The Effect of Education Decentralization on School Leadership in the Vocational Schools: A Comparative Study between the German and the Egyptian Practice

Gershberg (1999) defines education decentralization as the transfer of some of the political, administrative, and/or financial authorities and responsibilities from the central government to the local governments, local units or the schools themselves. In this qualitative study the effect of education decentralization on vocational school leadership is explored. Through conducting structural interviews with 30 school principals in Germany and Egypt, the study was able to reach at three main conclusions. 1- Political decentralization encourages the adoption of participatory leadership by involving the stakeholders in the decision-making process and allowing the schools to set their goals and objectives discretionally. 2- Administrative decentralization encourages the adoption of shared instructional leadership by devolving authorities of teacher selection, evaluation, training and team-building to the schools. And 3- financial decentralization encourages the adoption of entrepreneurial leadership by encouraging the schools to raise funds and deploy the available resources discretionally.