Self-management as a tool for overcoming risks in school management

Effective management of educational organization plays a key role in ensuring high quality education and well-being of all participants of educational process, which is why such management has always been a subject of interest for the scientific community and a focus of attention for management structures. However, today’s changes in social, economic and technological spheres give rise to a variety of risks that affect the stability of educational process, safety of students, work of staff and reputation of school, requiring clarification and supplementation of traditional models of school management from the standpoint of risk theory. One of possible approaches to risk management may be more active involvement of parents in school self-government. The article presents the results of the exploratory study conducted in the Republic of Bashkortostan with a survey (N=212), focus groups and expert semi-structured interviews to identify the main types of risks in school management and to assess the potential of various forms of school self-government in overcoming them. While recognizing the limitations of generalization based on the exploratory study with a small sample of a biased nature (the most interested, active and responsible parents were questioned), the author makes some conclusions: the greatest concerns of parents are about security threats, quality of education, financial issues and interaction with the school administration. In the developing self-government system, parents have the greatest trust in parent committees that participate in school everyday life and in student councils, whereas such forms as trustee board and management board are still unclear in terms of functions and structure. Almost every second parent is dissatisfied with the transparency of school spending and would like to interact with the school administration more regularly. The research data is confirmed by other studies showing that the active involvement of parents in school management helps to reduce their anxiety and increases the level of trust in the school administration. Based on his research and practical experience, the author makes some recommendations for improving school self-government with an emphasis on raising parental awareness, training school specialists and developing additional tools for monitoring/controlling the quality of education and school management in the interests of a sustainable family-school partnership.