Teach Middle East Magazine May-June 2019 Issue 5 Volume 6 | Page 8

Administrator's Corner THE PURPOSE AND ‘PRINCIPALS’ OF AUTHENTIC SELF-EVALUATION BY: LESLEY HUNTER AND MAGGIE WRIGHT I n this series of articles, we set out to challenge and disrupt thinking around the topic of school self- evaluation. We readily acknowledge the effort that many schools put towards this but still advocate that too many engage in self-evaluation either because they have to (inspection driven) or because they know they should, but often without sufficient focus and clarity of purpose. Quite simply, when self-evaluation is embedded into the day-to- day life of the school … you are doing the right things for the right reasons at the right time. In our first article (Sept/Oct 2018 issue) we looked at the process and problems associated with self-evaluation. Here, we proposed that many schools engage in micro and macro evaluation with insufficient attention to means- end as a way of focusing the process. The key question a school should be exploring through its self-evaluation activity is: linking back to the means-end approach, we focused on the self aspect of self-evaluation to ensure that it is school-led and evidence based. By taking the school’s unique context into account and focusing on the leadership decisions that are relevant to your individual school at the time, the self-evaluation process begins to In our second article (Nov/Dec 2018 issue) we built on this message and introduced the need to have a clearly defined strategy that aligns the school’s 3Ps of purpose, process and people. We stressed the importance of all stakeholders understanding their role (responsibilities, expectations and boundaries) and the critical element of the principal holding them to account for their contribution to the school’s self-evaluation. Our third article (Jan/Feb 2019 issue) considered the factors required to create the right setting and environment for self-evaluation, 08 | May - Jun 2019 | | Class Time have a much clearer purpose and is more authentic. Our most recent article (Mar/Apr 2019 issue) reiterated the purpose of self- evaluation – to measure the impact of the leadership decisions taken and the subsequent actions that have been implemented in the school.