Comparative study of responsible institutions and evaluation system of professional competencies of school principals in Iran, Malaysia, and the United States: lessons for the educational system of Iran

The vital role of management in the educational system and particularly at schools to qualitatively promote and desirably change this institution has been the reason why the educational managers’ duties and performance in terms of their skills and competencies are among the most basic things attended to by managers and management experts since a long time. The results of the research have showed that the effective realization of direction and change duties requires a manifold set of managers’ competencies. Successful managers are those who draw on competencies in their proper place to accompany and help people in different stages of change. Therefore, if managers’ skills and competencies are emphasized in the selection process, and sufficient expertise and competencies are taken into account, and sufficient effort are made to create, develop and evaluate these competencies, there will be a more effective educational system in the long term. Competency shows a picture of a grown-up human being who is in all dimensions ready for a job and it is actually the umbrella term that includes everything affecting the jib performance directly or indirectly. The study of the present condition at schools in our country shows that one of the most common problems in the operation level, is the inappropriateness of decision-making quality and proper measure by the managers so that many of the managers lack the basic professional competencies. This is due to the lack of updated knowledge and required skills. Such a situation has led managers to do nothing for the fundamental school improvement and their work has been limited to the performance of the regulations and registers. On the other hand, the lack of important components like expertise and technical dimensions, modeling competency, missions and vision depicting are evident among the school managers which have afflicted today the daily activities of the schools and their development. Given the importance of the school managers’ professional competencies in their designing selection, assignment, instruction, and performance evaluation, it seems that the study of managers’ professional managers in the educational system requires more attention and much deeper studies. In this respect, according to the researchers, what provides the discussion on the basic changes in the establishment and development of school managers’ professional competencies is the study and identification of responsible institutions and organizations, their duties and functions in the establishment, development, and evaluation of the school managers’ professional competencies. To explore this problem and to respond to the existing challenges in this area, comparative studies that are characterized by their consideration of different dimensions of educational phenomena and are universally acceptable were used in this study. In fact, the comparative approach in the educational management aims at the school level as the basic unit for comparison so as to ensure the significant progress in knowledge construction and perception. Therefore, it might be said that the comparison of educational management in different cultures has an intrinsic value as an intellectual activity to improve the perceptions of educational activities in different regions. The present study was conducted to investigate comparatively the committed institutions and evaluation systems for school principals’ professional competencies in Iran, Malaysia, and the United States, providing a context where Iranian relevant authorities can find some more reliant solutions to improve the principals’ professional competencies development programs. . The research method was based on Bereday’s method in comparative education studies included the stages of description, interpretation, proximity, and comparison. In the description level, the researcher must describe the phenomena based on the evidence and data collected through different resources, whether through direct observation or the study of others’ documents and reports. According to Bereday, the description stage is the stage of note-taking and provision of sufficient findings to be criticized in the next step. The interpretation stage involves the study of data described in the first stage by the researcher so as to find components and indices for each of the research questions. In the proximity stage, the data gathered in previous stages are classified and put together. In the comparison stage, the research problem is exactly investigated and compared given the details related to the similarities and differences. In this stage, the research questions are possible to be studied. Data was collected from library-relied resources including documents, reports, and published comparative studies on the issue. Study indices in Iran was compared to those of Malaysia and U.S that are both among the progressive countries in the studies and reformations of educational management. The most important references to be used and selected by the researcher were the documents and reports provided by valid organizations and institutes like UNESCO. The results showed that there are some ideas and lessons in the field of research in Malaysia and the state of California which would be used to improve the system of professional competencies of school principals in Iran. Based on the findings, there are duties and functions which are taken place by the overseas’ institutions for describing, developing, and evaluating the programs for principals’ professional competencies. Therefore, a revision of duties and functions by institutions responsible for describing, developing, and evaluating school managers’ professional competencies and also the evaluation system of school managers’ professional competencies in the country are recognized as necessary. Finally some suggestions were made for reforming and learning the relevant policies in Iran. Among those are the establishment of the center for evaluation of school managers’ professional competencies in Iran, the delegation of more authorities to provinces and regions in the area of planning for the establishment, development, and evaluation of managers’ professional competencies, the provision of the national system for ranked certificates in the area of school management professional competencies, using a supervisor manager in a coaching role in the evaluation system of school managers’ professional competencies, the provision of educational programs according to the results of the regular evaluations of school managers’ professional competencies, using international supervisory and advisory organizations and institutes in the process of establishment and development of managers’ professional competencies, using independent and international universities and evaluation and accreditation organizations in the area of managers’ professional competencies. In the end, other studies are recommended in the area of efficient programs for evaluating professional competencies before the assignment of the school managers as well as school managers’ professional competencies certificates, given the interaction and relationship of the researchers with the research topic and the exploration of problems and needs in the respective area.   Keywords: professional competencies, principal, comparative study, Iran, Malaysia, USA.