How fair is the selection of school principals in the Greek educational context?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the principle of fairness as equity, defined by Adams, is applied during the selection of school principals. Our focus was on a secondary education directorate drawing data in two ways. Firstly, a questionnaire was given to candidates who participated in the selection process, in order to investigate to which extent fairness as equity is included both in the process and the selection criteria. Secondly, we examined whether the selection board through the oral interview moved with the respective conditions of fairness as equity through the candidates’ scoring. It seemed that the majority of participants have formed their opinion on fairness as equity based on their ‘incoming capital’ depending on their score, while they consider that the selection board was rather biased in rating their fellow candidates. This is due to previous official or personal relationships with the members of the selection board and party involvement. For the Greek context, the selection of school principals can be characterised as a process that allows the influence of factors clearly non-relating to the principle of fairness as equity. Proposals at the level of educational policy are proposed.