Abstract
This article reports on the first stage of a study by a group of researchers involved or interested in principal (headship) preparation in Western Australia, Canada, England, Jamaica, Mexico, Scotland, South Africa, Turkey and the United States. The study, known as the International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP), discusses the background to the current policies in principal preparation, and examines the standards-led approach to principal preparation. This paper focuses on England and Scotland for comparative purposes, and asks how much we know about the effectiveness of current principal preparation.
This report is based on work completed as part of the International Study of the Preparation of Principals (ISPP). Information about the ISPP is available online: http://www.ucalgary.ca/∼cwebber/ISPP/index.htm
The authors would like to thank their co-researchers in the ISPP project, and in particular those colleagues who got them thinking about this aspect of the project during the research meeting in Calgary, June 2004.