An interview with the headteacher as a tool for developing teacher's professional and pedagogical culture in the preliminary staffing system
Introduction. In school management, many routine actions may appear to be mere formalities, but they can have serious strategic implications. One of them is preliminary staffing, that is, assigning teaching load for the coming academic year. In its usual form, this process only solves immediate tasks and does not support school development or teachers’ professional growth. The study aims to justify and present the Interview with the Headteacher Project as an effective means of developing teachers' professional and pedagogical culture within the preliminary staffing system. Materials and methods. The study rests on Russian and international research in professional and pedagogical culture, self-determination theory, and current work on teacher professional identity. The methods used were theoretical analysis, modelling of management actions, longitudinal observation, and diagnostics of teacher burnout. The tool was tested over two years at a regional site. Results and discussion. The Interview with the Headteacher Tool we have developed is built as a strategic dialogue and consists of five stages: preparation with a focus on reflection, independent analysis of professional positions, a meeting with the principal, written fixation of agreements, and their later integration into the school strategy. Burnout diagnostics involving 45 teachers showed that 89% had medium or low burnout levels, which suggests that their internal resources and emotional stability are generally intact. The remaining 11% were identified as a risk group requiring individual support. Conclusion. Turning formal workload distribution into a strategic dialogue makes it possible to preserve pedagogical freedom, strengthen intrinsic motivation, and move teachers from passive performers to active agents of innovative development. The tool is effective when it is based on dialogue, pedagogical freedom, transparency, and targeted support.
While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.
Akinshina, I.B. and Sleptsova, S.V. (2023), “Axiological aspect of professional and pedagogical culture of a university teacher”, Professionalno-pedagogicheskaya kultura uchitelya i prepodavatelya: tendentsii, innovatsii, tekhnologii vospitatelnoy deyatelnosti [Professional and pedagogical culture of a teacher and university lecturer: trends, innovations, technologies of educational activity], Belgorod, Russia, 42-45.
Alova, N.N. (2013), “The structure of pedagogical culture of a teacher of a professional lyceum”, Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovaniya, (2), available at: https://science-education.ru/article/view?id=8797 (Accessed 15 April 2026). (In Russian).
Baronenko, A.S. and Baronenko, E.A. (2010), “Pedagogical culture and its formation in the conditions of practical work of a teacher in a general education institution”, Nauchnoe obespechenie sistemy povysheniya kvalifikatsii kadrov, 2 (4), 48-59. (In Russian).
Benin, V.L. (1997), Pedagogicheskaya kultura: filosofsko-sotsiologicheskiy analiz [Pedagogical culture: philosophical and sociological analysis], Izd-vo Bashk. un-ta, Ufa, Russia.
Bondarevskaya, E.V. (1999), “Pedagogical culture as a social and personal value”, Pedagogika, (3), 37-43. (In Russian).
Gorbatenko, Yu.I., Puzanova, E.A. and Eroshenkova, E.I. (2024), “Mentoring in the “teacher-to-teacher” system: features of professional and personal interaction”, Issues in Journalism, Education, Linguistics, 43 (3), 301-316, DOI: 10.52575/2712-7451-2024-43-3-301-316. (In Russian).
Eroshenkova, E.I. and Eroshenkov, N.V. (2016), Nauchno-pedagogicheskaya shkola professora I.F. Isaeva “Professionalno-pedagogicheskaya kultura” [Scientific and pedagogical school of Professor I.F. Isaev “Professional and pedagogical culture”], Konstanta, Belgorod, Russia.
Isaev, I.F. (2002), Professionalno-pedagogicheskaya kultura prepodavatelya [Professional and pedagogical culture of a teacher], Akademiya, Moscow, Russia.
Kafarov, R.A. and Toreeva, T.A. (2025), “Professional culture of a teacher in the context of the modern paradigm of education”, Innovatsionnye protsessy v pedagogicheskom obrazovanii: materialy Vserossiyskoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii "Rozovskie chteniya” [Innovative processes in pedagogical education: proceedings of the Rozov Readings All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference], MAKS Press, Moscow, Russia, 269-278.
Kopovaya, O.V. (2016), “Psychological and pedagogical analysis of the problem of forming the professional culture of a teacher”, Penzenskiy psikhologicheskiy vestnik, 2 (7), 101-113. (In Russian).
Mikhailova, D.I. (2023), “The system of advanced training and retraining of pedagogical staff on the basis of NOPPTs “Resurs” NRU “BelGU””, Professionalno-pedagogicheskaya kultura uchitelya i prepodavatelya: tendentsii, innovatsii, tekhnologii vospitatelnoy deyatelnosti [Professional and pedagogical culture of a teacher and university lecturer: trends, innovations, technologies of educational activity], Belgorod, Russia, 87-90.
Piskareva, G.V. and Merkel, E.V. (2025), “Professional development of a teacher in the conditions of development of the educational environment of a school”, Shamovskie chteniya [Shamov readings], Moscow, Russia, 357-361.
Usenko, I.S. (2025), “Activity of a future teacher in the formation of value orientations of high school students during pedagogical practice”, Vestnik MGLU. Ser. 2, Pedagogika, psikhologiya, metodika prepodavaniya inostrannykh yazykov, 1 (47), 46-54, available at: http://e-lib.bsufl.by/handle/edoc/17452. (Accessed 17 May 2026). (In Russian).
Chebotaryova, O.V. (2024), “Value orientations as the basis of inclusive competence of a teacher”, Pedagogical Review, 2 (54), 63-74, DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2024-2-63-74, available at: http: // npo.tspu.ru/archive.html?year=2024&issue=2&article_id=9092. (Accessed 18 May 2026). (In Russian).
This article is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Belgorod National Research University and its long-standing tradition of researching the psychological and pedagogical mechanisms of personality development, advanced educational practices, and the integration of science, education, and upbringing.