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La Thanh Trung,
PhD., student in Education Management - Vinh University
E-mail: [email protected]
SETTING STANDARDS OF THE DEANS OF EDUCATIONAL FACULTIES OR INSTITUTIONS
Abstract. The paper focuses on the necessity of setting standards and suggest a standard system for the Deans of education institutions or faculties according to competence-based approach to respond to the current education reform.
Keywords: education, the Deans of Faculties, reform, management.
1. Roles of the Deans of Faculties or Institutions of Education
The renovation, industrialization and modernization of the country has set a very glorious mission along with the challenges for the education and training, in which the first tasks should be undertaken by educational administrators at all levels. Education management is considered to be a profession in in the special, delicate and difficult areas of the education sector. Those working in educational management might act as leaders who manage human resources in the Education and training system, which has a direct impact on position and destiny of the nation in both immediate and long term.
The Deans of Faculties or Institutions of Education are key figures in the faculties holding leadership roles in professional knowledge, academic programs, scientific research, technology transfer and other activities of the colleges/universities. The Deans are responsible to the Principals for comprehensive management of the faculty according to the educational institutions' decentralization regulations. College deans are in charge of some key duties as follows: administering the ideological, political and moral education to faculty members; Building and developing curriculum, course contents, goals of the undergraduate and postgraduate programs of faculties, Implementating and managing training programs; Taking charge of the quality of training majors in the faculty; Organizing scientific and technological
activities; Actively join in international projects and cooperating with scientific and technological organizations, manufacturers and businesses to associate training with scientific research, production, business and social life, etc. In order to do so, the Dean must build a comprehensive personality model including the roles of a teacher, a researcher, a manager, a social activist and a service provider together.
The Deans of Faculties or Institutions of Education play the role of educators. Before becoming the heads of faculties, most of them were highly qualified lecturers with a high level of professional competence and a life-long experience. During their working period, thanks to the prestige confirmed, they have been assigned by their colleagues and the Board of Management. Most of the deans still undertake the tasks of managing, teaching specialized subjects to students and participating in training graduate students and doctoral students. Besides, the management of the training department is mainly managing professional activities. Therefore, the role of a dean must always be associated with the role of a teacher. As a teacher, the Dean must master the expertise in his field and have a general knowledge of the specialties in the faculty. In other words, to be good deans, they must be qualified and prestigious pedagogical teachers in teaching activities.
Professional activities of faculties at the College of Education are not only teaching but also scientific research ones. Therefore, the Dean must also have
the role of a scientific researcher who not only has the ability to study independently but also promote the research activities of lecturers and students in the department. Moreover, they must be the first to apply scientific and technological achievements to teaching and research.
The Dean must also be an educational manager. In the past, the management was carried out according to a centralized and bureaucratic mechanism, i.e, the Dean was charged with responsibilities by the College Board of Directors and the staff in the faculty received tasks from the Dean. However, from the new viewpoint, educational management is carried out according to the law, hierarchy, autonomy and accountability mechanism with interactive methods in which the training department is considered as a center. Therefore, the dean must have extensive knowledge of management such as grasping the laws, regulations on education - training, policies and guidelines on educational development of the Party, the State and the Ministry of Education and Training; in-depth knowledge of designing and building curriculum; abilities to synthesize, evaluate and advise the organization and administration of education and training; the skills of analyzing guidelines and policies on education and training development to determine the goals, visions, long-term development orientation of the faculty; abilities of influencing, attracting and gathering and motivating people to achieve the goals of the faculty; abilities of timely decision-making skills in organizing and managing educational, scientific research activities; skills to use the right people and the right jobs; communication and working skills to coordinate lecturers, students and other faculties.
In the context of current education innovation, the role of the dean must also be a pioneer daring to make innovative decisions which are adaptable to modern education trends. In the workshop Developing the capacity of Vietnamese educational managers in the context of industrial revolution 4.0 on November 15, 2017 in Hanoi, more than 200 delegates, who
were prestigious educators and managers of educational institutions and who were experienced in the development of digital education, science and technology in the world, discussed many issues of capacity development of Vietnamese educational managers in the context of technology 4.0, among of which are the influence of the 4.0 industrial revolution on education and education managers, competency groups of education managers trained to meet the new connectivity requirements on the foundation of knowledge and technology in the knowledge economy and the digital technology era. For the head of the Faculty of Education, they must play a pioneering role in the process of innovation and adaptation to education 4.0. Facing the current requirements of education reform, the most common and necessary capacity of educational managers in pedagogical colleges is shown in the ability to master scientific knowledge of educational management and in commanding thinking, scientific management and a pioneering spirit of innovation in the field of education and training.
