Leadership Competencies of Vocational High School Principals in Taiwan

1
Leadership Competencies of Vocational High School
Principals in Taiwan

• Dr. Chen, I-Jun
• College of Liberal Education,
• Shu-Te University,
• Taiwan

2
Introduction

• Education in Taiwan - higher education

(Including 17 technological universities and 88
technical colleges)
Source Ministry of Education (www.edu.tw)
3
Introduction

• Education in Taiwan - secondary education

(Student numbers)
Source Ministry of Education (www.edu.tw)
4
Introduction

• Education in Taiwan - secondary education

Source Ministry of Education (www.edu.tw)
5
Introduction

• Education in Taiwan

• (1)Impact
• For the past few years, vocational high
• schools are impacted by demographic
• structure change, industrial need switch, and
• educational policy transform.
• (2)Facing crisis
• A few ill-managed schools faced the
• pressure of closing down. But at the same
• time, some turned the crisis into opportunity
• to adjust leading/administrative strategy and
• brought the school back on track.

6
Introduction

• Education in Taiwan

• (3)Effective school
• Principals as the key in management team.
• Leaders administrative experience
• Management wisdom
• The foundation of school existence and
  development.

7
Introduction

• (1)Subjects
• 192 vocational high school principals as
• research subjects
• (2)Instrument
• LCAI to analyze principals leadership
• competencies
• (3)The result of this study can be referenced to
• Develop leadership competencies
• Reform in educational administration/academic
  
• researches

8
Literature Review

• (1)Leadership Theories
• (2)The Assessment of Leadership
  Competencies

9
Literature Review

• As the principal, so is the school!

• Theories on school administration and management
  also place principals as influential position.
  Many also regard principals as the decisive role
  in school development. (Mazzarella, 1985, Hung,
  1990)
• The studies conducted in Taiwan also centered on
  principals in the discussion of administrative
  leadership and instructional leadership.
• School principals play the role to promote
  effective school operation and encourage
  innovation. They do not conduct actual
  instruction their leadership and influence
  improve teachers instruction indirectly and
  improve student achievement.

10
Literature Review

• Leadership Theories

Source Lee, M.L. 2001
11
Literature Review
Leadership Competencies Assessment Instrument
12

Literature Review
Leadership Competencies Assessment Instrument
13
Literature Review
14
Literature Review
15
Methodology

• (1)Research Structure
• (2)Research Questions
• (3)Research Sample
• (4)Research Tool
• (5)Data Analysis

16
Research Structure
17
Research Questions

• 1.How participants perceive their own
• leadership competencies?
• 2.Is there a significant relationship
• among participants leadership
• roles,values,skills.
• 3.Is there a significant relationship between
• demographic variables and leadership roles,
  
• values, skills?

18
Research sample
19
Research sample
20
Research sample
21
Research tool

• LCAI
• Leadership Roles, Leadership Values,
• Leadership Skills
• 46 questions on likert scale
• reliability the Cronbach a values for the
• three sub-inventories are 0.8963, 0.8676,
• and 0.9424. Factor analysis and
• confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were
• also ideal.

22
Data Analysis

• Descriptive statistics analysis
• was adopted to investigate how different
  demographic variables distributed in different
  sub-inventories (leadership roles, leadership
  values, and leadership skills).
• Pearson r correlation coefficient analysis
• was adopted to investigate the relationships
  among
• leadership roles, leadership values, and
  leadership skills.
• One-way ANOVA
• was adopted to investigate the relationship
  between different demographic variables and
  leadership competencies and leadership roles,
  leadership values, and leadership skills.

23
Research Outcomes
24
Research Outcomes
25
Research Outcomes

• Gender and leadership competencies
• Gender did not influence how principals
  perceive their leadership competencies.

26
Research Outcomes

• Age and leadership competencies

• Age did not influence how principals perceive
  their leadership competencies.

Note Total score25, mean13
27
Research Outcomes

• Education and leadership competencies

NS less than 0.005 Total score25, mean13
plt0.005
28
Research Outcomes

• Years as principal and leadership competencies

29
Research Outcomes

• Years of experience and leadership competencies

30
Research Outcomes

• Teaching subjects and leadership competencies

31
Research Outcomes

• School size and leadership competencies

32
Research Outcomes

• Relationship among leadership roles, leadership
  skills, and leadership skills

plt0.05 plt0.01
33
Conclusions

• The overall participants satisfaction upon their
  own leadership competencies is 16.56, higher than
  the average. Principals rated leadership roles as
  task giver and disturbance handler the
  highest, as advocate and negotiator the
  lowest.
• 2.Among the three dimensions, leadership values
  gained the highest points, leadership skills came
  next, and leadership roles gained the least. This
  reflects that administrators satisfaction upon
  their leadership competencies.

34
Conclusions

• 3. We found that these three categories are
  highly correlated, with coefficient of .807 to
  .885.
• 4. It indicates that we should improve
  leadership roles, leadership values, and skills
  at the same time in order to improve the overall
  leadership competencies of administrators.

35
Conclusions

• Analyzing the relationship between
  demographic
• variables and leadership competencies.
• The results indicate that educational level is
  significantly related to the leadership
  competencies.
• 6. Principals with doctoral degree reported
  higher competencies than those with masters
  degrees.

36
Conclusions

• Other demographic variables (gender, age, years
  of experience, years as principal, teaching
  subject, school size) did not report significant
  difference on leadership competencies.

37
Suggestions

• We should put emphasis on the influence of the
  educational level upon vocational high school
  principals perception of their leadership
  competencies.

38
Suggestions

• Quantitative study on vocational high school
  principals leadership competencies can offer
  general understanding on their attainment.
• Case study and in-depth interview can further
  distinguish the core factor of leadership
  competencies and result in more complete
  investigation.

39
Suggestions

• The research subjects are confined as vocational
  high school principals we can further
  investigate administrators (administrative staff)
  to explore the leading and management in
  vocational high schools.
• The vertical analysis (administrators and
  subordinates) would provide broader perspective
  on administrative leadership.

40
Suggestions

• We suggest that education authorities can plan
  for nurturing principals competencies in this
  area (customer networking, global perspective)
  and help vocational high school principals to
  face the challenge from the society and
  educational market in the 21st century.