Towards a Comprehensive Approach to Principals' Professional Development: a balancing act

The forms of school management emerging in many Western democracies are placing increasing demands on school principals requiring them to seek professional development opportunities that will broaden their existing knowledge and increase their array of management skills. This paper presents a framework within which the in‐service education of school principals can be understood in relation to four key perspectives on professional development. It recommends a balanced and comprehensive approach to professional learning that incorporates all four perspectiyes, but argues that the present focus of principals' professional development is skewed towards meeting a corporatist educational agenda. The paper concludes with a series of questions designed to help principals better assess their professional development needs in order to achieve a more balanced approach to their professional learning.