If the school leaders and leadership are crucially important, it is a deep concern how they professionally develop to perform their roles (Crow et al, 2008) and what their professional development (PD) needs are. This emphasises the need for well-designed PD training for school leaders to develop the required PD skills and facilitate their PD needs. In line with this idea, this thesis examines the PD needs of novice principals with reference to the Sri Lankan context. This study analyses how the PD needs of novice principals were addressed through two training programmes offered by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka. Among the two trainings, induction training has been offered for more than 20 years without any policy-level initiatives at the initial leadership role of the novice principals. In contrast, the Basic Principals Programme (BPP), a continuing PD training programme for novice principals who are serving leaders, was introduced by the National Competency Framework for School Leadership and Management (NCFSLM) and is a new policy initiative with international support.
As the study focuses on understanding the lived experience of study participants, the study was conducted as a phenomenological study as it provides the opportunity to understand and describe the subjective experiences and perspectives of stakeholders on the PD needs and offered training programmes. Data collected through qualitative interviews were corroborated with documentary analysis, and the data were analysed and presented thematically, for better understanding of subjective information of the novice principals towards PD needs and received training.
The key finding of this study is that the PD needs of the novice principals were person-centred, to begin with, and focused on developing themselves as leaders and enhancing leadership skills to lead others. In contrast, as serving leaders, they identified the development of their leadership competencies as a requirement to lead others effectively. In other words, there was a shift from focusing on self-centred human capital to extending relationships as social capital. The novice principals’ PD needs were embedded within four underlying concepts: a) leader and leadership development; b) soft skills and hard skills, c) intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and d) human capital and social capital, which are complex and interconnected.
The findings also illustrated that the induction training focused on developing the self of a novice as a leader with a range of soft skills rather than hard skills. The soft skill development included intra and inter-personal skills that helped them to effectively navigate various challenges in their initial leadership roles. In contrast, continuing PD training (BPP) aims to develop competencies in facilitating the PD needs of serving leaders. These are task-oriented and centred around specific skills. Thus, data does not support the idea that BPP facilitated serving leaders to meet their PD needs. The delays in offering the programmes due to the impact of COVID-19, influenced by administrative circumstances, were identified as reasons for the failure to address the PD needs of novice principals.
The thesis concludes by presenting a set of recommendations for national-level policymakers. These recommendations include conducting a needs survey before initiating training programmes, standardising the offered training according to the NCFSLM, and implementing measures to ensure quality and consistency. This involves ongoing training and updates for administrative offices and trainers.
