ABSTRACT
Leaders in schools need to focus on structural arrangements if they are to transform their school into one of success. Structures in schools provide the means by which decisions are made and implemented; where goals are set, where planning is designed and carried out, where job descriptions are clarified, where roles are identified and responsibilities allocated. The structural frame aligns with Sergiovanni’s (1984:6) concept of a ‘technical force of leadership’, where accomplishing the administrative tasks of the organization (planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling) are the central focus. Pertinent to this discussion are the external controls placed on Victorian schools directed by government-imposed school reform. In 1985 the Victorian Government deliberately departed from a tradition of centralized policy control, giving increased responsibilities for educational policies and planning to the schools themselves via their School Councils. Schools were to become ‘self-managing’ (Caldwell and Spinks, 1992:4), and ‘to enable the school-based policy development process to be democratic, the legislation [provided] for council membership to be shared among the elected representatives of the chief interest groups namely, parents, teachers and, where appropriate, students’ (Ministry of Education, Ministerial Paper Number 4:4.5). Subsequent to the writing of this book, further changes have been made in government policy and the above arrangements have been revised.
