Regardless of how good results they achieve in relation to the criteria or standards of quality of the work of institutions, directors need additional learning in several areas so that they could become successful leaders and managers.
The number of directors who receive permanent professional development is very small, although this is very important, because only in this way can they develop their abilities and be the progress that is needed. The basic academy is the way in which this goal is achieved. It is a very important step not only for the development of personal careers, but also the schools themselves as institutions, and therefore education as a whole, which of course affects society as a whole.
The double role of school principals
Many theoreticians of management in education considered the dual role of school principals, considering from the aspect of manager / leader, and based on differences between managers and leaders, they defined the basic characteristics of the different roles that the school director has – the school director as the leader of the professionals and the school principal as the chief executives.
The school principal as a leader of professionals views people as active factors and creates the conditions for them to manage themselves, helping them to do things to achieve a common vision. He is an innovator, he creates changes and ensures that others accept, is content-oriented and enters the essence of interpersonal relationships.
The school principal as the chief executives is oriented to processes and duties, sees people as passive and does things through other people. It introduces changes only when it must also ensure the stability of the system by various mechanisms of control of conditions and the rest.
They must have the ability to manage numerous tensions and dilemmas that arise from the opposing interests of the groups that represent the various internal and external contexts in which they operate
What does it mean in practice?
The essential role of the school principal is reflected in the promotion and support of interactive professionalism and the understanding that he, among other things, must understand a culture, appreciates its teachers and supports their professional development, encourages cooperation, creates and offers opportunities, uses bureaucratic resources to help and improve.
He is the boss of perpetrators, he is responsible for the environment for the organization’s success and successful management of the institution; leader of professionals is responsible for leading a group of teachers, who mostly have a high level of expertise in doing their job.
The school principal has a dual role, since he is the leader of the institution, with adequate managerial responsibility, but also retains the role of a professional in education. The essence of the dual role of the director of the school is reflected in the fact that he himself is a professional, which results in the need for continuous improvement and additional education for the performance of the school principal because this is the only way he can acquire the knowledge necessary for this complex role.
