Department of Leadership and Management in Education

The Department of Leadership and Management in Education (formerly the Department of Management in Education) was established in 1997 on the initiative of Professor Adam Niemczyński.

The Department’s most important tasks are research and exploration of research fields associated with the learning process of various social groups, in various contexts and periods, as well as preparing people to perform the roles of educational leaders. The Department’s research workers are sure that education is a condition as well as a mechanism for the success of societies and individuals. For this to happen, it is necessary to broaden the understanding of the educational space - it cannot be limited only to formal educational institutions or higher education. Nowadays, people learn both throughout their entire lives and constantly in informal, unplanned, and unmonitored situations. Therefore, a necessary condition is to prepare for life and work in a knowledge society, where the basic activity is creating useful knowledge, raising questions, and solving problems in self-managed teams.

The chief areas of research conducted by the Department’s employees related to management in education are first of all:

interdisciplinary approach to the problems of education in the face of the global knowledge society’s challenges,
educational policy (determination and priorities of conducting it),
change in education (supporting and inhibiting factors),
leadership in education (theories, models, and procedures),
quality of education (definitions, ways of understanding, and evaluation),
professional development (preparation, guidance, and professional development of teachers and headmasters),
inter-organisational and intra-organisational cooperation (cooperation models and learning cooperation and collaboration),
organisational culture of educational institutions (factors shaping the transformation of culture),
lifelong learning (adult learning)
cross cultural education and informal learning (preparation and implementation of international projects).

The courses provided by the Department’s employees are intended primarily for future and current management staff in schools and educational institutions, state administration employees, local government units, NGOs, and they are associated with topics important in the struggle with the challenges of the contemporary time (e.g., continuous change, development of technology, globalisation, multiculturalism, dilemmas of individual human development, etc.)

The employees of the Department of Education in Management are involved in initiatives of using scientific reflection in the shaping of the educational reality in Poland and in practical activities aimed at change. The best example is the co-implementation of the project "Programme of strengthening the effectiveness of the pedagogical supervision system and evaluation of the quality of school work" stage 3, implemented by the Education Development Centre in partnership with the Jagiellonian University and Era Ewaluacji Sp.z o.o. under the Priority 3 of the Human Capital Operational Programme, Activity 3.1 co-financed from the European Social Fund, the main aim of which is to evaluate the quality of the education system Another example is the research project "Leadership in Educational Management: Paradigms and Practice in Educational Institutions".

One of the dominant factors influencing the development of both the Department and the field of Management in Education is international partnership and collaboration. Institutions closely collaborating with the Department in various research and teaching projects include the University of Reading, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Glasgow in Great Britain, Leiden University in the Netherlands, University of Bucharest in Romania, Columbia University, Ohio State and Bowling Green State University in the USA, University of Murcia in Spain, University College Dublin in Ireland, or the University of Oslo in Norway.

We invite you to visit the websites of projects that have been implemented in recent years at the Department of Leadership and Management in Education.

"Programme on strengthening of the effectiveness of the pedagogical supervision system and evaluation of the quality of school work, stage 3", implemented in the years 2009-2015

http://www.npseo.pl – the project’s current site

http://npseo.wzks.uj.edu.pl – the project’s archival site

"Leadership and Management in Education - development and implementation of the education and improvement system for school/institution heads", implemented in the years 2013-2015

http://www.przywodztwo-edukacyjne.edu.pl/pl - project’s site

"Leadership in Educational Management: Paradigms and Practice in Educational Institutions", implemented in the years 2009-2012

http://www.przywodztwo.edu.pl - project’s site

We invite you to sign the Educational Leadership Declaration, persons received during the Educational Leadership Conference in Krakow on April 11, 2015. To do so, please click the link below: