Principals reflecting on their leadership learning with an heuristic: A pilot study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small pilot study in which an heuristic was used to enable principals to reflect on the confidence they have in their existing leadership knowledge and how they might add to that knowledge in the future. The motivation for the study arose from a literature review of strategies for leadership development which showed up the lack of attention paid in research to principals’ agency in the pursuit of their own learning. This contrasts starkly with the dominance in the literature of principals’ reliance on education systems or authorities which, at present, make most decisions about principals’ learning in leadership development programs. The piloting of the heuristic acts as a means of shifting the emphasis from system to self, thus empowering individuals to take more responsibility for their own future leadership learning needs.