Analysis of the In-School Professional Development Needs of Newly-Appointed Deputy Principals in N.S.W. Department of School Education Primary Schools

Abstract

The professional development needs of newly-appointed deputy principals are to be revealed in the role expectations held for deputy principals. Until the late 1980s deputy principals in primary schools fulfilled a functionary role, undertaking managerial activities. The changes occurring within education generally and the specific changes occurring in N.S.W. schools as the recommendations of reviews of public education are implemented have led to the need for school administrators to fulfil the roles of educational leaders, attending to the technical, educational, symbolic and cultural aspects of leadership. As senior school administrators, deputy principals are to fulfil functions that are vital to the leadership of schools and which have special relevance to the undertaking of the school development plan process which will launch schools into a devolved system of education. This research delineated the in-service professional development needs of deputy principals in the phases prior to and during the early assumption of the position of deputy principal.