Lacking a Shared Vision

Abstract

Despite the volume of strategic management models presented to school leaders, the fundamental question of ‘What is the strategic role of school leaders?’ from the perspective of school leaders has been relatively omitted in the current literature. This is surprising given that one of the key elements of strategy as advocated in the literature is the presence of a common goal, values and norms which demarcate members of an organisation or organisational unit. This chapter reports on a study in which I asked practising public school principals ‘What is your strategic role?’ I used the responses to construct a framework for the strategic role, which I then compare to a sample of educational leadership literature on the topic.