School self-management framework: Its application for effective management of personal and social education program

In recent years, there are dramatic economic, social, political and organizational changes in many societies. It changes from industrial society to information society, basic skill to high technology, national economy to world economy, institutional help to self-help. All these have great impacts to the education system. Since homes are smaller, more parents go out to work, less parent-child interaction, together with higher divorce rate and the negative influence of mass media and poor culture, schools are more involved in the upbringing of children, to help them to survive, to grow and to face challenges and difficulties ahead. Under these circumstances, higher and more expectations from parents, employers, community leaders will put on schools. Among the various kinds of educational service such as classroom teaching of subject knowledge, extracurricular activities, student guidance and counseling, the education which develop pupils concepts of themselves, abilities, identities and positions in their living environment with age is one of the most important one. Galloway (1990) stated that Personal and Social Education which is mainly developmental in nature with a curriculum for all students can serve this purpose. Personal and Social Education enhances the development of knowledge, attitudes and behavior concerned with oneself and others; social institutions, structures and organizations; and social and moral issues (David, 1983). The present way to implement Personal and Social Education is very passive, unsystematic and very often resources are not used effectively according to the unique conditions of the school and without giving enough attention to the needs of the pupils and the challenging environment. In order to cope with the changes and expectations of society effectively, schools need to be flexile and proactive in planning, designing, implementing and evaluating its Personal and Social Education program, to provide a program that suits the needs of the school and its students. Regarding to this, Cheung & Cheng (1996) proposed that schools need to adopt a self-management cycle in order to effectively plan and implement its school-based program. This paper attempt to apply the self-management framework developed by Cheung & Cheng (1996) in the context of Personal and Social Education program management. In this paper, concrete examples will be given to illustrative how schools could be effective in launching and managing Personal and Social Education program through self-management cycles. Self-management is a cycle process which consists of five stages: environmental analysis of the school's strength, weakness, opportunities and threats; planning and structuring of the school's organizational structure, budgeting and allocation of resources; staffing and directing of human resources such as staff development and delegation; implementing of all programs with guidance and support; and monitoring and evaluating of program quality and use information to initiate next cycle of school self-management. Theorists had indicated that strategic management is effective in providing vitality for the school to meet internal and external changes effectively to fit its unique needs (Caldwell & Spinks, 1992). It is hoped that this paper will provide a practical and instrumental base for school practitioners to put theory into practice in management the Personal and Social Education program effectively and for further research of school effectiveness.