Issues Facing Heads Of Departments In New Zealand Secondary Schools

The New Zealand Education system went through a radical transformation with the introduction of "Tomorrow's Schools" in 1988. It essentially meant that the Governance and Management of schools was devolved to each school as a separate entity. Each school was responsible for their Strategic Direction, Management of Human and Physical Resources with an elected Board of Trustees providing Governance. One of the major outcomes of this change was the effect it had and is still having, on the Subject Leaders and Managers who hold what is termed as the middle ground in New Zealand Secondary Schools. These people, who are called either Heads of Departments (HoD's) and/ or Heads of Faculties (HoF's) are being subjected to large levels of stress due to them being subjected to steep learning curves, large increases in accountability, huge increases in work load with little training to assist them in understanding their role and with very few support structures being in place to assist them. This research project was undertaken in an attempt to understand the main issues for existing HoD's/ HoF's and to formulate solutions to the identified issues.