Éva Balázs

Quo vadis School Management?¹

Introduction

The study focuses on some of the changes in educational management in Hungary from the beginning of the 90s to the turn of the millennium and the years after.² Besides the composition, the personal and professional features of school directors the study reviews the changes in management training and professional in-service training, which is regarded to be important as these changes are not independent from the educational priorities and policy regulations of the given period. Thus the changes directed at other areas of public education have an effect on school management and its professional work as well. All this is imbedded in the process of social and economic transformation. Changes in the management at institution-level are analysed in this context.

Several surveys were carried out in Hungary or with Hungarian participation on Hungarian school management therefore there is a large amount of experience concerning this area of public education.³ The sociological consequences of the introduction of appointing school directors through competition, which was a major change of the important reform period that started in public education in the mid-80s, before the social system change, were revealed by a major empirical survey (Andor-Liskó, 1991). In the last decade four empirical studies, among them an international comparative one were carried out under the leadership or guidance of the author in the field of educational management research (Balázs, 1994a; 1994b; Balázs 1998a; 1998b; Balázs-Szabó, 1998; Balázs, 2000; Balázs, 2002).⁴ Management is often an accentuated dimension of the empirical studies on the situation of public education or its vertical levels (see e.g. Liskó, 1994; Vágó 1998). The managerial aspect of certain problems linked to public education – efficiency among others – was analyzed in a Dutch-Hungarian comparative study in 1997 (on Hungarian results see Baráth, 2000).

In the professional reflection on Hungarian public education the issues of institution-level management have been emphasized significantly (see e.g. the publication “Education in Hungary” published first in every two, later in every three years both in Hungarian and in English (Halász-Lannert, 1995; 1997; 2000; 2003)). The professional, organizational background of school management and management training is colourful; school directors have several professional organizations, the networks of educational management and management research – including the above mentioned sphere – are members in several international networks (EFEA, ESEM, ENIRDEM), in the professional infrastructure of management training for public education along with state (higher and public education) institutions, also market partners take part, annual conferences are organized on management issues (OKKER, GALLUP).

In Hungary the main motive for the interest in educational management research and development is the fact that the system of public education is de-centralized and institution-level autonomy is very high. And although during the decade there was a slight shift of emphasis in the share of responsibility among various levels and at the end of the decade the state (central) responsibility increased, at the level of educational institutions the scope of responsibilities concerning school managers and teachers is still very wide; how to fulfil the framework of school autonomy greatly depends on school directors.

Changes in the characteristics of school managers

Based on the data from three large-sample empirical and other surveys conducted in the 90s the personal and professional features of school directors have changed at several points compared to the not too favourable “starting” situation and these changes can be regarded as negative.

Based on the data of our three large-sample empirical survey conducted from 1992/92 to 2001/02 the most striking change is in the age of school managers. Average age, which was 46.1 years in 1992 and 47.4 years in 1997, rose to 48.6 years by 2002. Concerning the maintainers of the school a clear age difference was seen only in the survey of 1996/97 – to the favour of managers of schools maintained by the state, in the other two surveys such difference could not be seen.⁵ Differences in age were shaping differently according to the type of settlements. Whereas in the 90s the school directors in smaller urban settlements (“other towns”) were the oldest on average, in 2002 those in the capital. As Table 1. shows the larger the settlement is the older the school directors are: in 2002 the increase was 4.6 years in the capital and 1.6 in villages as compared to the national average increase from1992 – 2.5 years.

 

Table 1.    Average age of school directors according to the type of the settlement in three periods, in years

Type of settlement	Average age	Standard deviation	Average age	Standard deviation	Average age	Standard deviation	Increase from 1992, in years
	1991/92		1996/97		2001/2002
Source: „Oktatásügyi vezetés és vezetőképzés” 1991/92; „Tartalmi változások” and „Iskolavezetés”. 1996/97 and „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 surveys, OKI KK.
Budapest	46.2	7.5	47.5	7.1	50.8	7.6	+4.6
County town	46.4	6.3	48.8	6.9	50.1	6.7	+3.7
Other town	47.1	7.5	49.1	6.5	49.8	6.8	+2.7
Village	45.1	8.0	46.1	7.7	46.7	7.5	+1.6
Total	46.1	7.5	47.4	7.3	48.6	7.4	+2.5
F value	4.1		13.1		22.7
Significance	0.007		0.000		0.000

 

School directors of primary level and other institutions offering such a programme⁶ were younger in all periods than the managers at secondary level; within this vertical level the managers of “purely vocational schools” were the oldest.⁷ Differences in the age of school managers according to school or programme types slightly decreased as compared to the previous state, especially due to a slight decrease in age mainly in vocational training institutions, which decrease started at the beginning of the 90s (Liskó, 1994). In primary schools offering primary programs age increased during ten years to a less extent than in secondary institutions; among the managers of different settlements, however, the age of school directors in the capital increased by 3 years as compared to the national average of 0.9 years.

