21st Century Learning and Teaching

As I have started doing preliminary research for my dissertation I have discovered that high quality, relevant and sustainable Professional Development (PD) opportunities for principals (and building leaders in general) are limited. How is that possible?

- Principals are supposed to be visionaries!

- Principals are supposed to be transformational in their leadership!

- Principals are supposed to be responsible for the learning and growth for all those around them!

How can all that be accomplished without proper support through high quality PD?

I'm not 100% certain but what I do know is that upon reflecting on the various workshops and conferences I have attended in my eight years as a building leader, not many of them have given me knowledge or information or resources to best support my role as an instructional leader (except for Twitter, which has led me to this potential dissertation study)! It's no wonder finding effective principals who are good at their job and are willing to stay in the position for an extended period of time to support growth, change and learning is more the exception and not the rule.

Is this because they lack support? Is it because they lack the "necessary" skills? Or is it because they lack high quality PD??