English abstract
The study aimed to identify the intellectual foundations of professionalining school administration It also sought to benefit from the vast experiences of the United States of America and Australia in professionalizing school administration through fousing on the basic requirements for professionalring school administration as referred to by relevant literature, namely professional associations, ethical codes and l oses and occupational certificates
The current study adopted Bereday's comparative method. His four step model for undertaking comparative stadies is consisting of description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison. The study suggests a proposed framework for professionalizing school administration in Oman. The proposed framework was built based on: (1) a comprehensive review of the literature relevant to the criteria of professionalizing school administration in general; and, (2) the results of applying Bereday's model in examining the experiences of the United States of America and Australia in this field in particular. The proposed framework included: (a) the objectives of professionalizing school administration; (b) the requirements for achieving professionalization in school administration; and, (c) the three essential elements of professionalizing school administration: (1) professional associations, (2) ethical codes, and (3) license and occupational certificates. In order to ensure the suitability of the proposed framework for Omani society, the proposed framework was distributed to (57) experts on the study's field. To be more specific, the experts were chosen as follows: academies who specialize in both public administration and educational administration; some administrators and members of professional associations that are officially recognized in Oman; some specialists from the Ministry of Social Development; administrators and members of the Department of professionalization in the Ministry of Education and so heads of schools as well as school supervisors.
