Abstract:

In the School Climate Survey distributed in Singapore in 2009, a surprising lower than anticipated level of staff engagement was found throughout the school system. On important conclusion to be drawn from this finding was that the school leaders may lack the necessary skills to engage their teachers and administrative staff. The impact of this disengaged staff and consequent negative behaviours demonstrably impacted productivity and quality of work.

As a result of this finding, more targeted research was launched by a professor in the Policy and Leadership Group of the National Institute of Education (NIE), the sole teacher training facility in Singapore. This research targeted both behavioural and system-wide elements which flowed from the staff engagement study and a number of focus groups. A blend of traditional and Internet-based survey techniques were applied in the data collection.

This paper discussed some of the findings of this research and the innovative approaches being applied with the help of an international leadership consulting firm to improve the leadership capability of Singapore school leaders.

Keywords:

leadership.