The Educational Leader as Counsellor

This book examines the literature on leadership and §counseling to determine similarities, and §investigate how principals perceived their §leadership role in terms of the theories of §counseling and leadership. It further explores the §implications for the selection, appraisal and §development of principals. §The literature of effective counselors and §educational leaders was reviewed to find significant §similarities. Principals in Sydney were involved in §a Q-sort survey to prioritise the essential emphases §of effective educational leaders. Interviews were §carried out to cast light on the survey results. §Content analysis was carried out on documents of the §NSW Government and Sydney Catholic School Systems. §Literature on both leadership and counseling §emphasised the importance of the leader/counselor s §authenticity, empathy, respect, and communication §skills. Principals prioritised these counselling-§related attributes after a focus on students and §strategic leadership but ahead of organisation, §resource management, evaluating and controlling. §The book is for practising principals, educational §leaders and researchers.