From these tasks, it can be seen that the head position of a faculty is a very specific one unlike any management positions in the University. They play the roles of a professional manager, an administrative manager and an educator. The innovative-higher-education-trends today have made teachers and education managers face with heavy tasks because the innovation has occurred not only in programs but also in management, etc. Thus, the Dean is likened to a captain controlling a ship headed out to the open sea. In other words, the dean is an important factor leading the teaching and learning activities to improve the quality of education in each university.
Therefore, it can be seen that the Dean of the Faculty /College of Education plays a very important role in all activities of the Faculty. In order to carry out such duties, the Deans are required to have a lot of qualities and core competencies, especially when pedagogical training is facing with many difficulties and limitations making their duties more difficult.
The deans must continually improve themselves to be able to fulfill all the assigned roles and tasks.
2. The necessity of setting standards for the faculty leaders of the Faculties / Universities of Education according to the competency approach
According to statistics of the Ministry of Education and Training, by the end of the school year 2016 - 2017, the whole country has 58 universities, 57 colleges, 40 Vocational school, among of which are 14 Universities of Education, 33 Colleges of Education and 2 Teacher Training schools [6]. The reality shows the intense competition between higher education institutions to survive and develop. The fact that the enrollment is currently falling and that some majors at higher education institutions have been wiped out is becoming a major challenge for educational institutions, including those having organized pedagogical courses for many years. Their enrollment quota has fallen sharply. For example, the enrollment quota of Hue College of Education has decreased by 37.5%; Thai Nguyen University of Education, 31.4%; Hanoi National University of Education, 21%; Pham Van Dong University, 73%; Can Tho University, 46.3%; Ha Giang Teacher Training College, 73%; Bac Ninh Teacher Training College, 66%, etc. [11] In addition to the external support policies, the factors of lecturers, training programs and management of faculties or universities of Education must change to overcome these difficulties. In particular, the direct management role belongs to the Dean of the faculty. If the management is still based solely on emotion, experience or professional activities, it will not be possible for the faculty to get out of the difficulties. Therefore, in the new context, the deans must equip themselves with new and comprehensive qualities.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has spread worldwide which is due to unprecedented effects caused by the pace of development and impact of technological breakthroughs. Technology as a tool to address challenges in education management and
improve the abilities to connect people and knowledge towards the environment 4.0, which will affect the value chain in the capacity model of Vietnamese education administrators. In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the working environment in education and training institutions as well as the whole society towards technology and digitaliza-tion with artificial intelligence has led to a change in social human resources and the division of professional structure. Hence, the management mode in educational institutions needs to be changed.
The Deans of Faculties ofEducation should adopt the competence-based approach to administration of teaching instead of content-based approach. They also need to improve programs, content, teaching and learning methodology, and to carry out authentic assessment ofteaching activities in the faculty. The educational context has changed, so the education managers are required to meet new standards in which competency factor is always prerequisite. In order to develop a comprehensive team offaculty heads by approaching competence, it is vital to carry out a unified process in which competency standards need setting.
In the renovation of higher education, the training program of education is changing from content-based approach to competence-based approach. The higher education is on the threshold of integration with a lot of difficulties and challenges when the requirements set out to train teachers are getting more and more rigorous than ever. Modern education management has added new content, requiring the use of many modern management methods and means. In other words, education management science in previous years has become obsolete and hindered the development. If the faculty leader still maintains the same management habits, it will inevitably lead to a significant lag of the training department. Consequently, it is necessary to quickly improve the quality of education management staff in the University, including the heads of the faculties of Education, which is in parallel with the renovation of the training program, improvement of teaching
methods, improvement of facilities, equipment, capacity building of teachers. Only then will Vietnamese education catch up with the modern education trend of the world.
As for the educational institutions, following the current trends in educational renovation, the Ministry of Education and Training has submitted to the Prime Minister a project to improve the capacity of lecturers and managers of higher education institutions to meet the requirements of basic and comprehensive innovation of education and training in the period of 2018 - 2030. Besides, the Ministry has issued documents regulating professional standards of teachers and principals in the direction of updating, meeting the requirements of education and training in the new period; built the capacity framework for secondary teachers in specific subjects; set standards and procedures for selecting key teachers, and senior high school administrators. However, the new standards are only applied to the position of principals, teachers at all levels but there is no standard for the position of deans of Faculties of Education.
