The article discusses the ways in which qualitative research approaches can be important for educational practice and educational policy planning. Our interest in the matter was aroused by the fact that in recent educational discourses more and more frequent are serious complaints on pedagogic research referring to its alleged failure to be in the function of educational policy and practice. It turns out that the majority of the research that has been criticized is of qualitative nature. As a reference frame for our analysis of the significance of qualitative research reports for educational theory and practice we applied David Hargreaves' ideas which he developed in his 'early works'. Although the author changed his views considerably later on, his earlier considerations are equally relevant and applicable today as they were more than thirty years ago. A great deal of what he then wrote has been confirmed by qualitative research that followed later and established and affirmed this research orientation. Discussing its contribution Hargreaves lists five basic properties or potentials of qualitative research: potential for understanding, signifying and reflection, as well as its immunological and corrective potential. ; U radu diskutujemo o tome na koje načine kvalitativni istraživački pristupi mogu biti važni za pedagošku praksu i planiranje obrazovne politike. Naša razmišljanja podstaknuta su činjenicom da se u novijim pedagoškim diskursima sve češće mogu čuti ozbiljne zamerke koje se upućuju pedagoškim istraživanjima, a koje su usmerene na njihov navodni neuspeh da budu u funkciji obrazovne politike i prakse. Ispostavlja se da je veći broj tih istraživanja kojima se upućuje kritika kvalitativne orijentacije. Kao referentni okvir za analizu vrednosti kvalitativnih radova za pedagošku teoriju i praksu poslužila su nam shvatanja Dejvida Hargrivsa (Hargreaves) koja je on zastupao u svojim 'ranim radovima'. Mada je autor kasnije dosta izmenio svoje gledište o ovom problemu, njegova ranija razmatranja podjednako su aktuelna danas kao pre više od trideset godina. Ono što je tada pisao velikim delom je potvrđeno kvalitativnim istraživanjima koja su usledila i koja su afirmisala ovu istraživačku orijentaciju. Diskutujući o tom doprinosu, Hargrivs navodi pet osnovnih svojstava ili potencijala kvalitativnih istraživanja: potencijal za razumevanje, označavanje, refleksiju, kao i njegov imunološki i korektivni potencijal.
Standardi kompetencija direktora ustanova obrazovanja i vaspitanja u Srbiji (2013), kao i zakonska regulativa koja se odnosi na direktore, propisuju kompleksne i raznovrsne uloge i zadatke. Novija istraživanja u oblasti obrazovnog liderstva pokazuju da su direktori veoma opterećeni, zbog čega im je posebno teško da uspostave ravnotežu između dve najvažnije uloge: pedagoškog lidera i menadžera škole. Cilj ovog rada je da utvrdimo da li je pomenuti problem, na koji direktori ukazuju, nov ili je postojao i u prošlosti. S tim u vezi, analizirale smo radove o direktorima škola koji su objavljeni u časopisu Nastava i vaspitanje u periodu od početka izlaženja časopisa (1951. godine) do osamdesetih godina 20. veka. U tekstovima smo tragale za opisima uloga direktora, za sadržajem zadataka putem kojih se ove uloge ostvaruju, kao i za iskazima autora koji potencijalno ukazuju na problem balansa između dve najvažnije uloge. Na osnovu analize sadržaja 14 tekstova utvrdile smo da su autori značajno više pažnje posvetili razmatranju pedagoško-instruktivne uloge direktora, nego razmatranju uloge direktora kao menadžera škole. Pedagoško-instruktivnu ulogu opisuju kroz sledeće zadatke: planiranje i programiranje nastavnog procesa, posete časovima, praćenje rada nastavnika i pružanje neophodne pomoći posebno mlađim nastavnicima, praćenje učeničkog znanja i napredovanja, planiranje i organizacija individualnog i kolektivnog stručnog usavršavanja nastavnika, stvaranje uslova za efikasnu saradnju sa školskim pedagogom i tako dalje. Na osnovu istraživanja i iskustava iz školske prakse autori su ukazivali na to da je pedagoška uloga direktora zapostavljena, zbog njihove opterećenosti poslovima koji pripadaju menadžerskoj ulozi. Pored toga, ukazivali su i na nedostatak istraživanja u oblasti pedagoškog liderstva, kao i na potrebu za organizovanjem seminara koji bi se programski zasnivali na stvarnim interesovanjima i potrebama direktora škola. Dakle, rezultati naše analize upućuju na relativno dug vremenski period postojanja sličnih problema u oblasti obrazovnog liderstva u Srbiji, što bi trebalo da predstavlja dodatni podsticaj za istraživače i kreatore obrazovnih politika u pronalaženju adekvatnih strategija podrške direktorima škola u balansiranju ključnih uloga. U radu se diskutuje o rešenjima – kao što su distributivno liderstvo, mentorstvo i facilitacija prilikom uvođenja novih direktora u posao – koja su se u drugim obrazovnim sistemima pokazala kao efektivna za unapređivanje kvaliteta rada škole. ; Standards of competencies for principals of educational institutions in Serbia (2013), as well as the legislation related to principals, stipulate complex and diverse roles and tasks. Recent research in the field of educational leadership shows that principals are overburdened, and therefore have difficulties in balancing out the two most important roles: of educational leader and school manager. The objective of this paper is to determine whether this problem, signalled by the principals, is new or has existed in the past as well. In this regard, we analysed the articles on principals published in the journal Teaching and education from the beginning of its publication (1951) till 1980s. In the articles, we searched for descriptions of the principals' roles, the content of their professional tasks, as well as for authors' statements that