A STUDY OF ACCOUNTABILITY EVALUATION FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL IN TAIWAN BASED ON SERVANT LEADERSHIP APPROACH
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Authors: Hsin-Jen Chen
Keywords: servant leadership, accountability evaluation policy, junior high school principals, accountability movement
Abstract: Currently, local governments in Taiwan have implemented accountability evaluation for principals according to related laws and regulations for years, which basically responds to the request of educational reform stressing decentralization, marketization and accountability movement. The purpose of accountability evaluation for principals not merely promotes principals’ professional growth and educational quality but also is implemented as a reference for principal selection. The key to successful accountability evaluation for principals significantly lies in successful leadership, which is worth to explore more indeed. Actually, servant leadership meets the trends of decentralization, marketization and accountability movement. The requests of centralization make principals empower teachers and students who could demand more power and needs compared with the past. The trends of marketization and accountability movement turn parents into educational consumers who require principals to enhance higher and better quality of school leadership and management. Thus, servant leadership could fit with the educational trends as mentioned. So far there is few empirical research focusing on the application of servant leadership perspective to the investigation of accountability evaluation for principals, which is why the study intends to investigate this issue. Based on the empirical phenomenological research design, this qualitative study intends to investigate how principals employ servant-leadership approach under the required government policy of accountability evaluation for principals regularly. The research findings revealed that five characteristics of servant leadership used by five principals who had gained excellent achievement reviewed by the local government under the requirement of accountability evaluation for principals, including listening to teachers’ voices, empathy with their needs of teachers and students, foresight to broaden their vision of schooling for teachers and students, empowering teachers to enhance their professional growth, and building community to create a warming and support environment.