ABSTRACT

This paper examines how school leaders understand their decision-making, its impact on their school community and whether there is evidence of ‘wise’ decision-making derived from Aristotle’s concept of phronesis. A questionnaire was completed by 13 school leaders with between 2 and 25 years of experience. The first section examined patterns of decision-making related to three areas: the categories of decisions made; staff involvement and factors that influenced decision-making. The second section presents a thematic analysis of open questions related to individual experiences of ‘wise’ decision-making. Three personal attributes have been identified together with five emergent themes. The three personal attributes of a flexibility of mind, the capacity for reflexivity and the adoption of an ethical standpoint which is focused on the common good, underpin the themes providing a basis for decision-making. The themes comprise clarity and confidence in what constitutes a wise decision, acknowledging the impact of poor decision-making, values-driven leadership, time as a factor, and finally, the relationship between intuition versus experience. The personal attributes and themes offer a valuable insight into school leaders’ decision-making, of interest to both aspirant and experienced school leaders, enabling them to reflect on, and interrogate the decisions they make in leading their school.

摘要

本文探讨了学校领导如何理解他们的决策、决策对学校社区的影响，以及是否有证据表明“明智”的决策源自亚里士多德的实践概念。一份调查问卷由 13 名拥有 2 至 25 年经验的学校领导完成。第一部分研究了与三个领域相关的决策模式：做出的决策的类别；员工参与以及影响决策的因素。第二部分对与“明智”决策的个人经历相关的开放性问题进行了主题分析。三个个人特质和五个新兴主题已经被确定。思维灵活性、反思能力和采取关注共同利益的道德立场这三个个人特质，支撑主题，为决策提供基础。这些主题包括对明智决策的明确性和信心，承认糟糕决策的影响，价值观驱动的领导力，时间作为一个因素，最后是直觉与经验之间的关系。个人特质和主题为学校领导的决策提供了宝贵的见解，对有抱负和经验丰富的学校领导都感兴趣，使他们能够反思和质疑他们在领导学校时做出的决定。