In the age composition of school directors first an improving tendency could be seen as compared to mid-90s, which tendency later deteriorated. The initial age structure characterized by the predominance of the elderly and the lack of the young had changed favourably by 1997. While in 1992 in village schools the proportion of young people in management was significantly smaller than in bigger towns, in the middle of the decade – due to a major change – the proportion of school managers under 40 years of age increased in villages and was similar to that of the capital (Balázs, 1998: p.22). In the last five years, however, the proportion of school directors under 40 decreased by more than 8% and that of those over 60 increased by nearly 5%, and in the middle age group a significant shift X could be registered towards the higher end of 50s. According to the latest empirical data the proportion of younger school directors decreased everywhere – in the capital and in the county towns this decrease was dramatic; in 2002 young school directors in larger numbers could only be found in villages. The age composition was shifted towards the two higher age groups; by 2002 school directors over 50 had been in majority in all types of settlement except for villages (see Table 2.).

 

Table 2.    Age groups of school directors according to the type of settlement in 1997 and 2002 (in percentage)

Type of settlement	Age in 4 age groups
	1996/97				2001/2002
	Under 40	40-49 years	50-59 years	Over 60	Under 40	40-49 years	50-59 years	Over 60
Source: „Igazgatóvizsgálat”, 1991/92; „Tartalmi változások és igazgatóvizsgálat”, 1996/97 and „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 surveys, OKI KK.
Budapest	22.4	43.4	32.9	1.3	8.5	32.0	47.7	11.8
County town	15.1	36.0	47.7	1.2	7.1	35.5	51.3	6.1
Other town	9.3	48.1	41.1	1.5	9.6	34.4	49.8	6.2
Village	26.7	42.2	30.1	1.0	20.3	43.5	32.4	3.8
Total	22.2	42.6	34.1	1.1	23.8	38.3	42.0	5.8
Phi square p value	0.2				0.3
Significance	0.000				0.000

 

Though not surprising but worth mentioning is the fact that school managers are much older than their teachers. According to our data from 1996/97 the average age of school directors was eight and a half years higher than that of teachers.⁸ In Hungarian public education during the whole period of the decade the average age of teachers was gradually increasing: while the average in 1992 was 39.6 years, in 2001/2002 it was 41.5 years. The pace of this increase, however, was slightly lower than in the case of school directors, therefore in 2002 the difference between the average age of the two professional groups remained significant (7.1 years).⁹ In a study the reason for the larger than “natural” difference was seen in the fact that school maintainers nominating school directors apparently do not find the authority stemming from professional competence and personal qualities sufficient; they would rather build on the acceptance based on a longer period spent in the profession (Vágó, 1998: p.282).

An unfavourable trend is that the mobility of school directors is low and decreases with time. One of the components is that the managers of public education institutions become managers at a higher age than before. Although those who become managers later are naturally younger than managers in general, comparing the data it is clear that a school director who is 55 years old today was 40 when nominated, i.e. they were younger than those who were nominated managers in 2001/2002.¹⁰ The slower pace of rejuvenation can be experienced in the institutions of primary education as well; that on average is characterized by younger managers.¹¹

It is not a Hungarian peculiarity that becoming a manager in education is a slow process, especially when compared to the economic sphere. According to a 1995 international comparative survey new managers on average are commissioned at the age of 40 having 16 years of professional experience. On average Hungarians taking part in this survey were two years older than their counterparts in the other five participating countries¹² and had become managers with the longest, 20-year practice (Balázs, 1998: p.21; Karstanje – Villa – Villardón, 2000: p.21). Based on the data of our survey varied out a year later on a larger and representative sample – the proportion of managers who had been nominated within five years suddenly rose¹³ – we did not regard this problem as worrying (Balázs 1998: p.21). Based on our survey of 2001/2002, however, we think that the manager’s career was more closed to the young or less attractive for the young than before – these motives cannot be differentiated by the survey – the situation is unfavourable from the aspects of renewing educational management and of the challenges that the profession faces (see Table 3).

 

Table 3.    Age composition of the group of school directors nominated less than five years before the survey in 1996/97 and 2001/02, in percentage

Survey period	Under 40 years	40-49 years	50-59 years	60 years and over
Source: Balázs, 1998: p.21; Database of 2001/2002 survey
1996/97	31.6	48.5	19.9	0.0
2001/2002	22.8	41.5	31.7	4.0

 

As a trend new managers do not only get into management later but also stay there longer. The fixed (five-year) period of management was introduced by the reform law on education of 1985.¹⁴ Later the amendment of the Law on public education made it possible to extend the mandate of the previously nominated manager without competition. More than half of school maintainers took advantage of this opportunity in the first school year of the new millennium. Thus 7.4% of school directors had been in their positions since the first competition, i.e. 1987, another quarter of them got into managing positions between 1987 and 1992, one fifth of them were nominated between 1993 and 1996. It is evident that the repeatedly extended mandate further deteriorates the chances of potential younger school directors for getting into managing positions.

