Role of the school principals in creating the image of primary schools in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia

Promjene u društvu eksplicitno utječu na obrazovanje te iziskuju stalne prilagodbe i unaprjeđenja obrazovnih institucija. Pri tome identitet i imidž škole zauzimaju sve značajniju komponentu u definiranju uloge i mjesta školske institucije u društvu, a u njihovu kreiranju i upravljanju posebno mjesto pripada čelnicima ustanova. Doprinos ravnatelja kao čelnika ustanove od iznimne je važnosti jer kao stručni i poslovni rukovoditelj ima višestruku odgovornost za njezino pozicioniranje u svekolikoj javnosti, ali i svojevrsnu moć izravnog i neizravnog utjecanja na njezin identitet i imidž. Tema ovog rada stvaranje imidža škole ulogom ravnatelja na primjeru Republike Hrvatske i Republike Makedonije do sada nije istraživana stoga rezultati ovog istraživanja rezultiraju saznanjima dostatnim za implementiranje modela kreiranja imidža škole na temelju kompetencija ravnatelja, te strategije korporativne komunikacije s ciljem zadovoljenja korisnika i svih drugih ciljanih javnosti uz postizanje izvrsnosti. Osnovna je teza rada prikazati kako komunikacijske i organizacijske vještine ravnatelja značajno utječu na imidž škole bez obzira na obrazovni sustav i državu. Slijedom navedenog razvidno se upućuje na inkluziju uspješnih ravnatelja koji će svojom ulogom omogućiti diferencijaciju kreiranjem imidža škole u odnosu na druge škole. U doktorskoj su disertaciji prikazani rezultati istraživanja u kojem je sudjelovalo 255 ravnatelja i ravnateljica osnovnih škola Republike Hrvatske i 159 ravnatelja i ravnateljica osnovnih škola Republike Makedonije. Utvrđeni rezultati predstavljaju polazište ravnateljima za definiranje i jačanje kompetencija koje im mogu pomoću u učinkovitijem provođenju sustavnih promjena obrazovnog sustava kroz svoju ulogu, te na važnost njihove funkcije koju je neophodno revidirati jer rezultati ukazuju na problematiku rukovođenja školom i neprepoznavanja važnosti stvaranja imidža škole kako bi se očuvao i afirmirao kulturološki identitet.Changes in the society influence the education directly and therefore require permanent adjustments and improvements of the educational institutions. According to this, the school identity and the school image play the ever growing role in defining the part and the place of the school in the society, and the leaders of these institutions have an important part in creating and managing of them. The contribution of the school principals as the school managers is of the extreme importance, because he/she, as the competent business leader of the school, has a multiple responsibility for its positioning in the public, and also the power of the direct and indirect influence of its identity and image. The theme of this paper, the creation of the school image through the role of the school principals based on the examples of the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia, has not been researched so far, therefore the results of this research are enough to implement the model of the creation of the school image based on the competences of its principals and the strategy of the corporative communication with a goal of satisfying the needs of its users and the targeted public as well as achieving excellence. The basic thesis of this paper is to show how the communicational and organizational skills of the principals significantly influence the school image regardless of the educational system and the state. Following the above mentioned the focus is put on the inclusion of the successful school principals who will enable the differentiation by creating the school image by comparison with other schools. The doctoral thesis presents the results of the research which involved 255 primary school principals from the Republic of Croatia and 159 primary school principals from the Republic of Macedonia. The assessed results represent the starting point to the school principals for defining and strengthening the competences that can help them in the more efficient implementation of the systematic changes in the educational system through their part, and point to the importance of their part which is necessary to be revised, because the results show the problems in the managing of schools and do not recognize the importance of creating the school image to preserve and affirm the cultural identity