Israel's Principal Preparation Policy

Abstract

This study explores the official policy of the state of Israel in regard to principal preparation programs, a topic whichhas hardly been investigated so far and has gone through significant change in recent years. Public documents fromIsrael were explored. Document analysis was a three-stage process – condensing, coding and categorizing. Theanalysis was based on interpretation of the documents collected, attempting to detect explicit and implicit meaningsconcerning the topic at hand. Findings show that the topics covered in principal preparation under the current policyare meant to be largely related to instructional leadership; the teaching methods are supposed to be based on activelearning with a practical emphasis; and the participants are to be both carefully selected and encouraged to undertakethe position of principal. This policy is consistent with the existing research; however, there are some concernsworthy of the attention of the authorities concerned.