SCHOOL HEAD’S LEADERSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of school head’s leadership, based on the transformational leadership theory. Based on scientific literature analysis and empirical research, it examines whether a school head should be a school community leader in the context of ongoing changes in the education system and how teachers express the school head’s transformational leadership in Lithuanian general education schools. The three parts of the article address the research problem: the introduction offers the characteristics of a school head’s transformational leadership, based on scientific literature analysis; the second part describes the empirical research methodology; the third part presents the empirical research results, revealing three transformational leadership characteristics.
According to the survey results:
• school head leadership is a necessary prerequisite for the effective management of a modern school;
• in the context of ongoing education reforms, a school leader can act as a transformational leader by setting the direction of school activities, engaging the school community and sharing their leadership;
• the head of the school as a transformational leader, by setting the direction of school activities, expresses the belief in the importance of school vision, but in the development of the school’s vision not always involves others members of the school community or accepts the diversity of opinions;
• the head of the school as a transformational leader, by enabling the school community, personally strives for success in school, but lacks the capacity to mobilize the school community in the overall planning and co-operation;
• the head of the school as a transformational leader, by sharing leadership, encourages the professional development of the school community, but shares leadership very timidly with others and does not always pay attention to growing new leaders in the school.