Are school heads going through a crisis of identity? All over the country primary and second-level principals and vice-principals are evaluating and reassessing their roles as leaders and managers. Many of them believe there is "a crisis of change" in schools.

In the past few weeks, three separate conferences of principals have been held. Only yesterday School Leadership and Strategic Planning, a handbook on school planning and effective leadership for second-level principals was launched in Dublin by the ASTI. Some 300 principal teachers attended the INTO's first biennial principals' consultative conference, in Waterford last weekend. And this weekend, a conference aimed at supporting the teacher in the face of changing social realities will be held in St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

"The introduction of new educational programmes and mandatory courses without adequate support mechanisms for principals and vice-principals continues to cause us grave concern," Sean O'Dwyer, president of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals of Community and Comprehensive Schools, told almost 160 delegates to their annual conference last Friday in Wexford town.

"The fragmentation of school time leading to the erosion of tuition hours and class contact is making the running of schools extremely difficult," he said. "In-service training of staff to facilitate the introduction of new programmes and courses causes severe strain and time-consuming effort."

"Formerly schools enhanced or supplemented the value system of the home," he said, "but it can no longer be taken for granted that there is a similarity of ethos between school and home. The whole fabric of society and family life is changing and there are fewer `absolutes' for many students. Principals and vice-principals are facing insurmountable difficulties coping with the disruption of normal time-tabled class."

Jean Geoghegan, principal of Christ King School in Cork and public relations officer of the Secondary Schools Principals Association of Ireland, says that schools have moved into "a whole new phase of management". Principals have to address the complexity of today's school life and also try to cope with "very poor resources".

In the past, she explains, schools were "simpler perhaps and smaller. Nowadays we have structures, we have year groups. A year tutor is a mini-principal. We have up to 20 different subjects on offer, different modes of assessment, orals, aurals, practicals, reports.

"Managing large schools today means that principals are taking on the role of chief executive and at the same time trying to maintain the intimacy of the person to person element. Classroom activity has to remain a priority - that is the business of the school."

Students lives are "so utterly different to our lives today", says Geoghegan. "Children today have a far more complex life, we have to have programmes to suit their needs. Our problem is our resources are stretched."

AT a conference organised by Dr Seamus McGuinness, of Trinity College Dublin's department of higher education and educational research earlier this term , 300 principals from both primary and second-level attended, eager to hear Professor Thomas Sergiovanni talk about images of leadership for schools. His words are "food for the soul", said one principal, "a breath of fresh air".

Pat Moroney, principal of St Ailbe's Secondary School in Tipperary, nods in agreement with Sergiovanni's words. Yes, more and more students are coming from single-parent families, agrees Moroney, "and schools have to work closely with the families as a result of that to make up for the deficit. I can see evidence of what Sergiovanni says of young people turning to themselves and not going to adults."

"They are beginning to tune into their own sub-culture to solve their own needs without the involvement of adults. It's something we have been conscious of . . . I've noticed a great change in recent years. With the new competitiveness and the increasing focus on points, there is not the same opportunity to talk to students in a relaxed way."

Sergiovanni, he says, fleshed out what teachers are doing intuitively. "He articulates the idea that you're putting the students first, that there is that sense of community. It's the basis of what we've been doing all along. The way he was focussing on this idea of building on the social capital of a school was articulating and re-affirming what we are doing."

Liz Cogan, a newly-appointed principal at Beaufort Loreto School in Rathfarnham, Dublin, attended the TCD conference in order "to learn about leadership and management and how to deal with people. I want to get the staff more involved in the running of the school."

Eileen Flynn, principal of Scoil Eoin Phoil in Leixlip, Co Kildare, was "consoled by what Sergiovanni was saying. It was food for the soul. It's what I've been thinking for twenty years . . . most schools and most principals are doing what he articulated but they don't take the time out to reflect on their practices and that is what is needed - time to reflect and share.

"Schools are largely people-centered organisations and quality work comes from good working relationships both within the school building and with the community. The effective schools are where teachers and the partners are talking and sharing good practice."

"Inspired" is how Josephine Maher, vice-principal of Leixlip Community School, Co Kildare, describes her reaction to Sergiovanni's address. "He's put a great deal of store on capital - human capital and social capital as opposed to material capital which the corporate community would put store by," she says. "Teachers and students can build human capital . . . schools now are really being handed the responsibility for providing what he called social capital."

Maire Wixted, principal of Presentation Secondary School in Loughboy, Kilkenny, says: "I related to it, that true leadership doesn't belong to the principal . . . it's shared leadership." She says Sergiovanni's vision is a new concept in Irish education: "Each person is a leader of what they do themselves and each one develops leadership qualities. It's tied in with responsibility. And there is the moral dimension as well, as he said. That ties in with accountability." She was particularly happy that Sergiovanni emphasised "the idea of adults in the school having that influence on the pupils."

Maire Malone is principal of Rosemont Park School in Blackrock, Dublin, which is run by the families of the students. This is the way forward, she says. "You're no longer thinking of personalities, you're basing your leadership on shared goals, shared concerns." She believes that "this whole idea of a community with shared goals and responsibilities is new. It's motivational leadership. It fits in with trends, with the idea of whole school inspection. It's aspirational. It's a goal to work towards. It has to be a shared goal." She enthusiastically reiterates the notion that a staff must be willing to share the life of the school. From her own experience, she believes that schools would benefit from the involvement of parents. Sister Sheila Kelleher, principal of Presentation Secondary School in Ballyphehane, Cork, who addressed the TCD conference, pointed out that the subject of leadership has never been "so hotly debated in every area of society. Down through the years, perhaps not enough emphasis was put on leadership in the context of schools, with the emphasis, rather, being put on management." Good management is essential, she feels, but it has to be recognised that "management in itself does not guarantee effective schools. Leadership, on the other hand, is all about vision and inspiration."

Today, she believes, there is a fresh understanding of leadership. "We now tend to see it as being about service rather than being about authority. There is greater emphasis on teams and team work and the leader being seen as first among equals, rather than being seen as superior to others."

Kelleher is convinced that the great challenge facing school leaders today is "to facilitate a shifting away from a culture of autonomy and control in which people work in isolation to a culture where people are enabled to be part of a collaborative model of leadership and the school is allowed the freedom to grow organically."

In her own experience, she says, "the more teams that are in place, the more opportunities there are for an increasing number of people to be involved, and the more the teams overlap."

THE conference was addressed also by Gerard McHugh, principal of San Carlo Senior Primary School in Leixlip, Co Kildare. "I feel that perhaps in recent times, in particular in the greedy Eighties when the western world was dominated by the ideals and values of Thatcherism and Reaganism, society and maybe ourselves began to under-value what we do."

The place of the principal should be at the helm of the community in partnership with legitimate interests. He believes that principals should operate "only at the democratic end of the spectrum" which is positive, facilitative, dynamic, where skills are much more acute than those associated with autocratic models.

"The principal," he said, "is the person whose skills of diplomacy may have to reconcile extreme points of view on the teaching staff on a veritable range of issues. I believe that the investment of a vibrant, committed and pro-active self is one of the best ways a principal can lead in that community we call school.

As Sergiovanni explained, "when schools become communities, they are driven less and less by hierarchy or the personality of leaders. Instead the driving force for what is done in the school becomes the school's values and purposes."