potentially point to the problem of balancing the two most important roles. Based on the content analysis of 14 articles, we found that the authors paid much more attention to educational and instructive role of the principal than to the principal's role of a school manager. They describe the educational and instructive role through the following tasks: planning and programming of the teaching process, visits to classes, monitoring the work of teachers and providing necessary assistance particularly to younger teachers, monitoring of students' knowledge and progress, planning and organization of individual and collective in-service teacher trainings, creating conditions for efficient cooperation with a school counsellor and so on. Based on the research and experience from the school practice, the authors indicated that the educational role of principals was neglected due to burden of tasks belonging to managerial role. In addition, they pointed to the lack of research in the field of educational leadership, as well as to the need for organizing seminars which would be topically based on real interests and needs of principals. Therefore, the results of our analysis point to a relatively long period of similar problems in the field of educational leadership in Serbia, which is supposed to provide additional motivation to researchers and educational policy makers for finding adequate strategies for supporting the principals in balancing their key roles. The paper discusses solutions - such as distributed leadership, mentoring, and facilitation in introducing new principals into job - that have proven effective in other education systems in improving quality of school's operation. ; Zbornik rezimea / 24. Međunarodna naučna konferencija "Pedagoška istraživanja i školska praksa ; Book of abstracts / 24th International Scientific Conference "Educational Research and School Practice"
Educational leadership has an impact on school climate, teachers' practices and student outcomes. Having in mind its importance, in this paper we wanted to examine the barriers that school principals in Serbia face in their everyday work, solutions that they propose, leadership tasks that they deem important, as well as those competencies which they feel they need to improve. To those ends we conducted a mixed-method study in which 107 principals, teachers, school counsellors, and representatives of school authorities participated in focus groups and interviews, and 200 elementary and high school principals responded to a questionnaire about leadership. Our findings indicate a myriad of barriers, predominantly related to ineffective education policies, imprecise legislation, unprofessional behaviour of teachers and principals and problematic relationship with parents. We also found that the principals felt that they needed to greatly improve their competencies from all six areas of the Standards of the competencies of principals of educational institutions. The paper offers recommendations to policy makers about the needed improvements.
LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION: Initiatives and trends in selected European countries ; The paper deals with major aspects of educational leadership in Serbia. First, the legislative framework is presented which, in the last several years, has considerably focused on the roles and obligations of principals, as well as their formal training and licensing. Then, the findings of the research on principals' needs, problems and perspectives on leadership since 2000 are described. This section shows that principals are aware of the multitude of competencies that they need to have in order to professionally fulfill their duties, but that they also believe that many problems hamper them in their jobs: insufficient school funding, teacher employment policies, inconsistent legislation, poor selection procedures of principals, inadequate support from higher administrative levels and so on. Subsequently, the paper gives an overview of seminars, trainings and academic programs that comprise the current offering of professional development opportunities for principals. Among them, the master program developed within the Tempus project and the official state program developed by the Institute for the Improvement of Education are described in more detail. Finally, the authors present a set of recommendations for the improvement of educational leadership in Serbia ; Published
The paper deals with major aspects of educational leadership in Serbia. First, the legislative framework is presented which, in the last several years, has considerably focused on the roles and obligations of principals, as well as their formal training and licensing. Then, the findings of the research on principals' needs, problems and perspectives on leadership since 2000 are described. This section shows that principals are aware of the multitude of competencies that they need to have in order to professionally fulfill their duties, but that they also believe that many problems hamper them in their jobs: insufficient school funding, teacher employment policies, inconsistent legislation, poor selection procedures of principals, inadequate support from higher administrative levels and so on. Subsequently, the paper gives an overview of seminars, trainings and academic programs that comprise the current offering of professional development opportunities for principals. Among them, the master program developed within the Tempus project and the official state program developed by the Institute for the Improvement of Education are described in more detail. Finally, the authors present a set of recommendations for the improvement of educational leadership in Serbia. ; Collection name: "PEDAGOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE" 49
