The Moral Dimension of School Principals’ Work: Standards cases and social capital

This paper brings together two concurrent strands of research in Australia, one in Western Australia and one in Queensland, both of which focus on the moral and ethical elements of principals' work. Both argue that liberal-progressive, individual-centred educational philosophies that underpinned educational practices for most of the post war period have been pressured to yield the ideological terrain to powerfully asserted economic-rationalist and utilitarian emphases. However, school principals are increasingly dealing with diverse clients and complex social and ethical issues. In the WA study, how principals deal with moral and ethical dilemmas in their daily work formed the basis of an innovative method of developing performance standards for school principals using short narrative accounts, or cases. In the Queensland study, critical incidents involving ethical decisions formed the basis for interactive case study materials for the professional development of school principals. Both strands of research indicate the important role played by the moral dimension of principals' work. These two studies contribute to an increasing body of research indicating that it is the development of social capital, the capacity to build relationships with people within and external to the school, that matters in efforts to improve the quality of schooling.