Abstract
M.Ed.
The fundamental effort behind this research is to make a critical study of the elements
that constitute a professionally inviting culture in schools as an aspect of strategic
leadership.
William Purkey (1994 : 2-4) is understood to be in the vanguard of invitational education
as a paedagogic theory. This educational theory advocates humanistic themes and
concerns. It is grounded on trust, love, respect and humanness.
The hallmark behind a professionally inviting culture is:
• a collegial leadership style;
• a sound educational school culture and climate;
• the value behind humanity and a sense ofhumanness; and
• the permit of democratic ideals which include inter alia human dignity, non-racialism,
non-sexism as well as the freedom of self expression (SASA, 1996).
The study of change management becomes a sine-qua-non for schools to demonstrate
effectiveness. Effective schools are inviting in nature. Such schools are characterised by
shared co-ownership, transparency, staff intimacy, staff development, clarity and
accomplishment of goals and a well-designed vision and mission statement.
For schools to be professionally inviting in character, they are to be viewed as learning
organisations as Pullan (1993: 70-71) contends. Fundamental to Pullan's argument is the
need for strategic leadership in managing schools.
The aim behind this leadership is:
• the passion for collaboration between leadership and colleagues for sustained school
success and achievement of goals set;
• the ambition to value the interests of staff towards school excellence in the service it
provides; and • the desire to uphold an open agenda whereby colleagues are free to level constructive
criticism with the view of inspiring mediocrity in both leadership and service.
The triumph of collaborative leadership and invitational education is anchored on a sound
strategic leadership as earlier articulated.
The research by Grobler and Vander Merwe (1995) came up with the following aspects
which also contributed to strategic leadership:
• collaborative leadership;
• vision of excellence;
• personal mastery;
• ethical foundation; and
• empowerment.
The South African educational scenario carries with itself some disturbing tendencies
which are in essence disinviting. Some of the problems are:
• poor and low educator morale;
• lack of professional ethics;
• a dearth of educational leadership in schools;
• sporadic absenteeism; and
• disrespect to school leadership and authority by colleagues.
The nucleus of the problems in this search is captured by the following thematic
questions which in tum guides the discourse of this project. The questions are:
• what is the origin and background behind a professionally inviting culture?
• how can principals be developed to create a professionally inviting culture?
• how should such training programmes intended to train principals be evaluated?
The hallmark behind a professionally inviting culture is the:
• notion of shared responsibilities in school partnerships;• development of professional leadership and management;
• need for collegiality between the school management and staff; and
• a school culture that is characterised by open trust, content and total quality service.
In its proper practice and application, institutional education has potential to contribute to
the betterment of the culture of teaching, learning and service which are fundamental to
schools in South Africa today.