Eureka! Institutional Repository

Nowadays, the public education system is being strongly criticized since its efficiency and social effectiveness are intensely and diversely challenged. More specifically, allegations have been made regarding its proper adaptation to the rapid social and techno-economic changes; as a result, students are not properly prepared for their integration into the society and labor market. Responding to the challenges posed by a competitive international environment, the public school introduces and implements a range of innovations, which are occasionally set by the central government and, at times, by the teachers themselves at each school. However, the impact of those innovations depends, to a large extent, on the attitude of the school principal. The present research investigates and captures teachers' viewpoints on the role of the school principals as regards the introduction and management of innovations, while, simultaneously, tries to record the conditions under which teachers would support the innovative action of their principal and notes down the differences observed in their attitude according to their gender. From the research conducted among 358 teachers who work in schools of the Secondary Education Directorate of Western Thessaloniki, it has been found that they consider the role of the management important and attribute to their principal an innovative profile. In addition, they recognize administrative practices (cooperation-encouragement-support-reward) that fit the profile of a transformational leader. Moreover, it turned out that their positive attitude depends not only on the goal setting, the content and the planning of the implementation of the innovation, but also on the training and administrative efficiency of the principal. Finally, only minor differences between male and female teachers have been observed.