Abstract:

Leadership seems to be one of key factors contributing to the quality of education. Development of leadership competencies should be the main challenge for universities and other training institutions dealing with professional preparation of school leaders. Existing educational cycles do not suit well such needs. The project "Leadership and management in education-the formulation and implementation of a continuous professional development system for school headteachers " aims at building such model of education, induction and training of school leaders in Poland. Design of that new model takes into account two factors: experiences and contents of existing training cycles and knowledge about competencies of school headteachers.

The paper presents results of research carried out as a part of the project. More than 2800 headteachers of different types of schools were asked to assess their competencies in six broad areas such as: General Leadership in the school / institution, Management of learning, Educational policy - the headteacher as a leader in the local community, Human Resources Management, Strategic management in the context of social, legal and economic challenges Management of their own professional development.

The paper presents first results of that research showing how school heads perceive their competencies, that will be taken as a starting point for designing proposals of new type of training for school leaders in Poland.

Keywords:

Development of leadership competencies, leadership, research.