Setting standards for the heads of Faculties of Education is the first step of human resource management based on competency - based approach reflecting the response to changes in efficiency and organizational culture that are taking place in many developed and developing countries. The competency - based human resource management system focuses on identifying the necessary competencies to achieve effective performance and developing those capabilities in the workforce. Competency -based human resource management not only concentrates on KSA model capacity (Knowledge, Skill, Attitudes) but also develops thinking ability (IQ), emotional capacity (EQ), Cultural capacity (CQ) to promote the overall capacity of each person in the sustainable organization. To identify key competencies, administrators use the competency framework, which defines the requirements ofknowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors and personal characteristics to take charge of tasks in a certain position or profes-
sion. The competence framework can be considered a combination that describing competency standards that determine the ability to fulfill the requirements of a position or a title. It is used to compare the actual competence level of the person in charge of the tasks. The framework reflects the full competence that an individual is required at different levels to perform a job or task well. Developing human resources based on competency has become a common trend of organizations and units today. It is the basis for making plans to develop the team of deans, ensuring the science and feasibility, suitable for the conditions of each institution. This orientation can address most of the current limitations of the heads of Faculties of Education.
Meanwhile, because there has not been a suitable standard system for the position of the dean yet, in the past few years, the appointment of the deans at the institutions or faculties of Education has still many shortcomings as follows: the deans of faculties have been appointed mainly according to age, qualifications, majors. In other words, they have been named as the deans because of the factor of seniority rather than competences. The leaders plan to train and foster staff in their faculties but they themselves are hardly allowed to participate in any training courses to develop their competences, both in terms of qualifications and management. The Deans are managing faculties mainly based on experience gained whilst both working and they have not been properly trained in management. Another situation is that the Deans are usually selected according to qualification criteria. This has resulted in the fact that people with professional qualifications may not have management competences and vice versa, leading to limitations and weaknesses in performing tasks. In an environment where the necessary factors for competency development are needed, it seems that the faculty leader has not been focused on developing the competence system to correspond to the tasks. Moreover, universities also do not have specific criteria to assess the performance of the faculty leaders
but mainly follow the sentimental votes at meetings. This shows the necessity to have a development strategy for the faculty leaders based on actual competence standards.
Because of these reasons, it is vital to set the standards of the Deans of the Faculties or Institutions of Education, contributing to standardizing the staff and improving the quality of managing human resources training in the new context.
3. Developing criteria of leaders at the Faculties or Institutions of Education according to competence-based approach.
Currently, competence-based approach is a common trend of human resource management activities in units and organizations, including educational institutions. In order to access competences, competency standards of job positions must be defined.
Charles Kivunja (2008) and other educationists such as John R.Hoyle, Fenwick W.English, Betty E.Steffy (1998) suggested the standards of educational administrators in the 21st century as follows:
- In terms of knowledge:
+ Understanding learners: basic principles of student development and the latest learning doctrines, diverse needs of learners + Understand the law
+ Understand the role of the educational institutions in the development of the community + Educational leadership doctrines + Methods of educational management research + Information technology in teaching and education management
- In terms of Skills: + Leadership skills
+ vision-building skills + Policy- making and management skills + Communication and public relations skills + Organizational skills + Program planning and development skills + Teaching-activity management skills + Team assessment and human resource management skills
+ Team building skills
+ Scientific educational research skills.
According to D. T Phuong in the article Eight requirements of an education manager at the time of 4.0, to meet the requirements of the new situation, education administrators need to have modern qualities and competences such as cooperative skills, critical thinking skills, problem-solving and motivational skills. They are also required to know how to analyze and compare Vietnamese education with other education in the world. Leadership and management competences of education administrators will help improve the leadership effectiveness of the education system in general and educational institutions in particular, thereby helping the education achieve its goals and missions
Currently, Standards of the Principals in Vietnam that are going to be issued by the National Academy of Education Management may fulfil most of the requirements of professional knowledge and skills of educational administrators. These standards are divided into 5 groups: Political qualities and professional ethics; professional competences and pedagogical skills; School leadership competences; School management competences and Competences of building and developing relationships between schools, families and society.
Therefore, standards of the Deans of faculties and institutions of Education must focus on skills and competencies required to perform well the basic roles and responsibilities, including the roles of teachers, scientists as well as administrators. Specifically, the authors suggest a standard system of 4 main groups: Political qualities and professional ethics; Professional competences and educational skills; Competences of scientific research and technology transfer; Competences of education institution or faculty management. Here are the groups of standards.
