Abstract:

Countries in South Eastern Europe are in a dynamic process of reshaping their education systems, trying to address the challenges of 21st century. While societal demand for better education service is increasing on a steady basis, schools are facing challenges in recruiting and retaining their teaching and management staff. Recent statistics highlight the fact that in some countries (e.g., Bulgaria) more than 50% of staff engaged in education will retire in a 10-year period without corresponding flow of new staff members. Leading schools in time of change requires new skills for both current principals and the next generations to take their places.

This paper aims to identify emerging training needs of school education staff from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Turkey in the field of leadership. Stepping on desk research of existing programmes for continuous professional development, the research team has utilized the outcomes from a series of focus groups, conducted with teachers and school leaders from highlighted countries to map their current challenges, understanding of effective leadership and potential areas of learning they require.

The research findings has enabled the development of a new competence framework in the field of educational leadership, which can be used in design of future training opportunities for school staff, complementing existing professional development programmes. The key areas of interest of school staff are: sustaining emotional and mental well-being; team development; distributed leadership; effective communication within school community and external stakeholders; introducing entrepreneurial principles in school management; design and management of innovations in school.

Keywords:

School leadership, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Romania, distributed leadership, emotional leadership, effective communication, entrepreneurial leadership.