Strategic planning and school management: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?
Abstract
Strategic planning, in the form of school improvement planning, has become the dominant approach to school management in English schools. This has evolved from earlier forms of strategic planning and has significant inherent weaknesses that undermine the extent to which school improvement planning can contribute to the effective management of schools. The development of school improvement planning is examined in this article and its weaknesses analysed. Implied models of school management and leadership, the legacy of school effectiveness and improvement research and the role of the school principal are considered. Based on this analysis, an alternative approach to planning in schools and to school organisation and a more flexible approach to school organisation and leadership is proposed that is grounded in a shorter planning time scale and the development of structures that facilitate involvement, cooperation and collaboration.
Keywords
Citation
Bell, L. (2002), "Strategic planning and school management: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 407-424. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230210440276
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited