School Leadership: a Focus on Interactions

Groups of principals have been meeting to critique their own practice, facilitated by the New Zealand Principal and Leadership Centre, since its inception, in 1997. The focus on interactions is designed to further understand this phenomenon and its impact on student learning. It is study grounded in the practitioners’ viewpoint and schools across the country strongly support the practice. We see interactions as a means of understanding the notion of congruence of values and beliefs within the school. The thinking around interactions leads us to consider a new metaphor for schooling … the dominant activity (within a school) is likely to be interactions amongst the people. A metaphor which enables us to further explore these kinds of relationships could be an incubator, perhaps a social incubator.

Abstract Millar.doc — Microsoft Word Document, 159Kb