The Career Paths of Primary School Principals in Cyprus and Malta: A Comparative Study

1.IntroductionIn the late twentieth century, the term 'school leadership' came into currency and the concept of leadership was favored because it conveys dynamism and pro-activity. School leadership, in other words, educational leadership is a field of study and practice concerned with the operation of schools and other educational organizations (Bush, 2008). The principal is commonly thought to be the school leader. However, school leadership may include other people such as senior teachers, members of formal in-school teams and those who contribute to the aims of the school (Waters & Marzano, 2006). According to Rhodes and Brundrett (2009), an essential linkage between leadership and learning should be understood to involve incumbent senior leaders in schools, enabling teachers to improve their practice by fostering and supporting continued teacher professional development. Jones and Pound (2008) stated that the leaders and managers play a significant role in enabling other practitioners to develop the necessary capabilities in a climate of significant change and developments.Educational leadership has progressed from being a new field, dependent upon ideas development, to other settings to become an established discipline with its own theories and significant empirical data testing their validity in education (Bush, 2011). Arguably, understanding school leadership requires new studies in the field of education. One of the leading studies about principals' career development can be attributed to Peter Ribbins, who carried it out in the United Kingdom in 1997 and presented it at The National Conference of the British Educational Administration Society in the University of Oxford. Ribbins aimed to find out what the principals had done for the job as well as what the job had done for them. He used a qualitative interview method which included nineteen questions that focused on the idea that educational leaders, rather than systems are responsible for managing institutions. In-depth analyses showed that there was no strong parental effect on choosing teaching and principalship as a profession. However, parental effect was found to impact on some specific areas. In general, they had an uncertain start to their careers; they did not experience their career development as a planned process. Rather, it was simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time. Furthermore, all their decisions fell within a broad framework of educational values; knowing what they wanted to create and lead, and realizing that headship would allow them to achieve their goals. This study provided the catalyst for many other studies. One of them was carried out as a collective research project under the leadership of Gronn and Ribbins (2003) in four island states involving Singapore (Chew et al. 2003), Hong Kong (Wong & Ng, 2003), Cyprus (Pashiardis & Ribbins, 2003) and Malta (Bezzina & Cassar, 2003). Although different results were noted in those countries, some key similarities also emerged.Since this study is concerned with principalship in Cyprus and Malta, it would be beneficial to know about recent related studies done in these islands. Various studies have been done in the Cypriot context in order to understand the characteristics of effective school principals (Pashiardis, 1995; Pashiardis, 1998), professional development of school leaders (Thody et al., 2007; Michaelidou & Pashiardis, 2009) and successful school leadership (Pashiardis & Orphanou, 1999; Pashiardis, 2000; Pashiardis, 2001; Pashiardis et al., 2011). As a part of the collective study of Gronn and Ribbins (2003), Pashiardis and Ribbins (2003) interviewed eight school principals to explore their career path. The results indicated that the Cypriot principals are keen on learning; however, their educational development was stalled due to political issues on the island. The results also showed that their reasons for becoming a principal were to increase their income and to gain more respect. …