HEAD – Empowering school principals for inclusive school culture
Supporting school principals in primary and secondary schools in Croatia and North Macedonia, focusing on inclusive education practices.
1.3. School management
Effective school leaders promote collaborative cultures. Schools need dedicated, value-led, competent and highly motivated school leaders who can encourage reflective practice and foster dialogue and cooperation among all school actors and with other stakeholders. They ensure a supportive environment for teachers, where teacher-teacher learning, time for feedback and reflection, and networking within and between schools is encouraged. They also play an essential role in providing opportunities for practice-oriented initial teacher education and research-based continuous professional development.
School leaders should be able to share authority by distributing leadership roles within the school. In a 'distributed leadership' model, leadership, teaching and non-teaching staff, learners, as well as parents and families are encouraged to take on leading roles in a particular area of expertise, to assume responsibility and individually or as part of a group, to take initiative. Opportunities for more flexible working relationships are created. This may require developing institutional structures: creating new procedures and working arrangements (such as formal and informal committees, teams, working groups, etc.); organising time and allocating resources to enable collaborative working and testing of innovative ideas etc.
Successful initiatives in Member States feature collaborative leadership structures. This may include giving some members of the staff roles as middle managers/coordinators and as well as allowing flexibility for the formation of teaching teams. Past initiatives have also shown that it is important to have the appropriate selection of support staff (experts, mentors, coaches) who can guide the process of change and support school heads and teachers as appropriate.
In introducing a new school culture, there are some challenges to consider regarding human resources management. This may include, for example, convincing school staff of the benefits of collaboration, creating diverse teams of teaching and non-teaching staff, and ensuring sustainability of collaborative work.
Find out more:
- Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL): on good practices in the field of school leadership policy in Europe
- OECD (2014), “Chapter 3: School Leadership” in – 2013 Results, OECD, Paris, 2014, pp. 55-83.
EIPSI – Evidence-informed practices for school inclusion
The EIPSI project used evidence-informed practices to create innovative solutions for teachers and stakeholders to improve pupils’ equity and inclusion.
Schools for Health in Europe
The Schools for Health in Europe Network (SHE) aims to improve children’s health and reduce health inequalities by focusing on health promotion in schools.
European Commission webinar on depolarising dialogue: how to defuse tensions in education
It addressed the topic by focusing on the latest trends (such as the rise of violence on social media) and examining policy measures that can help tackle polarisation in educational instit
Supporting Inclusive School Leadership (SISL)
The Supporting Inclusive School Leadership (SISL) project investigated how to promote inclusive school-level leadership and provided supportive tools.
Save the Children: Safe Schools Common Approach (SSCA)
The SSCA is a toolkit to keep children safe and protected as they learn. Aligned with the Comprehensive School Safety Framework, the SSCA aims to address all potential hazards that may impact children in and around school, hazards that are natural or climate-change induced, technological or biological, health-related or linked to conflict and violence.
BOOST – Building social and emotional skills to boost mental health resilience in children and young people in Europe
The overall aim of the BOOST project is to promote mental health and well-being in young people through the development of an innovative approach.
MiCREATE – Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe
The objective of the MiCREATE project is to encourage the inclusion of diverse groups of migrant children by adopting a child-centred approach to the integration of migrant children at educational and policy level. Stemming from the need to revisit the existing integration policies, the research project aims to comprehensively examine the contemporary integration processes of migrant children to enhance their agency, participation, and well-being.
A formative Assessment Tool of the Classroom Climate
The formative Assessment Tool of the Classroom Climate has been developed in the frame of the report ‘A formative, inclusive, whole school approach to the assessment of social and emotional education in the EU', aiming to provide a comprehensive and holistic evaluation of the classroom climate and guide teacher/s and students to make positive changes to the classroom together.
Raising the Achievement of all Ƶers in Inclusive Education
The ‘Raising the Achievement of All Ƶers in Inclusive Education’ (RA) project aimed to provide evidence of effective practice in raising achievement and building the capacity of schools and communities to include and support all learners.