Principals’ partnerships: an action research study on the professional development of New Zealand school leaders
type: CreativeWork
description: This report describes an action research study conducted between 1992 and 1995 with 12 New Zealand primary school principals. Prior to this study, major administrative changes in the education system in New Zealand had been introduced, to give schools more responsibility for their own management in conjunction with elected committees of parents. This research sought a model of professional development which would assist principals to implement new ideas and practices, deal effectively with the current issues and problems in their schools and provide skills, challenges and support. This was a qualitative study in which an action researching community, consisting of the principals and an academic researcher, met regularly using peer partnerships and group meetings to provide observation, reflection and evaluative feedback on leadership practice. The questions that guided the research study were: 1. Do partnerships assist in the professional development of primary school principals? 2. If so, in what ways? This research was designed as a conscious effort to not only develop a theory of professional development for school leaders but in so doing, to provide professional development which would help the school leaders to understand and then change their situation. The underlying theoretical principle of praxis was embedded and interwoven throughout the researcher’s and principals’ actions. The research was practical and based on the needs and concerns of the principals involved. In this way it was both a research and development model. The findings were analysed using grounded theory techniques within a structure of action research. Thus, the processes of action research in this research study became a method for the analysis process as well as for that of data collection. The community of researchers were jointly involved in the analysis of the findings in this research. There were 18 months of data gathering using methods of oral and written reflections, interactive in…
abstract: This report describes an action research study conducted between 1992 and 1995 with 12 New Zealand primary school principals. Prior to this study, major administrative changes in the education system in New Zealand had been introduced, to give schools more responsibility for their own management in conjunction with elected committees of parents. This research sought a model of professional development which would assist principals to implement new ideas and practices, deal effectively with the current issues and problems in their schools and provide skills, challenges and support. This was a qualitative study in which an action researching community, consisting of the principals and an academic researcher, met regularly using peer partnerships and group meetings to provide observation, reflection and evaluative feedback on leadership practice. The questions that guided the research study were: 1. Do partnerships assist in the professional development of primary school principals? 2. If so, in what ways? This research was designed as a conscious effort to not only develop a theory of professional development for school leaders but in so doing, to provide professional development which would help the school leaders to understand and then change their situation. The underlying theoretical principle of praxis was embedded and interwoven throughout the researcher’s and principals’ actions. The research was practical and based on the needs and concerns of the principals involved. In this way it was both a research and development model. The findings were analysed using grounded theory techniques within a structure of action research. Thus, the processes of action research in this research study became a method for the analysis process as well as for that of data collection. The community of researchers were jointly involved in the analysis of the findings in this research. There were 18 months of data gathering using methods of oral and written reflections, interactive in…
author: Robertson, Jan
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/2c14f946-6000-4eb6-b37a-ab21c6ab165f/download
date published: 1995
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:18Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato