School leadership is a complex role, and as a principal you’ll be used to juggling many different tasks and responsibilities. According to recent research, it’s likely that grant writing will also be on that list.
Emma Rowe, a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education at Deakin University, and Sarah Langman, a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University, examined competitive grants for public schools as a form of additional funding from the government.
Writing in The Australian Educational Researcher, the academics say their findings suggest that applying for competitive funding is now a major part of a school leader’s role, and something they’re spending an excessive amount of time on.
The academics interviewed 18 principals from public (state/government) schools in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory between July and November 2023. Nine of the schools were in major cities, 4 were classed as inner regional, 4 as remote and one as very remote; the majority (13) served disadvantaged cohorts of students. All of the principals had substantial leadership experience.
Many spoke about how their role now involves applying for competitive grants from the government to supplement their budget. ‘The competitive applications are to fund what many would consider rudimentary or fundamental resources,’ Rowe and Langman note, adding examples included ‘school infrastructure for functioning toilets, roofs, retaining walls and the like; so too, they were applying for disability supports grants, and wellbeing projects for their students.’
The academics share a range of interview responses from the principals (pseudonyms are used).
It’s about time. It’s having time and finding time. … And it’s changed. I didn’t come into this role being a grant applier… (Elizabeth, primary school principal, disadvantaged student cohort).
My biggest issue at the moment is realistically … we are still underfunded. … I do see [grant writing] as part and parcel of my job, because at the end of the day it benefits the children and the teachers at the school. (Jason, primary school principal, advantaged student cohort).
We had a retaining wall that needed a lot of work, and it was about $100,000 job, and [the Department] allocated $4,000 to it. And that’s common across all schools. So, you have to apply for these grants to try and get the big jobs done and top up the money. Because you don’t have enough money in your school budget. (Mark, primary school principal, advantaged student cohort).
Yeah, it’s time… [applying for the grants is] a lot of time because yeah, you’ve just got to give up lots of time. And because they’re all different, they all generally have different requirements... They all have different layers of, I’m going to say, red tape in them. And usually the larger the amount you apply for, the more red tape. (Tom, secondary school principal, disadvantaged student cohort).
One principal told the researchers he felt like he needed to be a ‘legal expert’ to navigate the jargon in applications, and others spoke about the need to make their applications stand out from the crowd – bringing in external expertise, for example.
Interviewees were also concerned about the competitive and adversarial nature of the funding system, although they saw it as ‘part of the job’. ‘The competitive applications increased and intensified principals’ workload, as interviewees were investing considerable personal and professional time into applications, and the majority of principals felt this detracted from their core work as school principal,’ the researchers write. The added time principals are now having to devote to these tasks is ‘critically reshaping their role as a school principal, to one of “grant applier” and fundraiser…’
Rowe and Langman say further research is now needed in this area as there are more than 6,700 public schools in Australia and their study represents just a small number of school leader experiences.
References
Rowe, E., & Langman, S. (2024). Competitive grants in autonomous public schools: how school principals are labouring for public school funding. The Australian Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00746-9
