Echoing school leaders' voices in Cyprus: a study of novice school leaders' perceptions regarding leadership professional development

Leadership development programmes come in plenty internationally and a number of resources, time and money are being spent to this end. The benefits for schools, staff and pupils arising from professional development activities have been well researched into and elaborated on extensively internationally. Currently in Cyprus, leadership development programmes are limited to on-post in-service training programmes that are offered to novice school leaders (headteachers and deputy headteachers). As there is a dialogue underway for updating leadership training in Cyprus, this study aimed to capture leadership training participants' views regarding the current in-service tradition with a view to supporting localized attempts to improve and develop relevant policies and training programmes. The sample consisted of 257 trainees attending the mandatory in-service training programmes for novice school leaders. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. Findings suggest that the content of leadership development programmes needs to correspond to school leaders' expected roles and responsibilities, as well as their learning needs. Furthermore, it is generally acknowledged that further professional development opportunities should be offered alongside school leaders' career progression either on-post or pre-post. This study's findings support the necessity to revise existing policies (or address the lack of guiding training programmes). Data indicate that such policies and training programmes need to be based on solid foundations, such as a coherent leadership development framework and philosophy. The implications of the findings for the design and development of leadership training programmes are also discussed.