Based on our experiences we can state that younger teachers, deputy directors are less likely to apply for the post of a school director than the elderly ones.¹⁵ This follows partly from what was said above – they do not consider their nomination realistic – but in an indirect way it is due to the fact that the teacher’s career is getting more closed to the young; the young find it difficult to enter this profession, the average age is increasing (Nagy M., 1999).

In the composition of school directors there is a significant difference between those nominated “years ago” or “recently” according to school maintainers, educational programs and settlement types. In the school year following the millennium the directors of non-state schools¹⁶ had been managers for a considerably shorter period than those in the state sphere. It is partly due to the fact that in schools maintained by foundations establishing institutions started after the socio-economic system change and lasted long (it is still open today) and the change of managers is more frequent; more than half of these managers were nominated between 1997 and 2000, another 10 percent in 2001/2002.¹⁷ According to programme types in schools providing education for the school leaving exam and vocational training there were more directors who had been nominated in former times, the proportion of recently nominated (in or after 1997) is smaller compared to the average of the total sample. Those nominated before 1987 were over-represented in county towns and other towns, those nominated after 1987 were over-represented in Budapest. Among those who got their commissions in the year of our survey, 2001/2002, there were more school directors working in villages than the average, and those working in other towns were considerably fewer. In primary schools the mobility of school directors deduced from the time that had passed since their nomination was slightly larger than in the total sample. At this level even more striking was the relatively large proportion of school directors with more than 15 years of managing experience and the small proportion of “the new” (see Table 4).

 

Table 4.    “How long have you been a school director?” – in the total sample and in the programme type of primary institutions according to settlement types, in percentage

Year of nomination	Total sample					Pure primary school (primary programme)
	Budapest	County town	Other town	Village	Total	Budapest	County town	Other town	Village	Total
Source: „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 survey, OKI KK.
Before 1987	7.2	9.4	10.3	5.4	7.4	7.8	7.1	13.4	5.1	7.1
Between 1987-92	30.1	23.8	22.3	21.4	23.2	26.0	23.5	20.4	21.2	21.8
Between 1993-96	17.6	21.3	21.3	21.4	20.9	18.2	16.3	20.4	20.9	20.0
Between 1997-2000	36.6	36.6	39.3	40.0	38.8	37.7	43.9	40.8	40.7	40.8
In 2001/2002	8.5	8.9	6.7	12.1	9.7	10.4	9.2	5.1	12.1	10.3
Phi n trial	0.13					0.15
Significance	0.06					0.07

 

From social aspect the higher average age of school directors, the immobilization of management shows the decrease of the attraction of the teaching profession which can be noticed even though its level was low formerly as well. From a research within the system it can be said that all this may worsen the potential dynamizing capacity of educational institutions.

Gender proportions among school managers also changed significantly though in a longer period. In the 70s in Hungarian schools even in institutions of primary education, in teaching staffs with a female majority school directors were dominantly male¹⁸, in the 90s a considerable advance of female school directors was registered, though they were still under-represented as compared to gender proportions of the teaching profession.¹⁹ In the 2001/2002 survey female school directors were in majority in the total sample²⁰ but with a considerable variance according to various school types (programme types). Women are mainly over-represented in primary institutions and under-represented in vocational and general secondary schools.²¹ On average female managers are one year younger than male ones. Due to the school types dominated by women the majority of female school directors have a college degree but more than one college degree is more frequent than in the case of male school directors. The age composition of female managers is slightly less unfavourable, though their proportion in the group of managers under 40 is below the average but – mainly due to a lower retirement age for women in force in the 90s²² – it is also below, much below the average in the group of the oldest.²³ Both the age and gender composition of village primary school directors is more favourable than that in other settlements, which slightly improves the more disadvantageous position of villages in the settlement hierarchy.

From a sociological aspect the advance of female managers also indicates the – further – decrease of the prestige of the profession. However, it can be regarded as a positive phenomenon concerning both the perspectives and self-esteem of women who are in the profession.

The main change in the qualification of school directors in the last decade was that along with a continuous, degressive increase of qualification level the proportion of those with higher qualifications slightly decreased. This happened in spite of the fact – and that is why we consider it worth mentioning – that in the context of the expansion of secondary education the proportion of secondary schools (the institutions in the verticum that require university qualification) had increased considerably as compared to the previous decade. The unfavourable trend in qualifications is even more observable in the decrease of the ratio of directors with more than one qualification, which is not a formal requirement butt a qualitative characteristic feature.

In 1996/97 we still found that the proportion of those with higher qualification rose as opposed to the data from 5 years before – both in the total sample and among primary school directors.²⁴ Directors with lower qualification than the required minimum at the given level were found in the upwardly expanding (9-10-grade and – to a considerably less extent – in 12-grade) schools. At the same time it could also be observed that a not too small proportion of primary school directors were more qualified than the required minimum, i.e. they had (or also had) university qualification.²⁵ According to the data of the latest survey the proportion of directors with only college qualification increased, and not only in primary schools (See Table 5).

