Developing a Program to Strengthen Academic Leadership of Primary School Administrators in Northeast of Thailand

This research aimed: 1) to investigate components and indicators of academic leadership of primary school administrators; 2) to explore existing situation and desirable situation, and assessment the needs to enhance academic leadership of primary school administrators; and 3) to develop a program to strengthen academic leadership of primary school administrators. Mixed methods research was employed which divided into three phases. The 1st phase was investigation of components and indicators of academic leadership of primary school administrators and verify by 7 experts. The 2nd ed. phase was exploration of existing situation and desirable situation of academic leadership of primary school administrators. The samples were 750 primary school administrators and teachers in Northeast of Thailand, obtained through stratified random sampling technique. The 3rd ed. phase was developing a program to strengthen academic leadership of primary school administrators and evaluate the program by 9 experts. The research instruments were the components and indicators evaluation form, an existing and desirable situation questionnaire, the structured interview form, and a program evaluation form. Statistics used were mean, standard deviation, and the modified priority needs index. The research results were: 1) The academic leadership of the primary school administrators comprised of 5 components and 26 indicators; 2) The existing situation of academic leadership of primary school administrators was at a high level, desirable situation was at the highest level, and the needs to strengthen academic leadership of primary school administrators were ranked from high to low was visionary, supervision of learning management, teacher professional development, curriculum and learning management, and learning atmosphere and culture development, respectively; and 3) The developed program to strengthen academic leadership of primary school administrators comprised 5 main parts; 1) program rationale, 2) program objectives, 3) content consists of 5 modules and 25 sub-modules, 4) development methods and activities were self-study, training, and knowledge exchanging and practicing, and 5) program evaluation.