A Case Study On The School-running Concept Of High School Principals

At end of the 20 th century,the term of “concept” has been widely used in the field of education.It has mainly appeared in the field of higher education,and has gradually spread to the field of basic education.Concepts such as the school-running concept,governing school concept,education philosophy and management philosophy have gradually entered the field of basic education which are continuously accepted by the educational circles.With the continuous advancement of basic education reform and development strategy,especially since the initiation and implementation of the new curriculum reform in 2001,the school-running concept of primary,secondary and high school principals are influenced by the concept of “a good principal,a good school”,the school-running concept of principals has become a focus topic of common interest in the field of educational management theory and practice.Influenced by this upsurge of research,and in view of the special status of senior high school in the national education system of China,the author selected a high school principal as a case study,aiming at finding out the relationship between the principal’s concept of running a school and its influence through in-depth investigation and examination,so as to get a glimpse of the present situation and level of principals’ consciously school-running concept in our country,and then make them pay attention to improve the level and practical ability of principals’ consciously school-running concept to provide useful thinking and reference for principals in primary,secondary and high schools.On the basis of defining and differentiating the core concepts,this paper systematically collects and combs the principals’ school-running concept,the research results and progress,and based on the fully grasping and analyzing the relevant information of the case principal’s school-running concept and effect of Yingtan No.1Middle School in Jiangxi Province,conducting a process tracing of the core school-running concept advocated by the case principal,examining and analyzing its main content through in-depth interviews with the case principal for several times,etc.Lastly the research conclusions are obtained in view of summarizing,examining and rationally reflecting the school-running concept and its practice of the case study.This study finds that the case the case principals gradually formed the core concept of“respecting students and helping them success” in the process of running a school.Inthe practice of running a school,the core concept is embodied in the following four specific ideas: student-oriented,paying attention to students’ all-round development,encouraging students to pursue excellence and cultivating students’ sense of social responsibility.Based on this research,this study further finds that the above-mentioned school-running concept of the case principal reflecting four initiatives: first,the orientation of school-running concept has a firm student position;second,the school-running concept conforms to the value pursuit of modern education theory;third,the school-running concept integrates all-round development and individual growth;fourth,the school-running concept highlights the principal’s educational sentiment and mission.At the same time,there are four limitations: first,the concept of running a school has not really transformed into the concept of a school;second,there is still not enough uniformity between the idea and practice of running a school;third,the educational effect of the concept of running a school needs to be improved;fourth,the concept of running a school is not systematic and logical enough.Finally,this paper discusses the ways and suggestions for the improvement of the level of principals’ school-running concept of high school from three aspects: the positive efforts of principals themselves,the active response of principals’ training institutions and the corresponding adjustment of external environment.