 

Table 5.    Highest qualification of directors of schools with a primary programme (pure primary schools) and of those of all school/programme types in three periods, in percentage

School type / Programme type	1991/92	1996/97	2001/2002	College	University	College
				Source: „Igazgatóvizsgálat”, 1991/92; „Nat igazgatóvizsgálat”, 1996/97 és „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 surveys, OKI KK. * The two figures do not comprise a total of 100% as directors without a college or university degree were also included.
Primary school / Primary programme	75.0	25.0	67.3*	32.2*	71.4	28.6
Total sample	61.3	38.7	51.0	49.0	54.9	45.1

 

In 2002 the highest qualification of school directors in the non-state educational sector was higher than in the state sector: more than two thirds of church, foundation and private school managers had university qualification. Although this is partly due to the fact that this sector in the secondary verticum is wider than at primary level, secondary school teachers and those with other university qualification were over-represented in the small number of non-state primary schools as compared to the average figures in their groups. Concerning the highest qualification of managers there are significant differences among settlements of various size and public administration status stemming from the basic features of their school networks and showing the characteristics of the settlement slope: in the total sample between the capital and the villages the variance scope nearly reaches the average value. In the case of directors of schools with a primary program the trend is the same but the scope of variance is narrower, its extent is smaller but the qualification of directors in villages is only slightly behind the average (See Table 6).

 

Table 6.    Highest qualification of school directors according to settlement type in the total sample and in institutions with primary programme type, 2001/2002, in percentage

Settlement type	Total sample		Institutions at primary level
	College	University	College	University
Source: „Intézményi szintű változások” survey, 2001/2002, OKI KK.
Budapest	29.9	70.1	50.6	49.4
County town	36.1	63.9	62.2	37.8
Other town	46.5	53.5	75.5	24.5
Village	74.2	25.8	74.9	25.1
Total	54.9	45.1	71.4	28.6
Phi square statistics	0.36		0.17
Significance	0.000		0.000

 

Higher education is an important scene of life-long learning for directors where besides obtaining the missing qualification they can also upgrade their qualification. In this respect changes with time are not significant. In the first school year of the new millennium more than two thirds of directors had at least two qualifications obtained in higher education. These directors can mainly be found among those managing an institution of mixed profile or one providing vocational training: in schools with a primary + school-leaving examination + vocational training programmes (81.8%), with a school-leaving examination + vocational training programme (79%), with a vocational training programme (77.8%) and with a primary and vocational training programme (76.9%). In the group of directors with more than one qualification it can also be observed that these qualifications build on one another. From among directors with more and one qualification those with a college degree most often (44.3% of those concerned) obtain another college degree that entitles them to teach another subject and this happens mostly in the primary programme type. Similarly to the results of our survey of 1996/97 when directors with a university qualification choose to obtain an additional college one, this choice is motivated not by status but professional considerations and this happens in upwardly expanding and structure-changing institutions.²⁶ In 2001/2002 university qualification building on a college one on average characterizes 29.9% of directors in the total sample; and this is more common among the directors of schools offering a vocational training programme (57.1%) and a primary + vocational training programme (45.5%) than in other schools. According to the 2001/2002 survey more than one fifth of directors had at least two university qualifications; this ratio was higher in pure general secondary schools (school-leaving examination programme type) and in schools providing both a school-leaving exam programme and vocational training. Additional qualifications were usually obtained in evening or corresponding courses, in Hungarian institutions of higher education.

Changes in the special competences of school managers are even more important than formal qualification. From the data of empirical studies conducted during the whole decade two such competences of directors can be compared – in a direct or indirect way, and thus the trend in change can be outlined. These competences are: foreign language and ICT competences.

Initially both were at a very low level. Lack of foreign language competence is not a teacher- or school-specific feature in Hungary. Since the socio-political conditions changed in the 90s we have witnessed a considerable rise of communicative foreign language competence but in the case of adults (among them teachers and school managers) this has been effective to a smaller extent and has been slower – partly due to the peculiarities of the Hungarian language. ICT-culture is a relatively new challenge for schools in developed countries as well. It is even more so in Hungary, due to belated development and the low level of economic performance: in public education a strong development of infrastructure started in the second half of the 90s; in the new millennium the development areas – developing teaching programmes, enhancing various uses, providing more equipment (within this supporting family infrastructure) – widened.

