Abstract:

Modern society is described as a “portfolio” society, where individuals are characterized by their personal portfolios which they develop throughout their professional lives (Yukl, 1998). The teaching profession represents a peculiar occupation, since in this profession a teacher might do the same work over an entire career, and at the same location. This is unlike most other professions where people gain experience in a variety of positions, receive training anew, learn new content and build new ways of living and new skills, all of a different variety.

The transition from teacher to principal requires a different set of qualities which must be developed as part of a suitable personal portfolio, which will allow the former teacher to deal with the complexity of the task of principal. This complex one-dimensional professional characterization which is described by MacBeath and others (MacBeath, Moos & Riley, 1998) presents a challenge in a world which requires occupational capabilities of multiple skills. This fact may be a major challenge for teachers on their way to school principalship. Pedagogy should be implemented by teachers in classrooms during their teaching careers and they are supposed to be skillful and knowledgeable in this field. Principalship requires different skills in the field of pedagogy which is a different level of pedagogy, or rather that of andragogy (adult pedagogy). Here they must look into new areas, ones which they were not exposed to before as teachers.
The presentation examines the significance of pedagogy, as an element of school principalship, in the perception of school principals. It is based on a survey conducted among 60 principals to examine prioritization of various characteristics and tools associated with effective principalship.
This study finds that both active and aspiring principals rate leadership and emotional literacy above pedagogy and management in terms of perceived ‘importance’. These findings contradict the current attempt by the Israeli Ministry of Education to establish pedagogical leadership as the central element in school principalship and to enhance the importance of pedagogy over other elements in the role of school principal. This presentation explores the underlying causes for this phenomenon

Keywords:

Pedagogy, school principalship, effective principalship, emotional literacy, management, leadership.