Title: Development programs for head teachers in four Central European countries: an international comparison

Authors: Ludvík Eger; Mária Pisoňová; Łukasz Tomczyk

Addresses: Faculty of Economics, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitní 8, 30614 Plzeň, Czech Republic ' Institute of Educational Studies, Department of Education and Social Pedagogy, Comenius University in Bratislava, Račianska 59, 813 34 Bratislava, Slovakia ' Institute of Educational Studies, Department of Social Pedagogy and Andragogy, Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Kraków, Poland

Abstract: The past two decades have witnessed increasing debate on how to better prepare school leaders for their roles. It has led to a surge of investigations into what constitutes successful school leadership. In many countries, new development programs and certifications for school leaders have been created. The main task of these programs is to provide school-centred management trainings that will support effective leaders in head teacher roles. In this article we examine trends in design of development programs for head teachers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and in Saxony. The purpose of our comparative study is to illustrate how school leader development is organised in four countries in the Central Europe. The requirements for head teacher position and selection of head teachers refer to the underpinning rationales and processes of programs and design refer to the structure, content and teaching and learning methods of these programs. The study identifies patterns in the described programs and stresses that school leadership is exercised within a specific context.

Keywords: school leadership; head teachers; qualifications; development programmes; Central Europe; international comparison; Czech Republic; Slovakia; Poland; Saxony.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2017.080643

International Journal of Management in Education, 2017 Vol.11 No.1, pp.25 - 45

Received: 25 Aug 2015
Accepted: 26 Feb 2016
Published online: 01 Dec 2016 *

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