A report on a first visit to Dominican College, Dublin Republic of Ireland : 1st November 2001 – 10th November 2001

Abstract

After a teaching experience of many years, we changed our role to the post of administrative responsibility. Stoops & Rafferty (1961 p.7) says: "Educational administration may be defined as the organisation and leadership of all community personnel concerned with public education in such a manner as will effectively make for sound education within the framework of policy set by a Board of Education." In February 2001, the Diploma course helped us to acquaint ourselves "with theories and research in the social and behavioural sciences that relate to the study of organisations. " Reading has helped us to widen our knowledge about issues in educational management and administration. We convinced ourselves that educational theory is related to practice. In the first six months, our lecturers have persuaded us that administrators in a school need "practical activity" and "good theory." In recent years the role of administrators has changed. We are considering the school as a professional organisation. Paul Attard discusses the head of school as a professional leader. "To be effective, a head must have professional training enabling him or her to become leader of a professional group, and to become agent of decentralisation and change." (1997 page 11). As members of a school's Senior Management Team we realised that we needed to base our practice in our school life and work on theories that could be put into practice. We would say that the units we studied at the University of Malta do succeed "to provide participants with opportunities to analyse situations and formulate strategies for administrative and management practice in education." (Course Description 2001-2003 page 1:2). The University of Malta has given us a unique opportunity to observe and report on an Educational system different from the local setting. This was accomplished by our visit to Dominican College, a religious Church school, in Dublin. Our visit at DC instructed us that "Educational Management is the particular process of relating resources to objectives required in organisations which explicitly exist to provide education." (Paisy, 1981,p. 3). DC offered us a variety of experiences. The Principal gave us talks about the headship and various aspects of school management at DC. We had meetings with the Assistant Chief Inspector, Mr. Patrick Ketterick and with Ms Marian Heckett, headteacher and Assistant coordinator of the New Curriculum. We succeeded to interview a cross-section of the Senior Management Team, the teaching staff and the non- academic staff, parents and students. We visited a Feeder Primacy school, St. Vincent de Paul, in Drumcondra. This professional first-hand experience has given us a wider perspective of school decentralisation. We have seen how a school can be effectively and independently managed and administered.