Making sense of school principal understanding of innovative ideas in a centralized policy-making culture : insights from Kosovo

The Kosovo education system has made efforts to decentralize education competencies at the school level over the last two decades. However, many important functions, such as curriculum design and teacher professional development, remained largely the responsibility of the municipal and national governments. This does not imply that school principals became unable to initiate innovations and development activities related to curriculum implementation and teacher professional practice, but such leadership initiatives were not observed at the desired and necessary level. This research aimed to investigate how school principals in Kosovo understand innovation and to identify factors that influence the implementation of innovative ideas at the school level. Data for this research were collected through interviews with school principals, researchers, and policymaking representatives. The research findings suggest a model of how to transition to successful school reform management in a centralized polic y-making culture. This transition should be resourced and managed through leadership practices that reflect the co-construction of school autonomy, introducing a socialization stage in school reform projects, considering the elements of adequate inter vention timing a s well a s balancing bet ween communicative and coordinative discourse in school reform projects. The research concludes that in a centralized policy- making culture, reform projects cannot ignore school principal understandings and processing of innovative ideas as the first condition for substantial and sustainable school improvement.