The growing school leadership crisis in Queensland schools

There is a growing school leadership crisis, with an increasing gap between principal vacancies and the number of suitably qualified applicants (Ainley & Carstens, 2018; Cranston, 2007; Roza, Celio, Harvey, & Wishon, 2003; Williams & Morey, 2015). Factors contributing to the declining pool of aspirants and suitably qualified applicants is well documented following studies such as the International Study of the Preparation of Principals (ISPP) and further international studies such as the Teaching and Learning International Survey(OECD, 2014). These primarily focus on preparation programs as a solution to attracting aspirants to the role. My study narrows this focus from a global perspective to the context of Queensland State Schools. This is an attempt to understand the lived experiences of Queensland educators, the impact of the leadership crisis in the Queensland State Schooling context, responses used in Queensland State Schools to address the crisis and how practices in the private sector such as Talent Management could be transferred to the public sector to inform future strategies of succession planning. This research proposal outlines how I will pragmatically respond to the research question ‘What do the lived experiences of Queensland State School educators tell us about how to address the growing leadership crisis in schools, in comparison to private sector practices?’ It is intended to initially use a web-based survey to identify the foundational knowledge of the typical, current practices occurring around talent management in Queensland to identify, recruit and develop future school principals. This will develop lines of questioning for a Narrative Inquiry, which is intended to further understand the processes, decisions and alignment of practices to policy and literature undertaken by existing principals, middle leaders and aspirant leaders in their journey towards principalship. Through this research, I hope to influence and inform future leadership identification and development policies, procedures and programs which will contribute to addressing the growing leadership crisis in schools.

学校领导力危机愈演愈烈，校长职位空缺与合格申请者数量之间的差距持续扩大（Ainley与Carstens，2018；Cranston，2007；Roza、Celio、Harvey与Wishon，2003；Williams与Morey，2015）。导致潜在申请者与合格申请者池缩减的相关因素，已在《国际校长培养研究》（International Study of the Preparation of Principals, ISPP）等研究以及《教学与学习国际调查》（OECD, 2014）等后续国际研究中得到充分佐证。此类研究主要将培养项目作为吸引潜在申请者任职校长职位的解决方案。本研究将研究范围从全球视角缩小至昆士兰州公立学校的具体语境，旨在探析昆士兰州教育工作者的亲历体验、领导力危机在昆士兰州公立学校语境下的影响、昆士兰州公立学校为应对该危机所采取的应对举措，以及私营部门的人才管理（Talent Management）等实践如何可迁移至公共部门，为未来的继任计划战略提供参考。本研究提案阐述了将如何以实用主义研究范式回应下述研究问题："相较于私营部门的实践，昆士兰州公立学校教育工作者的亲历体验能为如何应对日益严峻的学校领导力危机提供哪些启示？"本研究拟首先采用网络调查法，梳理昆士兰州当前围绕人才管理的典型实践的基础知识，以识别、招募并培养未来的学校校长。此环节将为叙事探究（Narrative Inquiry）构建访谈提纲，旨在进一步探析在职校长、学校中层管理者及潜在校长候选人在通往校长职位的历程中所开展的各类流程、决策，以及其实践与政策及现有研究文献的契合程度。通过本研究，笔者期望能为未来的领导力识别与培养政策、流程及项目提供参考与优化方向，助力缓解日益严峻的学校领导力危机。