Home Elements for a Diagnosis of the Spanish Educational System
4 - School functioning (continued)


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Management and management function


CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRINCIPAL

Most of the members who responded considered the principal should be chosen by the School Council (45%), or by the Teaching Staff (34%). There is also 13% who consider appointment by the holder of the school, who logically are from private schools. There are very few who consider direct appointment by the Educational Administration.

A greater percentage of teachers than in the rest of the sectors consider the principal should be chosen by the Teaching Staff (52% of the teachers). (See graph 1). On the other hand, the greatest percentages in favour of choice by the School Council are among the representatives of the Local Government, parents and principals (60%, 54% and 53% respectively). A significant 68% of the representatives of the holder of the school on the School Council favour the principal being appointed directly by the holder of the school.



Graph 1. What procedure do you consider appropriate to appoint the principal?

There is a greater percentage of those in favour of the principal being chosen by the Teaching Staff at Primary Schools than at Secondary Schools (40% against 28%). On the contrary, the opinion that the principal must be appointed by the holder of the school is inverted (5% in Primary against 21% in Secondary).

There is a majority opinion (78%) that the term of office set for the principal is appropriate. Only 3% of the respondents consider the office of principal should be permanent.

Only 19% of the respondents considered the principal should not teach. The rest consider the principal should spend part of his day teaching, either the same amount as other teachers (6%), or somewhat less (40%), or a short time (35%). That is to say, the majority (75%) consider the principal must spend some of his working day teaching, although less time than the rest of the teachers. The Heads of Study, Principals and representatives of the school holder are those more in favour of the principal teaching, although very little time (57%, 56% and 56%, respectively).

The majority opinion is that the principal must be a teacher from the same school (92% of the respondents affirm this).

87% of the answers state that the principal must receive specific vocational training, through more or less extensive activities; there are minor differences between groups, as may be seen in graph 2.


Graph 2. Must the principal receive vocational training?

The training for principals may be obtained on a specific course, according to 61% of the respondents. Only 14% considered any long training activity, lasting 200 hours or more, convenient.

One must emphasise that the greatest percentages in favour of short vocational training are among the teaching staff (65%) and among the representatives of the school holder (70%), although a higher percentage consider long training activities, over 200 hours, necessary for principals. On the contrary, a greater percentage of students than other groups (29%) affirm that the principal need not specific training.

To sum up, the characteristics of the principal preferred by the majority are: principal chosen by the teachers at the school, with a term in office similar to the present one, who teaches but less than the other teachers, and who has had training for the post on a not very long specific course.




DEGREE OF EFFICIENCY OF THE SCHOOL COUNCIL FUNCTIONING

The questionnaire included a question on the degree of efficiency of functioning of the School Council. 80% of the respondents are fairly or very much in agreement with the statement The School Council at this school operates efficiently. Only 3% do not agree to this at all. Overall, the functioning of the School Councils has an average rating of 3.98 on a scale from 0 (do not agree at all) to 5 ( agree very much).

The representatives of the school holder, followed by the Administration and Services staff, are the groups that globally seem to agree most as to the efficient functioning of the School Council. On the contrary, teachers who are non members of the Council have a much lower average opinion, with significant differences compared with the rest of the groups, although most of them (63%) is very or fairly in agreement with the School Council functioning (See graph 3).



Graph 3. Do you agree with the following affirmation: "The School Council at this school operates efficiently"?

Considering the educational level, Secondary Education schools agree significantly more as to the efficient functioning of the School Council (average 4.06) than Primary Education schools (average 3.90). Moreover, small schools, (less than 380 students) and large schools (more than 650 students) agree more as to the efficient functioning of their School Councils than medium sized schools.




THE MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

Seventeen questions were set in order to detect the degree to which actions related to management functions are performed. For this purpose the respondents must express themselves, so at each school, while the principal responds as to his own actions, the rest of the respondents respond as to what they consider the principal does.


GENERAL EVALUATION OF THE DUTIES OF THE PRINCIPAL

All the member respondents had a positive opinion of the dedication by the principal to the duties evaluated. The arithmetic average of opinions range from 3,92 to 4.60 on a scale of 5. When the responses in the highest categories are grouped together ("a lot", "fairly") in this block they range from 74% to 96% of the estimates. One may thus conclude that the evaluation of the dedication to the duties stated by the principal is positive. Within this evaluation, the lowest average is that for dedication to "encourage training procedures for the teachers at the school" and the highest, for "availability to listen to suggestions" by the members of the school community (table 3).



