Foundations of Educational Leadership

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

Pre-teaching period:

During the pre-teaching period, students will be required to complete reading that will be provided via LMS.

340 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Objectives, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and the Disability Liaison Unit: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

The subject investigates conceptual frameworks that inform educational leadership including: Sergiovanni's five school leadership forces; Bolman and Deal's leadership frames; Robbins' organisational behaviour model, Drysdale, Gurr and Mulford's school leadership framework. The subject uses the broad economic, social and educational contexts for schools and education systems and sub-systems to develop a case for particular challenges for, and approaches to, school leadership. The subject supports participants to examine key national and international research and empirical data on social and economic developments, patterns of education participation and outcomes, public expectations and policy directions to identify the key challenges for school and system leadership. Upon the basis of these challenges, and supported by the most recent research, different approaches to school leadership are interrogated. Through these processes, key principles and approaches to school leadership are identified. Students construct a case study that is explored in depth through a group facilitation process that forms the basis for an informed analysis of the case study.

On completion of this subject, students will be able to:

• understand key principles and approaches to school leadership
• identify the key challenges for school and system leadership
• design an approach to leadership that will result in successful transformation in settings of professional interest.

A case study report of 10, 000 words, or equivalent (100%)

Attendance at all classes (tutorial/seminars/practical classes/lectures/labs) is obligatory. Failure to attend 80% of classes will normally result in failure in the subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of this subject, students will:

• have an increased capacity to observe, reflect and understand the nature of effective school leadership
• be aware of the range of issues that effective school leadership requires knowledge and understanding of
• have a knowledge of the interrelationships between schools and other agencies/providers and their capacity to contribute to the effectiveness of schools.