Primary school principals and the purposes of education in Australia

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the results of a national survey of government primary school principals in Australia, investigating the purposes of education, in terms of the importance and level of enactment of those purposes in schools.Design/methodology/approachIn 2009, an electronic survey was distributed to government primary school principals in Australia seeking their views on the purposes of education. The survey comprised 71 items of a closed format and three items of an open‐ended format. Respondents rated first the importance they ascribed to particular purposes of education, then second the degree to which they believed these purposes were actually enacted in their particular school. Factor analyses were conducted on the item responses. Differences between importance and enactment of purposes are discussed together with reasons for these differences.FindingsThe findings overwhelmingly point to tensions between what they, the principals, believe ought to be the purposes of education and what the strategies to achieve those purposes might be, and the realities of what is actually happening. It could be argued that the results indicate a major shift away from public purposes of education to those more aligned with private purposes. Many of the barriers to achieving a greater focus in schools on public purposes are seen to be related to external (to the school) issues, such as government policy decisions, differential funding and resourcing across school sectors and emerging community and societal factors.Research limitations/implicationsThis research complements other aspects of this project into the purposes of education in Australia. There are some limitations to the reported findings in so far as only government principals participated in the survey. Non‐government school principals were invited but declined to participate.Originality/valueThis is the only piece of research of its kind in Australia and provides unique insights – those of principals – into what schools are focusing on and what the leaders think they ought to be focusing on. There are clearly policy and practice implications of the research.

An Exploration of Relationships Between Leadership and Student Citizenship Outcomes in Cyprus Middle Schools

“…The emphasis is generally placed on the enactment of the private purposes of education to the detriment of the public purposes of forming active and democratic citizens. In fact, in a recent study in Australian primary schools, it was found that while principals considered public purposes as highly important they were not able to translate those into practice in the same degree (Cranston, Mulford, Keating, & Reid, 2010).…”

School autonomy as ‘the way of the future’

“…These ideologies are also seen as compromising the public purposes of schooling. While not focused on school autonomy, key research involving school principals across Australia examined this issue of public purpose (Cranston et al, 2010a;2010b). Drawing on Lebaree's (1997) work, this research articulated a broad view of the purposes of schooling in relation to both public and private goals.…”

“…These ideologies lead schools to focus excessively on narrow measures of academic accountability and on competing with other schools. Such a focus can compromise the equity goals of education and the notion of schooling as a public good (Ball, 2003;Cranston et al, 2010a). It is here that the significance of moral leadership in the 'intelligent' take up of autonomy becomes clear.…”

Administrator and Teachers' Perceptions of School Success in a Publicly Funded Catholic School in Ontario, Canada

“…These definitions of success speak to the many purposes of education. Acknowledging that some purposes of education may be contradictory while others are complementary, schools and school systems often find themselves pursuing more than one purpose, but one will typically be predominant (Cranston, Mulford, Keating, & Reid, 2010).…”