In 1996/97 on average more than half of the directors declared they were competent foreign language users; this ratio was slightly lower among primary school directors (Balázs, 1998: p.29). In 2002 a slightly smaller proportion (45.2%) of directors than before said they spoke at least one foreign language. (Because of self-declaration it is considered as a deviation within the error margin; it is not regarded as deterioration.) Foreign language competence was not very much below the average and it was well above the average in the groups of directors from schools with a primary + a school-leaving exam programme and with a pure school-leaving examination programme (pure general secondary school). Among directors of primary schools foreign language competence was higher in county towns than in the capital (51.1% and 46.8%, respectively) while school managers in other towns were behind (40.1%). While foreign language competence based on self-declaration did not increase in the last five years the ration of directors having at least an intermediate-level certificate of foreign language command did. In 2002 this was true for a quarter of the total sample as opposed to 16% before. Although this ratio is still very small it can be stated that learning a foreign language is a very important and promising direction in the self-training of school managers (however, usually not in the framework of organized in-service training).

Regarding the changes in ICT-competence it is difficult to compare the data of the two surveys in a direct way as the questions of the interviews were different not only in form but also in content.²⁷ Therefore it is rather the changes in the lack of this competence can be grasped. In 1996/97 on average 56% of directors said they did not use the computer anywhere.²⁸ In 2001/2002 almost 10.4% of the directors interviewed said they did not use the instrument of electronic communication, 10.9% said they used this special but in the information society essential instrument in 1-9% in their managerial work – and 34.8%²⁹ estimated their use of the computer as 10% in their managerial work. Adding these figures we get nearly the same ratio as the one of non-users in 1996/97. Although this comparison may be a rough approximation only, based on this the situation may be regarded unchanged and very unfavourable. While computers are present at schools, they are not so – or to less extent – in the work of the majority of directors. Recently – as we could see – very few new people started a director’s career. Therefore mostly the former managers may be the ones who had not become computer-users in a bigger proportion than before. The comparison is more favourable when we create three categories taking the average of e-communication (15.1%) and ą half deviation (in total 11.2) and regard the lowest category as the counterpart of “non-users”. In this way 21.3% of the total sample belong to this category and taken as such the ratio of computer users improved as compared to 1997. Nevertheless, the average is so low that it cannot be considered satisfying.

Focusing on the 2001/2002 survey differences worth noting can be found among the different institutional programme types. As Table 7 shows on average directors of schools offering more than one programme communicate electronically in a higher proportion than those of schools of a single profile. The ratio of directors practically not using the computer is well below the average in schools offering more than one programme, i.e. of mixed educational profile while it is above the average in schools of a single profile. Having more than one leg to stand on and institutional adaptability go together with informational requirements in management for which electronic communication and the necessary equipment are essential, while on the other side, in traditional school types there is no such constraint. Naturally the cause and effect relation can be reverse, i.e. directors of using e-communication are rather more open to adding, modifying profiles but this does not weaken our reasoning but rather reinforces it.

 

Table 7.   Average proportion of electronic communication in managerial work according to programme type of institutions, age group of managers and gender 2001/2002, in percentage

Programme type	Average	Standard deviation	Age group	Average	Standard deviation	Gender	Average	Standard deviation
Source: „Intézményi szintű változások” survey, 2001/2002, OKI KK.
School-leaving exam + vocational training	18.5	11.2	Below 40	17.0	12.9	Male	16.8	11.9
School-leaving exam	14.4	10.0	40-49 years	15.2	11.1	Female	13.6	10.3
Vocational training	12.2	10.6	50-59 years	14.8	10.6
Primary + school-leaving exam + vocational training	17.0	10.7	60 years and over	12.7	11.4
Primary + school-leaving exam	16.5	11.2
Primary + vocational training	18.3	10.8
Primary education	14.1	11.1
Total	15.1	11.2		15.1	11.2		15.1	11.2
Value of F statistics	4.6			2.5			22.0
Significance	0.000			0.06			0.000

 

The table also informs us about the – not surprising – fact that the older the director is the smaller the average proportion of electronic communication is and also that female directors use the computer to a much less extent in their work than their male counterparts.

If we are to estimate the positive side of the managerial competence which is especially important from the aspect of the information society it can be said that the “top-ranking” directors represent a noticeable ratio at an intermediate level. It can be deduced from the data of the 2001/2002 survey: the directors of two schools of two programme types – pure general secondary schools and 12-grade schools – use the computer everywhere in a proportion considerably higher than the average (18.4%). According to the data of the 2001/2002 survey electronic communication is used in the same proportion (18.6%) to the extent of average + half deviation. Directors of secondary institutions, especially of schools providing school-leaving examination and vocational training programmes use e-communication in a larger proportion (29,7%/).

Changes in management training and professional development

In public education an important instrument of institutional-level professional development is the system of in-service training, in which manager training has an outstanding role. According to the empirical studies that we have conducted since the 90s up to now it can be seen that in size a practically constant but in character a rather fluctuating process of change can be observed, which can be grasped in the change of the dominance and weight of general and management-specific or educational, professional in-service training courses in the choice of directors. We try to interpret these changes by presenting the changes of in-service training in the educational policy and macro-social contexts of the given periods.

