Managing legal risk in schools: understanding diverse perspectives

Managing legal risk in schools: understanding diverse perspectives

[Abstract]:
In terms of school governance and leadership, if schools are to optimise the quality of their provision, there needs to be a sound understanding amongst school principals of ways in which the law impacts on the school and the individuals in it. In Singapore, there is general agreement (with exceptions) amongst managers in schools that the law is indeed relevant to their work. Yet, there appear to be different perspectives amongst educators regarding what should be done - if anything - to avoid unwanted encounters with legal matters and to ensure that schools can concentrate on their core business of schooling without unpleasant distractions.
This paper reports an exploratory study that used an innovative research approach - Q methodology - to make sense of these diverse perspectives by examining the nature and complexity of the opinions themselves (as opposed to the people who held them.) By gaining deeper insights into the points of view, the information may be used by policy makers to, first, understand where senior personnel in education are coming from in terms of their views about what schools, the Ministry and others should be doing to avert legal risk; and, second, formulate strategies that will enable these educators to gain a clearer understanding of how they might deal effectively with legal issues and develop legal risk strategies. The study provides a methodological advance in understanding the complexity of different perspectives, and may be useful to other systems and contexts when considering how to address the development of educators' ability to manage legal issues

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