How principals of autonomous schools in Israel view implementation of decentralization and restructuring policy: Risks, rights, and wrongs

This article describes how school decentralization and restructuring policy in Israel is viewed by principals of autonomous schools. Like many western countries, the Israeli school system is going through reforms that include decentralization policies and school empowerment. Autonomous schools (Israel's version of restructuring) are the center of decentralization policy. In Israel, unlike some other countries, decentralization is characterized by informal changes, seldom accompanied by legislation, and therefore not followed by open public debate. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study among 50 principals of autonomous schools in Israel that explored the principals' insights or "mindscapes" (Sevgiovanni, 1995) concerning decentralization and restructuring policy in Israel. The findings shed light on the possibilities and hardships that these principals face and on the complexity of implementing decentralization policies.