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Challenges for rural school leaders in a developing context: the case of Solomon Islands

Lingam, Govinda I. and Lingam, Narsamma and Raghuwaiya, Krishna (2014) Challenges for rural school leaders in a developing context: the case of Solomon Islands. International Journal of Social, Human Science and Engineering, 8 (2). pp. 20-28. ISSN 1307-6892

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Abstract

Thirty-eight rural school leaders in Solomon Islands responded to a questionnaire aimed at identifying their perceptions of work challenges. The data analysis points to an overwhelming percentage of school leaders feeling they face multifaceted problems in their work settings, including such challenges as untrained teachers, lack of funding, limited learning and teaching resources, and land disputes. The latter in particular is beyond the school leader’s jurisdiction; addressing it needs urgent attention from the principal stakeholder(s). Such challenges, seemingly tangential to the business of schooling, inadvertently affect the provision of good-quality education. The findings demonstrate that contextual challenges raise questions about what powers leadership at school level has to deal with some of them. The suggestion is advanced for the significant place-conscious leadership development to help address some community and cultural challenges. Implications of this paper are likely to be relevant to other similar contexts in the Pacific region and beyond.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Education
Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies
Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment (FSTE) > School of Computing, Information and Mathematical Sciences
Depositing User: Krishna Raghuwaiya
Date Deposited: 23 May 2014 03:15
Last Modified: 11 May 2016 00:03
URI: http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/7321
UNSPECIFIED

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