Quality management in New South Wales primary schools : implications for leadership development : principals' perspectives on quality management as a process of continuous improvement in Western Sydney primary schools

This study seeks to develop a better understanding of the nature and potential of quality management in primary schools and to determine possible professional development strategies for principals in relation to the introduction of quality management within their schools. A questionnaire was utilised to seek the insights, understandings and opinions of thirty-four primary school principals within the Western Sydney area in relation to quality management in their schools and the kinds of leadership support required to initiate and sustain this process. The policy orientation of the research is evident through suggested options for leadership development which emerge from the findings of the quesionnaire. Furthermore, the notion of schools as 'learning communities' is a vision for school education which requires the transformation of the cultural elements of schools to enable all school members to be active managers of their own learning. There is a need to develop systems and processes to allow this vision for schools to emerge, and this research accepts this challenge. This thesis, based on the outcomes of the questionnaire, includes a theoretical framework based on an overview of current models relating to quality management in primary schools and concludes with considerations for the further development of the process in primary schools in New South Wales