The principal is the chief administrator of the school. This encompasses his duties and responsibilities as a communicator among students, faculty, the school board, parents and agencies outside the school environment. However, the principal also plays a vital role as a facilitator of resource-based learning since one of his or her primary roles is being leader of curriculum and instruction. Educational paradigms are shifting and the role of principal continues to evolve as they do. Principals now must define for themselves and their contexts their role as a leader of resource-based learning. When we look at the themes that are encompassed within this role, the following emerge as primary: “human aspects of leadership; shifting paradigms of leadership, leadership styles, leadership during times of change, organizational structures, supports needed during times of educational change” (Principals’, 1999, 1).
The reason principals have become leaders of resource-based learning is because of Saskatchewan policy shifts which now view resource-based learning as a primary focus of curriculum. In fact, resource-based learning has become an integral component of the new focus of student learning, a focus which attempts to achieve education in students that is continuous and will direct them toward a lifetime of learning. Curriculum reform across Canada has been aimed at the development of a primary educational objective, “Developing students who are informed, self-directed and discriminating learners and who have acquired these skills which enable them to continue learning throughout their lives. A major responsibility of Saskatchewan schools is, now, to develop in students those skills which will lead to life long learning and will help them attain pleasure and enjoyment throughout adult life” (The Role, 1999, 1). The learning method selected as being the most effective for the achievement of this goal is resource-based ...