Table 3. Evaluation of all the principal's duties
Principal's duties Average opinion Answers of "a lot" or "fairly"
Availability to receive and hear suggestions 4,60 95%
Respond to bodies at a higher level 4,51 96%
Execute resolutions by collegiate bodies 4,50 94%
Application and control of the school budget 4,44 92%
Intervention to solve conflicts 4,43 91%
Collaboration with the Administration in teaching quality 4,42 93%
Encouraging a good atmosphere & relations 4,40 90%
Identifying the needs of the school 4,38 92%
Communication with Parents Associations 4,38 91%
Parent information 4,37 90%
Guaranteeing fulfilment of the school rules 4,36 91%
Control of the improvement projects 4,34 92%
Assure proper use of installations and resources 4,32 90%
Ensure advantage is taken of teacher and administrative staff skills 4,17 85%
Information on teaching and orientation efficiency 4,07 82%
Encouragement of team work 3,99 77%
Encouragement of teacher training procedures at the school 3,92 74%


It was noted that the most intense dedication by the principal was for duties related to higher bodies and those concerning school life. With less intensity (although not far behind) there are the duties of administration, management and improvement of the school and those concerning relations with families.

One must point out that the duties of the principal related to the teaching staff obtain the lowest average mark, although this itself is relatively high (with a value near to 4 on a scale of 1 to 5); these are the duties such as encouraging advantage to be taken of teacher skills, information on teaching and orientation efficiency, encouragement of team work, procedure generation and teacher training at the school.


DIFFERENCES IN APPRAISAL OF THE PRINCIPAL'S DUTIES BY THE SECTORS INVOLVED

As described above, the appraisal of the principal's duties by all the respondents lead to the general conclusion that the assessment is fairly high in practically all the duties on which an opinion was requested, although there are differences between these. However, in addition to these general particulars, it seems appropriate to refer to the estimates on these functions issued by the diverse sectors asked. In order to offer this sectorial viewpoint, the differences in appraisal of the different management functions have been noted among the following sets of groups:

  • Assessment of the principal (self-assessment), compared with the rest of the member respondents (hetero-assessment).
  • Assessment by the principal, compared with the joint one by the students, teachers and parents.
  • Assessment of the principal's duties at Primary Schools, compared with those at Secondary Schools.
  • Assessment of the principal's duties at schools with a female instead of male principal.

The self-assessment by the male or female principal of his or her own management tends to be greater than the external assessment by the rest of the members asked as to the functions related to school life, followed by those related to management of the school and its improvement. On the contrary, the principal considers less time is spent than others do on functions related to the Administration and higher bodies. The two types of assessment are equal as to the functions related to teachers and parents.

When self-assessment of the principal's duties is compared with the assessment of same by students, parents and teachers, the differences encountered are very similar to those described before between the principal's self-assessment and assessment by the rest of the members asked (see graph 4).



Graph 4. Self-assessment of the principal's duties, and joint assessment by parents, students and teachers

When the appraisal is differentiated according to the educational stage of the school, few differences have been found between Primary and Secondary Schools, as the twelve duties of the principal were valued in the same way at both types of school. Only the time spent by the principal on maintaining agile relations with the parents' associations is more highly valued at Primary Schools than at Secondary Schools. On the other hand, Secondary Schools have a better appraisal of dedication by the principal to: identifying the needs of the school; controlling the improvement projects; obtaining information on the teaching and orientation efficiency of the teachers, and guaranteeing fulfilment of the school rules.

On the other hand, female principals were noted to receive a higher average rating in their duties than male ones as to the school in general and its improvement and in duties related to school life, with teachers and the Administration. However, no differences were noted as to duties concerning students' families.


FACTOR GROUPING OF THE APPRAISAL OF PRINCIPAL'S DUTIES

The seventeen variables on which an opinion was requested as to the principal's duties as discussed in the previous sections provide detailed information. Due to this, the need was considered to study whether the whole block of questions had an underlying structure that articulated its composition in a logical manner and which, at the same time, summarised the information provided by the original variables. Due to this, factorial analysis was used in order to discover the existence of latent factors or variables that summarise the information provided by the original ones without a substantial loss in that information. The description of the factors is as follows.

