Search

To understand the realities and complexities faced by beginning primary school principals, a group of researchers from Belgium, Canada, England, the Netherlands, and the United States launched a collaborative study in 2000. This report describes the Belgium arm of the study. The study set out to answer the following: What are similarities and differences in the work of school principals in different countries? What encourages and discourages people from aspiring to the principalship? How do new principals perceive and deal with external influences? How do new principals adjust to their role? How does the culture of the school evolve with the arrival of the new principal? The sample for the Belgium study consisted of 174 principals. Data were gathered from an initial questionnaire and followup interviews. The main findings included the following: Some 80 percent of the principals perceived the job as an opportunity to build a valuable career. Being trusted and accepted by teachers and parents was the most positive experience for the principals. On the other side of the coin, principals often experienced a noncollaborative school climate and turbulent policy environment, making it difficult to resolve conflicts. Appended are data about the principals and their schools. (Contains 21 references.)(WFA)

This study investigated what motivated principals to seek professional development and criteria they used when reflecting on their professional development experiences. It explored how they conceptualized the implementation process of their inservice experiences and noted why they chose specific professional development programs and how they used acquired knowledge. Graduate students interviewed elementary principals who had participated every year for at least 3 years in a professional development program. Before the interview, principals completed questionnaires on demographics, work situation, three professional development programs in which they participated, reasons why they participated, program usefulness, quality of training, and how training supported their professional learning. The interviews collected more detailed information on the same topics. Data analysis indicated that principals wanted to know more about some innovations before acting on them. Principals valued inservice programs that provided information confirming their personal theories. Most principals valued chances for informal networking during inservice activities. Principals wanted a balanced blend of information, demonstrations, practice, reflection, and discussion about implementation problems. The most effective inservice training method involved the principals and all of the teachers participating in an inservice program. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

This paper focuses on the collegial relationship between school leaders and teachers, and describes the very specific policies behind the school leader's influence on teachers' professional development. In the first phase, 39 teachers from 11 schools were interviewed regarding the teachers' perceptions of their personal professional development and professional relationships with other team members. In the second phase, a case study was made of two Flemish schools to analyze the relationships between the concepts explored in the first phase and the patterns that could be discerned in these relationships. The hypothesis that teachers' professional development depends not only on the individual teacher's commitment but also on several workplace conditions was confirmed. The teachers' perceptions of the way school leaders function appears to be an important parameter for the appreciation of the contribution of the school to the process of professional development. The paper recommends that one should get closer to the participants in the leadership relationship and argues for a symbolic "interactionist" approach paying full attention to the meanings, perspectives, and purposes underlining the social relations between school leaders and teachers. (Contains 31 references.) (DFR)

In 1991, the Flemish Ministry of Education enacted a radical reorganization and rethinking of the education inspectorate in Flanders. Presenting an overview of this change, this paper reports on research that evaluated the effects of the 1991 decree regarding inspection funding. It focuses on the ways schools reacted to and made use of facilities concerning quality control and support. The central research interest addressed the way primary schools deal with external facilities for educational quality. The criteria for effect was whether, and to what degree, the schools' use of the external quality services effectively contributed to teachers' professional development and the effect on the schools' organizational development. Three principles characterized the methodology: the interactionist point of view, a contextualized stance, and the constructivist principle. A qualitative-interpretative approach and case studies were used for the study. The general conclusion was that the external quality services are not having an impact at the local school level, caused in part by the micropolitical processes in the schools, the problem of specific professional competence for counselors and principals, and the need for internal structures in the schools to support the incorporation of interventions by the external quality services. (Contains 38 references.) (RJM)

