Chapter 13: School Leadership in Changing Times: The Case of Belarus

The objective of this chapter is to examine the rhetoric and practices of educational leadership within a Belarus context, and to explore and understand the conditions affecting the work of their school leaders. Belarus became independent in 1991, there has been a clear trend towards liberalistic ideas with a focus on accountability, effectiveness, competition, and a new demand for local democracy. This trend seems to produce a certain level of homogeneity, but at the same time there is still a remnant of national and local culture from the older, traditional systems in Belarus.

The chapter asks questions about the support structures—both political and administrative—in place to assist Belarus school leaders. Interviews and to some extent reviews of the relevant research literature shed light on the ways in which school leaders have responded to this new environment. Dilemmas, conflicts, and possibilities arising from the new situation, are explored and compared in order to be able to see more clearly the similarities and the differences from before.