Factor 1 could be defined as functions that officially are attributed to the principal. This factor forms several original variables that refer to functions which, in a certain way, are officially expected of the principal. In order from greater to lesser importance in the factor there are the following: availability to hear and deal with suggestions from the different sectors of the school community; execution of resolutions by the collegiate bodies; intervention in conflicts; encouragement of a good atmosphere of relations; responding to higher bodies, identification of the needs of the school; guaranteeing fulfilment of the school rules; control of improvement projects; collaboration with the Administration as to teaching quality; maintaining communication with parents' associations; application and control of the budget; and assuring proper use of facilities and resources. Overall, they may be considered the classical functions expected of the person appointed principal of a school.



Table 4. Factor grouping of the principal's duties
Principal's duties Factor 1 Factor 2
Identification of the needs of the school 0,539 -
Control of improvement projects 0,530 -
Training procedures for the teachers at the school - 0,829
Encouragement of team work - 0,767
Information on teaching efficiency and orientation by teachers

-

0,718

Intervention in conflicts 0,676 -
Availability to receive and hear suggestions 0,719 -
Encouragement of a good atmosphere and relations 0,549 -
Guaranteeing fulfilment of the school rules 0,533 -
Collaboration with the Administration in teaching quality

0,519

-

Execution of resolutions by collegiate bodies 0,687 -
Responding to higher bodies 0,546 -
Encouragement of parent information procedures - 0,521
Communication with parent associations 0,490 -
Ensuring proper use of the facilities and resources 0,468 -
Application and control of the budget 0,484 -
Ensuring advantage is taken of teacher and administrative staff skills - 0,642
Self-assessment 7,283 1,081
Percentage of variance explained 42,8 6,4


Factor 2 may be defined as the management function directly related to the teaching staff. This factor includes the variables that state the opinion as to time spent by the plural on matters related to the teaching staff such as, in order from greatest to least importance attributed: to generate procedures for teacher training and refresher courses at the school; encouraging teamwork among the teachers; being informed of teaching and orientation efficiency of the teachers; ensuring the skills, qualities, experience and knowledge of the teaching staff and administrative staff and services of the school are taken advantage of, and to encourage procedures for the parents to obtain information on the circumstances of their children.

The first three most important of the variables in this factor are duties of the principal clearly related to the teaching staff; as these depend more on the personal talent of the principal, they may not be so much expected of management action as the functions in the previous factor (which rather are included within the concept of the principal as a management authority). In this second factor, these are the functions of the principal that are very much related to the personal style of management: to facilitate teacher updating at the school, to facilitate team work dynamics among the teaching staff and remain informed of the teaching and orientation efficiency of the teachers (either directly or through the relevant departments).

The two main factors mentioned define two different models of management:

  • One, more aimed at performing the duties officially assigned to the principal, such as: being available to receive, hear and deal with suggestions; to execute resolutions by the collegiate bodies; to intervene in conflicts, to encourage a good atmosphere and relations, to respond to higher bodies, to identify the needs of the school, to guarantee fulfilment of the school rules, to control improvement projects, to collaborate with the Administration in the quality of teaching, to maintain communications with the parents' associations, to apply and control the budget and ensure proper use of the facilities and resources.
  • Another, more concentrated on the management functions in relation to the performance by the teaching staff, includes: generation of training procedures and teacher refresher courses, encouraging team work, being informed of the teaching and orientation efficiency of the teachers; ensuring advantage is taken of the skills, qualities, experience and knowledge of the teaching staff, and to encourage procedures for the parents to obtain information on the circumstances of their children.

The self-assessment by the principal of the duties officially expected is significantly higher than the assessment by the rest of the members responding. On the contrary, the self-assessment by the principal as to time spent on activities directly related to the teaching staff is less than that by the set of members responding.

The principals of Primary Schools spend the same amount of time as those in Secondary Schools on performing the duties expected of the office as on those directly related to the teaching staff.

The time spent by the principal on duties officially expected is regardless of whether a male or female principal. On the other hand, in management duties directly related to the teaching staff, female principals are more highly valued than male ones.

At small schools, the principal spends more time than at large schools on all the officially expected duties, although there are no significant differences as to the size of the school between measurement of assessment of the principal's duties in those directly related to the teaching staff.


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