 

In the former regime, in socialism there worked a comprehensive and intensive system of in-service training for school managers. It was mainly aimed at the – initially direct, later indirect – ideological training of those selected for managment based on “cadre development plans”. It became softer starting from the second half of the 70s and professional factors were in the foreground of the trainings. For directors these trainings were important scenes of information exchange – not only between the higher level and the school level but also in the professional relationships of the directors.

Starting in the mid-80s the crisis phenomena of the economy made their effects felt in the society and by the end of the decade these effects had reached schools as well, in various ways. Almost all schools had to face growing financial difficulties and the disorders of the formerly low-level but guaranteed operation had to be managed and overcome by the schools themselves. The expanding crisis of the economy affected first and directly the institutional system of a lower-level vocational training; companies closed a great number of training workshops that they had formerly operated. The perception of losing the wider social perspective can also be put to this time when the so far unknown unemployment appeared for the first time. The school-level impact of all this – even before the change of the regime – was manifest in the change of the educational demands of families, in the increasing demand for secondary school education, which was connected with the collapse of the vocational training sector.³⁰ With Carlson’s metaphor schools changed from a formerly domestic organizations into wilder and wilder ones (cited in Bush, 1996). School directors had to face dramatically new challenges while they were left alone. The wind of the possibilities of social changes nevertheless brought optimism. And although the contingency-theory approach of management had not been known, the majority of directors employed it in an implicit way.³¹

The change of the regime seemed to have fulfilled positive expectations. The changed context of educational policy – local government management, the pluralism of school maintainers, the system of shared responsibility and within this the high level of school autonomy – placed school management training on new foundations. The renewing system of management development and training could transfer the management knowledge flowing into the country to the institution managers demanding it and being interested in it. Thanks to this at that time there was a boom in the formerly well operating public educational manager training, the important elements of which included the expansion of supply and the appearance of non-state actors in this sector. In manager training demands the topic of general management was dominant and the risiing supply also aimed at introducing these elements (balázs, 1994a; 1994b; Annási-Baráth, 1994; Balázs, 1998a).³² According to the data of our 1991/92 survey two thirds of school managers had management qualification. As the majority of the trained directors obtained this qualification in the former era, the proportion of those wishing to renew their management training was extremely high (60%).

This situation had changed dramatically by the second half of the 90s – only one quarter of the directors and merely 17% of the directors of general secondary schools went through manager training (Balázs, 1999, p. 244). This was due first of all to the new professional challenges of national educational policy directly relating to schools, which went together with the change of the professional interests of the working directors and within this their in-service training preferences. Other factors also influenced this change of direction, mostly through the change of the composition of directors.

The issue of the long unsolved content regulation had become one of the – if not the – most important priorities of the 90s on the agenda of national educational policy. In the first half of the decade in the prolonged debates on the new National Core Curriculum (NCC) the issue of renewing the content of education came to the front both for the teaching profession and the wider public. Along with the increase of interest the introduction of the NCC and its implementation in schools between 1995 and 1998 produced concrete professional challenges for schools and school directors who had wide responsibilities in this area as well. To meet these challenges the existing professional competences could not be sufficient. To prepare school level pedagogical programs and within this their own programmes³³ formerly not required professional knowledge and even more so competences became necessary. Among the supporting instruments for the implementation of NCC new in-service training courses appeared – connected especially to curriculum writing – and these trainings satisfied demands relevant for school managers as well. And as they had to manage a formerly not existing task, which required more educational-professional competences from them as well, it was obvious that school directors would take part in these training in great numbers. According to the data of our director survey of 1996/97 more than three quarters of school directors took part in professional-educational in-service training within five years (Balázs, 1998a: p. 52; Balázs-Szabó, 1998: pp. 69-75). This, however led to the dramatic fall of the participation rate in manager training. (As the criterion of management training qualification was not a requirement for the future directors, the school maintainers inviting applications for the post of a school director formulated this criterion as an advantage but not a compulsory requirement, for the already nominated directors who had no management qualification the postponement of such training did not threaten with any disadvantage. Other, formerly nominated directors who had already received this kind of training could postpone the periodical renewal of this qualification – a system operating in practice in Hungary but on a voluntary basis.)

The participation in in-service manager training and the proportion of management qualification of the directors was also influenced by the fact that in the mid-nineties there was a large-scale (larger scale than usual) demographic change in the composition of directors. This was due to the following. The introduction before the change of the regime of the system of competition for directors’ posts reinforced mostly the former directors – in majority they were the ones who had applied (Andor-Liskó, 1991) – but the generation that was the oldest at that time – did not apply again. The directors who got a five-year mandate were strengthened by the right of agreement (veto) of the teaching staff. This right was withdrawn by a decision of the Constitutional Court in 1992. Later the law was amended again and according to the new regulations the nominated director may be prolonged for two more cycles without a new competition. All this – as we presented earlier – decreased managers’ mobility. FA further contribution to this was that the directors that had reached the retirement aged postponed their retirement especially because of the lasting and problematic socio-economic transformation period and because of the lack of the welfare perspective.

