A New Era in the Professional Development of School Administrators: Lessons from Emerging Programmes Available to Purchase

Eleven representative examples of professional development are examined in what is labelled a new era of administrator training. An analysis is presented of the conditions that have helped foster interest in the creation of new approaches to the training of school administrators. Ten current conditions in the area of administrator training where improvement is needed are reported on. Commonalities among the new approaches to training are discussed and these principles juxtaposed against the status quo in administrator training. It is concluded that the new era of professional development is significantly different from many current training programmes, in terms of both process and content. These differences are examined in detail. Potential problems in these newer approaches to administrator training are noted.