Magnolia design as

Leadership in schools

what is required and expected

of a headmaster

Telephone +47 23 30 12 00
www.utdanningsdirektoratet.no
Introduction
School leadership can have a huge positive
influence on the learning environment and the
pupils learning outcomes. This assumes the
exercise of good leadership.
Described here are the requirements and
expectations that can reasonably be set for a
headmaster, based on the framework for school
leadership that forms the basis for the national
program for leadership training and development
for headmasters. This framework is the result of
a comprehensive and thorough process involving
the most important bodies and stakeholders in
the education sector. There is broad agreement
on the most important issues applying to
school leadership and management: leadership
functions, leadership challenges and competence
requirements.
It is the school owners responsibility, both
formally and in practice, to ensure that they
always have an adequate number of good school
leaders. The state, on the other hand, can set
norms and standards for what should be required
and expected of school leaders.
This document can be used by school owners and
others as a basis for:
Employment of school leaders
Developing the competence of school leaders
Evaluation of leaders, feedback and appraisal
interviews
Agreements with leaders
Career evaluations
Introducing new employees
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What is meant by leadership?
Leadership is taking responsibility for achieving
good results. A leader, or manager, is also
responsible for those results being achieved
in a good way, that colleagues enjoy a good,
developing working environment and that the
activities for which the leader is responsible are
equipped to continue to produce good results in
the future. A school leader therefore also has a
social responsibility, in addition to taking care of
the day-to-day leadership and management of the
individual school.
By definition, a leader is responsible for
everything that happens within his or her own
unit, and in this sense the leader also has an
employers role. As well as responsibility for
their own activities, all leaders also have a joint
responsibility for the totality of the organisation.
Obviously, having responsibility does not mean
that leaders must do everything themselves.
Leadership is primarily exercised through others.
A leader delegates tasks and authority, but the
responsibility cannot be delegated. This does not
mean that colleagues have no responsibility. But
it does mean that a leader is never relieved of his
or her responsibilities.
Leadership is exercised by many, not just by those
who occupy formal leadership or management
positions. In this respect leadership is a function
to be attended, or a set of leadership tasks to be
performed. At the same time, the organisation
is made up of people, with their own roles,
relationships and abilities. Formal responsibility
for results is linked to specific persons in formal
positions.
Leading knowledge organisations
A school can be looked upon as a knowledge
organisation, with strict professional requirements
and where professional questions are given a
great deal of attention at all levels. The ability
to lead learning processes will be decisive for a
headmaster. In such a situation, it is important
to be both a good leader and sufficiently skilled
academically to make ones own professional
assessments and make the best use of internal
and external human resources. It will often be
the case that a particular teacher will have higher
academic qualifications in some areas than the
headmaster. This means that the headmaster
must also have sufficient legitimacy with these
teachers and in these areas. This makes
demands on both leaders and colleagues.
It has been shown that leading knowledge
organisations is often more difficult than
leading other organisations, partly because
those working in knowledge organisations tend
to be independent, vigorous, competent and,
first and foremost, professionally oriented. This
makes great demands on the leadership and
management of a school.
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What characterises the
education sector?
The public sector is known to be complex,
and leaders in the public sector often find
themselves working to achieve conflicting goals.
Leaders often need to weigh up a number of
different considerations against each other.
This is about realising politically defined goals,
enforcing legislation including the implementation
of the national curriculum, taking users into
consideration, openness and transparency
in decision-making processes, predictability,
professional judgement, equal treatment and
using public funds cost-effectively. A leader in a
public sector organisation undertakes to achieve
results within frameworks that have been decided
by elected politicians. It is also necessary to
ensure that the work is performed in accordance
with laws and regulations, as well as the central
standards, values and principles of our society.
The education sector has traditionally had a
weak tradition of leadership and management
compared with many other sectors. A great deal
of scepticism and resistance to leadership can
be found among teachers, and schools have little
tradition that the leader directly influences the
work done by the teacher. The most important
challenge that faces a headmaster can therefore
be expressed as follows: Being secure in the
leadership role. Courage and strength to lead and
manage. Personal and professional strength to
stand up and take leadership. Identity as a leader.
What is required and expected
of a headmaster
As formulated in the assumptions for the national
program for leadership training and development
for headmasters, what is required and expected
of a headmaster can be divided into five main
areas:
1. The pupils learning outcomes and learn-
ing environment
A headmaster is responsible for the pupils
learning outcomes and learning environment,
and the headmasters ability to lead the
learning processes and guide the teachers
in this process will be decisive. A school
is a knowledge organisation with strict
professional requirements. The headmaster
must therefore have sufficient academic
competence and legitimacy to be able to
make good professional assessments and
make the best use of internal and external
human resources.
2. Management and administration
A headmaster is responsible for ensuring
that the tasks of the school, defined by the
Government and Parliament, are performed.
This means that the headmaster acts on
behalf of central and local authorities. It
follows that the headmaster must know and
follow laws and regulations, including the
national curriculum. The headmaster shall
also ensure good internal administration and
control.
3. Collaboration and organisation develop-
ment; supervision of teachers
A headmaster is responsible for ensuring that
the school functions well as an organisation.
This involves building a sense of community,
a working environment, collaboration and
an organisation culture, so that teachers
and other staff can help each other and be
proud and motivated. They shall feel that they
receive support, help and guidance from their
leaders.
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4. Development and change
A headmaster has the ultimate responsibility
for development and change in the school
and among the teachers. Society, the pupil
base, parents, technology and politics, all
change, and the subjects develop. The
leadership and management of development
and change processes is one of the most
important, but also one of the most difficult,
tasks.
5. The leadership role
Schools need leaders who are clear about
their relationship with their own role as leader
and their own leadership. Its necessary to
have leaders who are able to define and
redefine, and if necessary negotiate and
renegotiate, their leadership role and their
conditions for exercising good leadership.
Schools need leaders who are unambiguous,
democratic, independent, secure and bold.
The competence requirements for a headmaster
that have been described should be considered
to be the ideal. In practice, no individual can
be equally good in all areas. It remains true
however that the role of leader includes all
this. Leadership is a unifying function and an
integrating function. In principle, the leaders
responsibility is all-embracing. The headmaster
must ensure that everything is taken care of, but
many people will make a contribution in achieving
this.
All leaders should adapt their style of leadership
to their own personality, their own circumstances
and their own strengths and weaknesses.