Group 1: Political qualities and professional ethics, including 4 standards as follows: Political qualities: Having a strong political spirit to help the
education institutions well implement political and ideological tasks; Never diverging from Marxist-Leninist principles and Ho Chi Minh's thoughts; Taking exemplary model in following the Party's guidelines; Understanding and obeying the laws, policies and regulations of the State; Actively participating in political and social activities;
- Professional ethics: Maintaining the qualities, honor and prestige of teachers; Being Honest, dedicated to career and responsible in intitution or faculty management; Preventing and resolutely fighting against negative manifestations;
- Lifestyle: Having a healthy lifestyle that is consistent with the cultural identity in the trend of integration;
- Working style: having scientific and pedagogical working style.
3.2. Group 2: professional competences and pedagogical skills, includingfive standards:
- Understanding the Teacher Education Curriculum;
- Qualification: Obtaining the standard qualifications of trained teachers according to the Education Law; Mastering specialized subjects that they are currently teaching; Have knowledge about other specialties to meet management requirements;
- Professional skills: having abilities to organize and effectively applying active teaching and education methods;
- Self-study and creativity: having consciousness, self-study spirit and building the faculty into a learning and creative organization;
- Foreign language competence and information technology competency: Proficiently using a foreign language and information technology.
3.3. Group 3: Competences of scientific research and technology transfer includes 3 standards
- Identifying and selecting research issues: skills of detection, identification and research skills; skills of transfering research issues into scientific topics;
- Research organization: Skills of arranging resources, personnel, finance for research; Skills of us-
ing scientific research methods; skills of effectively exploiting and using material facilities and equipment for scientific research and technology transfer activities;
Developing scientific activities of education institutions or faculties: making plans of scientific activities of education institutions or faculties; collaborating, helping colleagues and students to research and build scientific research groups; Promoting and encouraging staff and lecturers to conduct scientific research and inventions; Training lecturers to improve scientific research competences and skills to participate in bidding for scientific projects.
3.4. Group 4: Education institution or faculty management copetences include 11 standards:
- Analysing and forecasting: Understanding the political, economic and social situations of the country and localities; Timely grasping the guidelines, policies and regulations of the education sector; Analyzing the situations and forecasting the development trends of education institution or faculty;
- Strategic vision: Building the visions, missions, values towards the comprehensive development of each student and improving the qualities and effectiveness of education institutions or faculties; Propagating and promoting values institutions or faculties of Education; Publicizing educational goals, curriculum, results of education quality assessment, diplomas and certificates to create consensus and support to develop institutions or faculties;
- Designing and implementating: Identifying priority objectives; Designing and implementing action programs and strategic development plans; Aiming at all activities of the institutions or faculties to improve the quality of students' learning and training, the effectiveness of teaching; Encouraging all members of the institutions or faculties to actively participate in emulation movements and social activities;
- Assertive and innovative nature: Making right decisions timely and having responsibilities for the decisions to ensure learning opportunities for all stu-
dents, and to improve quality and efficiency of the education institution or faculty.
Planning activities: Making strategic plans that are appropriate to the university's and faculty's action plans;
Organizing the apparatus and developing the staff: Planning, recruiting, using and obeying the regulations and policies for lecturers and staff; Planning to train and develop their competency to meet the requirements of standardization and ensure the long-term development of the university or faculty; Taking care of their spiritual and material life.
Managing teaching activities: Implementing the curriculum of subjects towards promoting students' self-awareness, positive and creativity in order to achieve high academic results on the basis of ensuring knowledge standards and skills according to current regulations; Organizing teaching activities of lecturers in accordance with the requirements of innovation, democracy promotion to encourage the creativity of each lecturer and staff.
Financial and property management of the university or faculty: Effectively and transparently mobilizing and using financial resources for educational activities; Publicizing financial statements of the faculty in accordance with regulations; Effectively managing and using the university's and faculty's equipment for eduaction and training.
Administrative management: Building and improving the operational processes, adminis-
trative procedures of the university or faculty; Implementing records management according to regulations;
Building information system: Building information system to effectively serve educational activities; Applying information technology in management and teaching; Receiving and processing feedback to improve the education quality of the faculty; Collaborating and sharing information about leadership, management skills with other educational institutions, individuals and organizations to support and develop the faculties; Giving information and reporting on activities of the faculty or university completely, accurately and timely.
Checking and evaluating: objectively and fairly assessing students' lerning, work results and training of teachers, staff, and faculty leaders; self-assessing the faculty and complying with the regulations of Education Accreditation.
In order for these standards to be realized, it is necessary to synchronously implement those standards with the following solutions: Raising the awareness of the faculty leaders on developing the staff; Planning to develop, appoint, dismiss and use the Deans of Faculties according to standards; Training to improve the qualifications, skills, adaptive skills for educational innovation, etc. for the faculty leaders; Checking and evaluating according to standards; Strengthening policies to create motivation and build a favorable working environment for them.
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