This study attempted to develop a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the diagnostic and remedial capacity of primary schools and to apply this instrument in examining how special needs services are provided in ordinary primary schools in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The study's conceptual model was based on two clusters--the key players (the individual teacher, the school team, and the principal) and the dimensions present for key players (organizational characteristics, opinions and beliefs, and activities). The developed questionnaire is intended to evaluate services at both the class and school levels and contains variables in the nine cells resulting from the combination of the two cluster groups. A stratified sample of 104 schools participated with questionnaires returned from 844 teachers, principals, and remedial teachers. Analysis of the questionnaire's validity and reliability was conducted and the individual scales were judged to be both reliable and valid. Additionally, the questionnaire was standardized both relative to the reference group of schools and to absolute standards determined by educational inspectors. The questionnaire is recommended as part of a full, school-based review of educational practice and policy concerning provision of diagnostic and remedial services for special needs students. (Contains 51 references.) (DB)

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory for the relationship between primary school teachers' autonomy and collegiality and its impact on their professional development. In the first phase of the research, 39 teachers from 11 primary schools in Belgium were interviewed about autonomy, collegiality, and professional development. The questions of the semi-structured interview were based on orienting theory, making explicit the researcher's research thesis. A two-part analysis of the data was made. The first part reconstructed the story of each teacher regarding professional development and each school regarding autonomy and collegiality. The second phase used multiple case research. Two schools were selected from among the schools in the first phase and data were collected over a six-week observation period. The data confirmed the existence of collegiality variants. For example, teachers' communication often takes place very informally as in hallway conversations, but these are important collegial experiences. Autonomy was found to be a balancing act between too much dependence on colleagues and not enough. Novice teachers, in particular, are reluctant to seek colleagues' advice lest they appear less qualified or less competent. (Contains 97 references.) (JLS)

Vision and vision building play a central role in the construction of a professional culture. Vision concerns the goals that an organization wants to achieve, and indicates a shared consensus about the value of daily activities and decisions in relation to some goals and the future of an organization. In this paper, the degree of goal consensus is considered as the main indicator of the existence of a vision. Using the case study of one school in Belgium, a concrete and specific vision is portrayed. High-vision and low-vision schools are then compared in a study of nine elementary schools in Belgium. Interviews with 63 principals and staff members and site visits identify patterns of organizational culture in these schools. The results show that the high-vision schools have a clear degree of goal consensus while low-vision schools are characterized by a low awareness of common goals beyond those of the individual classroom. Interventions by principals, resulting in increased communication, can strengthen the vision of a school, and increase the potential for working toward common goals. A 19-item list of references is included. (SLD)

An overview of recent trends in research on educational innovation contributes to a framework for further analysis. Two basic assumptions made are that innovation depends on multiple factors and that innovation itself is a three-stage process involving initiation, implementation, and incorporation into an organizational structure. The most important of the stages is implementation. The distinction between educational reform, which happens at the system-wide level, and educational innovation, which occurs at much lower levels, dictates that research on the implementation of innovations must focus on the "micro" level, that of the school and the classroom. A summary of research on the determinants of implementation indicates that they comprise four sets of factors, including the nature of the innovation, the characteristics of the school, the attitudes and attributes of the teachers, and the particular strategies chosen for implementation. However, researchers on innovation should not ignore the role of larger sociopolitical influences, such as the lack of long-term continuity in governmental policies. (RW)

The general meaning of research data drawn from study of school improvement programs creates the opportunity for sound theory building. By emphasizing the principal's role in policy development, this paper analyzes the characteristics of large-scale educational innovation projects and their explanatory foundations. Belgium's comprehensive Renewed Primary School project involving 275 schools illustrates the link between theory and practice. Vaguely formulated project goals encourage differing innovative configurations among schools, which are additionally influenced by the principal's role. Interviews with teachers from 24 schools revealed 4 types of local innovation policy emphasis: planning, interaction, risk avoidance, and cooptation. Each school's level of implementation was assessed from teaching activities data and project ratings. Analysis indicates that principals intervene differently in schools with a high level of implementation compared to schools with a low level of implementation. The search for the relationship between interventions and implementation involves locating an underlying explanatory factor that "creates meaning." Perceiving leadership as a language game suggests that language is the vehicle conveying meaning. Understanding the interconnections between explanatory factors provides a conceptual basis for prediction and for action-oriented studies because research and practice are linked--and are testable--through mutual feedback. Seventeen references are appended. (CJH)

