ability to draw connections between the practical knowledge of experience and research-based, theoretical knowledge; and (5) The capacity to share and create knowledge with colleagues. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (2005) states that the school leader requires a "bond of understandings that will inform their actions in all areas of the school's work' which includes knowledge of the following: (1) the core beliefs, understanding and principles of Catholic education; (2) the contribution of Catholic education to society; (3) the political, social, economic, legal and cultural contexts of learning; (4) pedagogy and educational theory; (5) curriculum planning and development; (6) the links between curriculum and formative and summative assessment; (7) evidence-based processes to support improvement; (8) modern technologies, their use and impact; (9) change processes and management; (10) school governance at various levels; (11) policy creation, consultation and review; (12) use and management of resources; and (13) environmental issues. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

The development of the 'Framework' is stated to have had two primary purposes: (1) to encourage classroom teachers to consider movement into leadership positions; and (2) to make the provision of some insights into the "next stage of investigation which is concerned with judging the evidence against a standard of performance." (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005) The standards provide teachers "with a bridge from the classroom to school leadership" and as well as providing a guide to "areas of school life where they can provide teachers with leadership opportunities." (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

Stated to be applications of the standards framework are the following: (1) developing individual leadership plans by teachers aspiring to formal and informal leadership roles; (2) guiding annual review meetings; (3) reflecting tool for leadership teams; (4) guiding for cluster professional learning; and (5) as a common framework between schools that work together. (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2005)

These standards further serve as a basis for acknowledging and certifying teachers for having met the standards.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

The NSW, DET leadership framework has five stated domains and these are similar in nature to the five key principles stated by the Catholic Education of Commission of Victoria in that the Personal Domain involves the first key principle in that this principle is stated as the need to have a purpose that is clear and that arises from the ethical standards of the individual. The second domain or the interpersonal domain necessarily involves the building and maintaining of relationships which is the second stated principles by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.

The Educational Domain necessarily involves the third key principle of understanding and managing the complexities of the change process and specifically the changes in attitudes and teaching practices. The Strategic Domain and the fourth key principle of the creation of shared knowledge certainly are compatible and finally the Organizational Domain and the fifth key principle stated by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria of ensuring alignment of the structure and coherence of the organization have much the same meaning to leadership in the school in their application.

Both of these frameworks provide a reference point for school leadership in terms of the supports that are present to assist them in their leadership role and the measures by which their leadership of the school will be assessed. Although the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria has founded these principles and measures based in part upon religious beliefs the two leadership frameworks are in their essence very similar to one another in terms of the practical application of this framework in directing and assessing school leadership.