Nomination of directors belongs to the authority of the assembly of representatives of local governments, which changes every four years as a result of local elections.³⁴ And although cadre development could not function this way, it is obvious – and the same everywhere – that the willingness of a director to co-operate and their loyalty has to be ensured; in lack of these the nomination of a new director is in the interest of the body that commissions them. As a consequence of the coincidence of the above outlined factors this choice in the framework of local governance manifested in large scales in the mid-nineties. It has to be stressed that behind the motives of the policy of the local government one should not search the direction of the governing coalition (the local elections following the national ones within six months usually produce a reverse result), neither should party policy considerations be sought (as in local elections the winning mayor is often independent of parties and mixed is the political coalition) but the choice according to the preferences of the local government.³⁵ Therefore teachers that had become active in local politics or who had showed loyalty to the representatives could provide an alternative compared to the prolongation of the mandate of the former director.

The picture is further coloured by the fact that the demand for a change could come from the school director as well, even more so at this time than earlier. The crisis signs of the transformational period had reached the local governments by the mid-90s and following the social restrictions the schools also had to face restrictions, though with a phase shift. This constraint for the directors – even independently from the political commitment – could reduce the motivation for renewing the manager’s post.³⁶ Thus practicing teachers entered management positions in large proportions; ones with no managerial practice at all, who did not even work as leaders of subject-based teachers’ teams. This was first revealed by our international comparative survey examining the features and problems of newly appointed school managers (Balázs, 1998a: pp. 50-51). Following this non-representative survey in 1996/97 a large- sample research, which was representative according to the types of school and their occurrence in various settlements, reinforced the change in the composition of directors as a consequence of director changes.

The new management composition and the new content direction of professional development reinforced each other. Willingness to take part in in-service training on the whole did not decrease, but its nature shifted considerably into the direction of educational-professional trainings.³⁷ The supply of trainings was completed with another priority of national educational policy, with quality assurance, along which the training market greatly expanded with state incentives but with the presence of the market sphere in the fields of testing-assessment and expert training.

The development of the content of public education and the issue of curriculum regulation was still on the agenda at the end of the 90s. Not because the introduction of such a comprehensive reform is a long process. The implementation of the NCC was made considerably difficult by the lack of political consensus and the content regulation received special significance in the context of the preparations for the national elections due in 1998. In the debate the unsolved issues, professional problems of the content reform were accentuated as much as the aspects of party politics.³⁸ The new coalition that was set up after the elections modified the curriculum regulation considerably by introducing a so-called framework curriculum between loose national framework regulation and institutional-level programmes. The main proclaimed objective of this was to ensure transfer within the system but behind this declared objective there was the intention to reduce school liberty in curriculum issues, which was regarded as exaggerated. In several cases framework curricula reinstated the previous conditions, in others they followed the processes that had been started.³⁹ In accordance with the new regulations schools had to re-write their local educational programmes by 2001/02 in order to meet the requirements of the framework curricula. Though it meant a considerable workload for them, according to our survey school directors were basically looking forward to the introduction of framework curricula especially because the necessary changes were not predicted to be great (Simon, 2002). The changes accompanying the framework curricula affected negatively the innovative schools and their directors that were seeking individual solutions. By that time the issue of the curriculum regulation comprising professionally (still) open issues had found itself in the crossfire of the political debates of a coming election cycle. And while schools were switching over to framework curricula the socialist-liberal political coalition that had lost the elections in 1998 and won them in 2002 started to take immediate and prospective steps in the direction of easing the centralizing content regulation and reinstating school autonomy. The national core curriculum is being supervised now in this spirit. From what was outlined in a nutshell it is clear that all this meant several additional tasks at the institutional level on the one hand and on the other reinforced the feeling of temporariness and uncertainty.

Our empirical survey conducted in 2001/2002 shows some balance in management and educational in-service training and qualification of school directors. At the turn of the millennium on average 55% of directors had taken part in management training. As it can be seen from Table 8 the middle generation of directors entering management since the mid-nineties had caught up as long as management training is concerned but the younger generation was still behind. The small proportion of the formerly not trained, ‘protected’ oldest generation also contributed to the situation that the high level of being trained (characteristic for the first half of the last decade) was only approached but not reached by today’s directors.

