Western Australian public secondary school principals’ perspectives on student services teams

This study explores Western Australian public secondary school principals' perspectives on student services teams to address a significant gap in the existing literature. While research indicates principals play a role in the sustained use of effective programs and practices and affect school climate; the existing literature does not provide an understanding of the perspectives of secondary school principals on student services teams. The study has the potential to identify gaps or areas for improvement in leadership approaches, staff collaboration, and resource allocation.
The interpretivist qualitative study research approach explores principals’ perspectives on the student services team. Adopting an interpretivist paradigm for this proposed study is appropriate as it will allow the exploration of the phenomenon of the interaction between the principal and the student services team through the experiences of principals in their social context. Moreover, the study may provide an opportunity to establish guidance for school leaders on effective ways to form, implement and evaluate student services teams.
The research will be conducted in Western Australian metropolitan and regional Department of Education regions, and semi-structured interviews will be employed to gather data that will be analysed using thematic analysis, a flexible interpretative approach suitable for qualitative data analysis.