The growing school leadership crisis in Queensland schools

There is a growing school leadership crisis, with an increasing gap between principal vacancies and the number of suitably qualified applicants (Ainley & Carstens, 2018; Cranston, 2007; Roza, Celio, Harvey, & Wishon, 2003; Williams & Morey, 2015). Factors contributing to the declining pool of aspirants and suitably qualified applicants is well documented following studies such as the International Study of the Preparation of Principals (ISPP) and further international studies such as the Teaching and Learning International Survey(OECD, 2014). These primarily focus on preparation programs as a solution to attracting aspirants to the role.

My study narrows this focus from a global perspective to the context of Queensland State Schools. This is an attempt to understand the lived experiences of Queensland educators, the impact of the leadership crisis in the Queensland State Schooling context, responses used in Queensland State Schools to address the crisis and how practices in the private sector such as Talent Management could be transferred to the public sector to inform future strategies of succession planning.

This research proposal outlines how I will pragmatically respond to the research question ‘What do the lived experiences of Queensland State School educators tell us about how to address the growing leadership crisis in schools, in comparison to private sector practices?’

It is intended to initially use a web-based survey to identify the foundational knowledge of the typical, current practices occurring around talent management in Queensland to identify, recruit and develop future school principals. This will develop lines of questioning for a Narrative Inquiry, which is intended to further understand the processes, decisions and alignment of practices to policy and literature undertaken by existing principals, middle leaders and aspirant leaders in their journey towards principalship.

Through this research, I hope to influence and inform future leadership identification and development policies, procedures and programs which will contribute to addressing the growing leadership crisis in schools.