Three research questions are addressed in this paper: (1) What does school improvement mean in relation to the context of a research project? (2) Given particular developments in European society and the nature of primary research data, what should schools be like in the year 2001? (3) What steps are being taken in research and development to answer these questions? Because such fundamental questions have no easy answers, this discussion is limited to reflections based on educational research and development experiences in various Western European countries. Section 2 of the report analyzes characteristics of large-scale innovation projects in education. The context of school improvement is discussed, and the meaning of school improvement is interpreted. To provide an illustration to the second research question, the report's third section explores specific tasks facing schools in 2001 by referring to Belgium's comprehensive Renewed Primary School project. The processes involved in study of the large-scale innovation project are deliberated. The final section focuses on research and development questions that should be considered in the next decade. Methodological approaches to emerging complex research issues include design of long-term follow-up studies and use of multiple data sources. Twenty references conclude the report. (CJH)

The Renewed Primary School project in Belgium is analyzed in this paper in terms of organizational response to a large-scale innovation, which is characterized by its multidimensionality, by the large number of participating schools, and by a complex support structure. Section 2 of the report presents an elaborated description of these characteristics. As local organizations, schools react differently to project implementation. From 1981-85, local organizational reactions were analyzed and four general types of local innovation policy emphases were distinguished: planning, interaction, risk avoidance, and cooptation. The nature of the local innovation policy influences the degree of implementation of project innovation goals. Data in section 3 illustrate the relationship between policy type and degree of implementation. The report analyzes the importance research has given to exploring the complex relationship between the local innovation policy and the degree of implementation. In the search to understand why some schools change successfully and others do not, recent attention is focusing on differences in local school context as an explanation for sporadic positive outcomes. Such examination is recommended to improve administrators' and researchers' understanding of conditions under which change initiatives succeed and fail. (CJH)

A common theme of both internal and environmental school leadership is the expectation that principals justify permanently the specific decisions they make. This justification is a main requirement for creative leadership. Data from four Belgian primary school studies illustrate that teachers are confronted with different justification styles and that principals offer a great deal of creative leadership. (32 references) (MLH)

The selection of the subjects taught at present in the primary schools and the way they are taught is not accidental. The subjects taught are determined by a network of interactions and communications between the school and other persons and institutions. Using the results of a teacher questionnaire, this report examines operational curricula and tries to determine by whom and what this daily practice is influenced. Purpose of the study was to make it easier to plan for future innovations in curricula. Factors that determine a teacher's behavior in the classroom and at school were listed as the persons, institutions, and sources the teacher interacts with and that he or she perceives as influencing concrete actions in the classroom. Constraints were defined as a datum (for example, too big a number of pupils in the class), a physical datum (too little room to make experiments on science), or an action of a person (a negative intervention by the inspector), and so on. Results show the teachers feel that certain decisions they make or wish to make are restrained by the way they are helped in their daily practice and the way the innovation policy is realized, and by factors that they themselves are daily and directly confronted with in their classroom. (Author/LD)

In most of the Western European countries, innovations in the primary schools are introduced by a central authority. After a decision is made to adopt a new curriculum or recommend a particular instructional procedure, inspectors introduce it to the teachers. This research report examines on the one hand the extent to which inspectors and teachers consider the innovations as desirable and realizable and on the other hand how these two groups motivate their personal views on the matter. The desired result was to learn which objectives are considered important by these groups and what importance they attach to different constraints. Respondents to a questionnaire were asked to choose and rank from a list of 12 motives and 18 constraints related to innovations in the primary school. The findings indicate that inspectors pay less attention to all the possible constraints than is required by their task, which consists of motivating the teachers for the innovation. Also, when inspectors point out constraints, the constraints are of a different kind from those considered important by the teachers. In a political-administrative innovation strategy, the authors conclude, inspectors must pay more attention to the adoption and the dissemination of the innovation and less to its implementation. (Author/LD)