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MSc in “Governance of the Autonomous School Unit”

MSc in the “Governance of the Autonomous School Unit: institutional framework of the organization and pedagogical practices”

A program affiliated to the European Law and Governance School

School autonomy and the governance of the autonomous school have been over the last decades one of the main issues widely discussed worldwide among political authorities, teachers and the various recipients of educational services. Either as an effective means to improve school efficiency or as a more democratic, close to public interest approach to the provision of education, many European countries have included school autonomy in their reform agenda and have supported relevant teacher training programs to produce the necessary human resources. Even in Greece, with its long-standing tradition of educational centralism, school autonomy as a prospective policy has recently become an issue of public debate and several educational actors have pointed out to the lack of expertise among educationalists to implement such a policy effectively. All existing postgraduate courses, typically under the title “Organization and administration of school education”, are organized to meet the needs of the centrally administered school with no or little reference to the professional autonomy, in terms of skills and responsibilities, of the teaching force as well as to the management of the repercussions of parental, market or local authority involvement in the running of the school.

The proposed post graduate programme aspires to fill this gap and introduce theconcepts of school autonomy and school governance (and its ramifications to schoolmanagement) to servicing and aspiring teachers, thus producing the critical massof teachers necessary for the success of the slowly emerging reform policy. To this end, theprogramme will make extensive use of international bibliography, including EU and OECD reports and studies on the matter and of case studies of several Europeancountries, relying on the expertise of its teaching staff in disciplines such ascomparative education, European education policy and international economics.

The proposed syllabus includes the following 6 compulsory and 4 elective subjects,together with an MSc dissertation of approximately 20000 words.

Compulsory subjects:

1. Organization and administration of education: Basic principles and strategies of governance in the autonomous school

2. The state, the market and school autonomy: Institutional structures and international policy trends

3. Evaluation and enhancement of school work -School accountability

4. Strategic planning, decision making and implementation in the autonomous school

5. Educational management-Strategies of development and effective governance in the autonomous school.

6. Methodology of education research

7. Theory and practice of educational planning

Elective subjects

1. The economics of education and of the autonomous school

2. International organizations and education

3. Human resource management and development in education

4. Effective leadership in school education

5. Conflict resolution and behavioral problem management in school

6. School marketing and communication

7. Contemporary world education issues, policies and trends

8. Economics of education

 

The MSc is a taught course in Greek following the organization, compulsory attendance and examination patterns prescribed by the Greek educational law.

It is addressed mainly to servicing and aspiring teachers at all levels (pre-school, primary and secondary education) and types of education (general, vocational, adult, non-formal), both public and private.

All applicants should be university or TEI graduates with sufficient knowledge of the English language and of ICT. Selection of applicants is based on theirqualifications, teaching experience and publications.

Applications will remain open until October 25, 2017.