Job realities of primary school principals in Greece: similarities and variations in a highly centralized system

Abstract

This study aims at investigating primary school principals’ work on a daily basis in order to understand the ways in which the centralized educational system affects their practices. Four typical cases of principals were selected and asked to keep daily records for a period of four months. Data from logs were complemented with data collected through semi-structured interviews with the principals as well as through discussions with the teaching staff. Results show that the transactional-bureaucratic model in line with the current legislation and administration tradition shapes principals’ activities to a large extent. School administration, school organization and internal relationships are the most important areas of principals’ activities. Educational-pedagogic issues constitute only a marginal area of their activities. The homogenization of principals’ activities is so high that they do not seem to be affected either by school contextual factors or by the individual principals’ personal traits. However, features pointing towards a more transformative-instructional model of leadership were identified. These features are: (a) the democratic-participative nature of decision-making, (b) the intimate relationships existing in most schools and (c) the motivation that some principals have towards creating a unique identity of their school and communicate it to the hierarchy and the community.

Notes

1. Unless they are explicitly differentiated, the terms ‘school leadership’, ‘school management’ and ‘school administration’ will be used interchangeably, while we fully acknowledge the fact that these terms correspond to clearly differing meanings in terms of complexity (Dimmock, 1999).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kostas Dimopoulos

Kostas Dimopoulos is a professor of Learning Materials in the Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of the Peloponnese, Damaskinou & Kolokotroni, 20100, Korinthos, Greece. Email: [email protected]. He has recently served as vice president of the Institute of Education Policy (national authority supervised by the Ministry of Education). His current research interests concern the analysis of school culture. He has written 78 articles in peer-reviewed national and international journals, conference papers and recently two books.

Katerina Dalkavouki

Katerina Dalkavouki is a researcher in the Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of the Peloponnese, Damaskinou & Kolokotroni, 20100, Korinthos, Greece. Email: [email protected]. She has recently completed a thesis on School Leadership.

Vasilis Koulaidis

Vasilis Koulaidis is a professor of Education in the Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of the Peloponnese, Damaskinou & Kolokotroni, 20100, Korinthos, Greece. Email: [email protected]. He has recently served as Secretary General of the Greek Ministry of Education and Lifelong Learning for two and a half years. He has participated in numerous national and international projects as well as in many advisory boards for education (PISA, OECD and E.U). He has published extensively on pedagogical issues, focusing particularly on curriculum, instruction and education policy.