 

Table 8.   Proportion of those taking part in in-service training in total and in various training types according to the age group of directors, 2001/2002, in percentage

Age group of directors	Participated in
in-service training in total	management training	informatics training	expert training	foreign language course
Source: „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 survey, OKI KK.
Below 40	96.9	54.4	31.7	3.8	5.0
40-49 years	97.7	67.0	33.3	7.9	6.1
50-59 years	93.1	55.1	26.8	10.7	2.2
60 years and over	82.1	48.5	11.8	9.0	1.5
Total	94.8	59.0	29.1	8.5	4.0
Phi square stat.	0.17	0.13	0.12	0.08	0.09
Significance	0.000	0.000	0.002	0.05	0.02

 

Among in-service training courses the proportion of those taking part in manager training was the highest; this was followed by informatics (the difference between these two is shown in Table 8) and last by professional in-service training.⁴⁰ By the turn of the millennium on the palette of pedagogical-professional development new kinds of trainings appeared, from which the ones on testing-assessment are represented in the highest proportion among the directions of professional development of directors, The expert role – in various forms – can be played in other institutions but the profit, experience gained can be used in the school of the manager, too. For the director these qualifications lend a sense of relative independence on the one hand and an increase of influence on the other in the director – maintainer relationship.

The ranking of in-service trainings is the same for primary school directors as well but the ratio of those who had taken part in informatics or testing-assessment training is higher than in the total sample (32.4% and 13.8% respectively). Among those interviewed the proportion of 40-year olds taking part in manager training, informatics training and foreign language learning is higher than the average (though there are scarce opportunities for the latter one in the framework of in-service training). In expert training, however, it is the 50-year-olds whose ratio is above the average. Female directors on the whole take part in more in-service trainings than their male counterparts but as opposed to manager training they prefer subject-based, personality developing, pedagogical testing-assessment and even informatics trainings. In all these fields except manager training female directors outnumber their male counterparts.

Among those who took part in various in-service trainings there are significant differences in three according to the type of settlement: in subject-based, informatics and expert training. Directors of village schools are more interested than the average in the most traditional subject-based trainings, but their participation in informatics trainings is also above the average but considerably under-represented in expert training. In this respect the participation of directors in the capital is sticking out, who have the most opportunities for this type of training and can later use their qualification most (See Table 9).

 

Table 9.   Proportion of school directors that participated in three kinds of in-service training according to settlement type, in percentage, 2002/2003.

Settlement type	Subject-based training	Informatics training	Expert training
Source: „Intézményi szintű változások”, 2001/2002 survey, OKI KK.
Budapest	23.6	28.0	14.6
County town	23.4	22.0	10.2
Other town	20.1	27.1	10.4
Village	33.5	32.5	4.7
Total	27.1	28.7	8.4
Phi square statistics value	0.13	0.09	0.13
Significance	0.000	0.04	0.000

 

More than two thirds of school directors took part in more than one in-service training.⁴¹ On the whole only 5% of the directors did not participate in any in-service training; in primary schools this ratio is even smaller. Therefore in life-long learning the role of organized in-service training is still very important beside the formerly mentioned higher education.

Conclusions

At the present end-point of changes in respect of organized training a more and more colourful palette of the professional competence-developing background of institutional-level management can be seen and within this a more balanced increase of management and pedagogical development can be experienced. On the whole all this can be regarded as positive, nevertheless it is worrying that certain important manager competences (ICT, foreign language) – which can be obtained in non-formal training as well nevertheless can be estimated while failing to have information about it – are of low level and had not developed in the past decade and also that in formal training their weight is small. The system of in-service training attempts to meet the professional challenges facing school management by introducing trainings connected to the national educational tasks of the given periods. School managers also prefer these trainings that usually go together with additional support. Incentives are missing for personal development that proves to be useful only in the long run and frequently having only indirect benefits. School managers – as we could see in the first part of this study – are not motivated for this either, due to their capacities, personal and professional composition. A perspective-centred attitude can hardly be expected in the present macro-social and educational policy context. The freedom increased by the system change permeated everything from high politics to social life including teachers, parents and school managers and created expectations concerning the possibilities of schools. These expectations have proved to be mostly illusions for various reasons – of which we highlighted only some elements, the ones connected to management. In the shaping political, professional and financial conditions the scope of movement of schools and their directors and therefore the perspective of school activity have considerably narrowed. The struggle for day-to-day operation on the one hand and the lack of guiding points, calculability does not make school management attractive for young, creative teachers. As the unfavourable change in the qualities of school management is not independent from that of teachers, the impact of the lack of perspective has to be seen not only from the point of view of the management but of the whole profession. The positions of more or less successful school directors are not in danger but school directors themselves also remain in their positions for lack of something better. So problems cannot be grasped at the level of institutional management but they can be seen there – more exactly can be seen there as well. Managing changes induced by education management or public administration is an unavoidable challenge for school directors. Nevertheless when the future is unclear changes can be threatening – or at least depressing (Ackermann, 1986). That is why we should not have illusions concerning the change of educational paradigm serving the global competitiveness of the knowledge society and the European Union; at least not in the short run.

In the autumn of 2002 a one-time 50-percent pay rise intended to ease the financial situation of those working in education and thus help to solve one of the main problems of Hungarian public education that had already been accentuated in one of the first country reports of the European Union. This may even enhance the mobility of the profession, the flow-in of young and innovative professionals the multiplying effect of which may be felt in school management as well. Therefore the question ‘Where are you going school management?’ will be worth asking some years later.

References