School Leadership and labour relations

1. School Leadershipandlabour relations Bianka Stege General Secretary European Federation of EducationEmployers Munich, 2 February 2012

2. Overview • Who is EFEE? • Members • Role • Mission • Priorities • What are EFEE’sconclusions on its school leadership project?

3. EFEE’smembers • EFEE representsEmployers in the education sector in Europe • 18 European countries • 28 member organisations • Different nationalorganisations: Ministries of Education, local & regionalauthorities, associations of colleges & universities, educationcouncils • All levels of education: from pre-school toprimaryandsecondary school, vocationaleducation, highereducationandreserach

4. EFEE’srole & mission • RecognisedEuropeansocial partner: • Regularlyconsultationsby the EC • SocialDialogue in Education, with ETUCE • Participation in Thematic WorkingGroups of the EC, conferences • Role in influencing EU policy-making Mission: Toimprovequality of teaching and school management through European cooperation anddialogue

5. EFEE’spriorities • 3 Workinggroups (quality in education, HE & R, demographicchallenges) • Projects in 2012/2013: • Recruitment andretention of teachers • Self-evaluation of schools and teachers • Preventingearly school leavingthrough the use of ICT • Third-partyviolence and harassment in schools • Feasibilitystudy on creation of European sector skills council in education

6. EFEE’s project on School Leaderschip andgovernance • 1 year project fundedby EC, starting points: • Political agenda in different EU MS: focus on school leadershipandprofessionalisation of schools and schoolleaders • International reportslike OECD reports + McKinsey report 2007 on best performing schools • wish of EFEE members todiscuss school leadershipfromemployers point of view

7. Project objectives: • To provide a platform for the exchange of views, knowledge and good practice on school leadership and governance. • To conduct a comparative survey and study and to disseminate the outcomes. • To prepare for future possible co-operation on the topic of School Leadership with EFEE membersand ETUCE and linked to the work of the European Policy Network on School Leadership

8. EFEE project on School Leadership & Governance, activities: • Workinggroup, brainstorming sessionwithacademics, EC, and EFEE members, April 2011 in Amsterdam(hostedbySecondaryEducation Council-VO-raad, NL) • Survey among EFEE members on the approaches in different EU countriesto the concept andfunctioning of school leadershipfrom the view of employers (June-July 2011) • Three topics were crucial in the questionnaire: A. The selection of school leaders B. The training of school leaders C. The performance of the management of schools (including governance)

9. EFEE project on School Leadership & Governance, activities 2: • conference in November in Dublin (hostedby IVEA-Irish VocationalEducationAssociation) todiscusswithinternationalorganisationslike ICP (International Confederation of Prinicipals) ESHA, ETUCE, OECD -recent developments School Leadership -broadenanddeepen project findings -futurework in this field • diversity of participants: policy makers, academics, former school leaders, tradeunions, employersorganisation

10. Most important findings • Survey respondents from countries where schools have considerable autonomy demand policies based on more centralised structures (f.e. in relation to criteria in selection process of school leaders and professionalisation of training and continuous professional development of school leaders) while respondents from countries with more centralised structures seek more autonomy (f.i. in relation to the influence of teachers and parents in selection procedures) • As a consequence of professionalisation of selection procedures, training and continuous professional development of school leaders, EFEE members express a need for greater uniformity in the formulation of the standards and competences required of ‘good’ school leaders • In line with OECD recommendations, EFEE members express need for more professional recruitment processes at both school and system level to ensure that the recruitment procedures, tools and criteria are effective, transparent and consistent • Aging population > a large proportion of school leaders will retire in the near future. Many countries face challenge attracting sufficient numbers of suitable candidates to apply for school leadership in the years ahead. The difference in salary between teachers and school leaders is relatively small when one takes account of the duties, responsibilities and accountability that attaches to the role of the school leader as compared with the school teacher.

11. Most important finding2 • Need for professionalisation of school governance-> general concern about the extent to which schools board members have sufficient expertise to make informed judgements about school leaders’. • In the short term, establishing policies and practices for more and better training for chairs of school boards to improve school governance. • It seems that many countries experience difficulties in establishing criteria for successfully evaluating the performance of either teachers or schools. In the absence of appropriate performance benchmarks it is inevitably difficult for school leaders or boards to evaluate teacher or school performance.

12. Future focus • Challenge: some countries are hesitating to change from administrative and bureaucratic accountability, which gives little autonomy to schools, to a system which gives considerable autonomy schools but holds them responsible for student results and the overall quality of the education • Conclusion: future EFEE project focus on exchange best practices on thischallenge • Bianka.Stege@educationemployers.eu • Tel+31-6-11387787 • www.educationemployers.eu