ABSTRACT
Many contemporary school-based management (SBM) studies address autonomy, decentralization, or self-management only at the school level and often assume that increased school autonomy and responsibilities will result in improved school environment and enhanced capacity to change curriculum and pedagogy and produce quality educational outcomes Yet, this assumption is questionable, lacking strong international evidence to support it. Currently, quite few studies are concerned with how principals and teachers effectively use the allocated autonomy at the individual, group, and institutional levels of a school to achieve multiple school effectiveness. The lack of research and theory building sets a tight constraint on understanding and practice of multi-level self-management in particular and SBM in general. This chapter aims to provide a theoretical framework to address current issues in theory, policy and research with a hope to enhance the understanding and development of SBM and its impacts on educational outcomes.
