Abstract:

Educational leadership theory still needs adequate development in order to satisfy needs of complex and rapidly changing school context. It seems that best attempts of such theories are those underlying the central role of a person (Fielding, 2006) and its individual development (Dorczak, 2012).

Taking development as central educational value requires transformation of school practice into development-focused one. But such change requires change of thinking of those, who decide within educational systems in general and school in particular. In order to change schools into “development focused” organizations we have to understand what development means. The problem is, people in teaching profession understand it differently. School leadership has to take it into account.

The paper presents results of a study exploring initially thinking of Polish school heads in this area. They were asked three main questions: How do you define development of school as organization? What factors contribute to development of school as organization? What factors prevent development or are a danger for it?

Results are discussed so as to give some practical recommendations to school leaders aiming at improvement of school practice.

Keywords:

Educational management, leadership, educational leadership, safety.