Chapter One Introduction Overview Culture is an important component when studying a group of people. The idea of culture creates a mental image of how people interact with each other in communities of varying sizes. For educational leaders, throughout the decision-making process, working within the culture of an institution is an important asset for him or her to use with internal and external stakeholders. Craven (1975) infers that in order to make a good decision an educational leader must be in “pursuit of organizational and/or personal goals and objectives” (p. 127). The process of recognizing, respecting, and utilizing the culture of an institution will be a prominent theme of traits and behaviors for effective educational leaders and the decisions they will make throughout their decision-making role. Summary The presences of positive traits and behaviors of educational leaders throughout the decision-making process is an important indicator of how an institution will flourish. The ability of an educational leader to determine and utilize the culture of an institution is a proactive method of leadership, as it takes into consideration the social and professional norms of an institution and its individuals. Chapter Two Review of the Literature Introduction Overview Many times our first thoughts regarding educational leadership are turned to our first experiences as a child. For most, this individual is the school principal. Teachers and students may have a skewed view of this authority figure. He or she is often the focal point of decision-making and discipline. The principal is the singular driving force that combines teachers with their colleagues and students with their teachers and peers (Goldring, 2... ... middle of paper ... ... central theme is indicative of a well-informed and shared system of educational leadership, which is discussed by Ramey (2004): “If the teachers know that [the administrator is] accessible, and around, they will feel comfortable asking questions and getting clarification before an issue festers into a larger problem” (p. 30). A culture that empowers members of an institution to work together will address many important instructional and institutional issues that are often unaddressed until after a degree of catastrophe has been reached. Summary The culture of educational institutions—K-12 or higher education— plays an instrumental role in the way that each institution functions. Educational leaders must be able to take charge and utilize this culture as part of their day-to-day routine when interacting with internal or external stakeholders to achieve success.
Leading organizations of school administrators offer educators various opportunities to encourage educators to become leaders. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has mandated that leaders be better prepared for the task of providing quality education to all. NCLB “… is forcing all educational stakeholders to face the weakness of contemporary school leadership and is making it impossible to ignore the need for higher quality principals” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). It is believed that all educators can be and are leaders in their own right. A leader is a visionary and has the ability to inspire others to aspire to greatness. Of the numerous opportunities that are offered, those that are most beneficial include but are not limited to leadership training programs, professional development, and creating shared leadership opportunities for teachers to become leaders. The systems “…that produce our nation’s principals are complex and interrelated – and governed by the states. Each state establishes licensing, certification and re-certification” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). States use the ISLLC standards “…as the framework for preparation programs and in service professional development of school superintendents, principals, and other leaders” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.3).
Students need to be able to come to school, feel welcome, and receive the best education that their teacher can provide. To be able to do this the principal needs to make the decisions that supports his/her school. Principals need to be role models and responsible decision makers. Policies and procedures need to be updated regularly and should be reviewed by multiple parties.
TURAN, S., & BEKTAŞ, F. (2013). The Relationship between School Culture and Leadership Practices. Eurasian Journal Of Educational Research (EJER), (52), 155-168.
School administrators are important in setting the path for a successful school (Glickman, et al., 2014). The principals could play a dynamic leadership depending on how they exercise their beliefs of the organizational and social environment (McNair, 2011). The principals are the primary facilitators for developing the foundations in learning that will last, to manage the student’s performance at schools, and seeking the improvement at school that will cause great impacts in school‘s education (Gordon,1989). In the recent years in the U.S., education has change in a more cultural diversity population, it is imperative that school supervisors, are trained to encounter this cultural issues, but also assisting others with the opportunities to develop appropriate abilities to deal with different cultures (Glickman, et al., 2014).
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988). Organizational culture can be defined as a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members. It includes routine behaviors, norms, dominant values, and feelings or climates. The purpose and function of this culture is to help foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization closer together, and enhance their performance.
This paper will describe two studies, one quantitative and the other a mixed method, which dealt with aspects of educational leadership. The studies chosen for review were conducted by Bush, et al. (2005), a study that reported participant results in a Leadership Academy, and another by Somech (2005) in which the results of an investigational study of leadership styles, participative and directive, with regard to their impact upon managing school effectiveness. To offer a deeper understanding of the respective studies, a discussion follows that details the design rationa...
Rosen, R. H. (1997). Learning to lead. In F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith & R. Beckhard (Eds.), The Organization of the Future. The Drucker Foundation Future Series (p. 306). New York, NY: Jossey-Bass Inc Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. (4th ed., p. 13). San Francisco: Johan Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The culture of a school is not determined by staff or students. It is created by the building principal. When I think of culture, I think of the environment in which one works or live. As a new principal and even at the beginning of a new school year, it is important to build a culture conducive to learning. At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, North Panola Junior High (NPJH), first year’s principal, Valeree Barnes attempted to come in and change the culture. In order to change the culture, you must first determine what needs changing and what can remain the same. Instead she came in trying to change everything and was unsuccessful. According to McEwan (2003), culture building is a more challenging assignment than you might think. At the conclusion of this school year and seeing Mrs. Barnes attempt to change the culture as unsuccessful, I can attest to it being challenging.
Leaders have influence the organizational climate and can change the command culture. However to accomplish that they have to first understand the existing organizational culture within which they are operating. Culture is the behavior characteristic of a particular group. In an organizational setting, leaders have to be mindful of this cultural factors in the context that is sensitive to the different backgrounds of team members to best leverage their talent. There are three levels of culture. First level is the Artifacts. This is the surface level. It includes all phenomena that one sees, hears, and feels when one encounters a new group with unfamiliar culture. Second level is the espoused values. These reflect the original values. Third level is the basic underlying assumptions. These are what were once hypothesis, supported only by a hunch or a value, come gradually to be treated as reality. Climate, in the other hand, is a prevailing trend of public opinion or attitude in a given organization at a given time.
What does leadership mean in the context of educational leadership? Many definitions of leadership in education co-exist, attesting to the complexity and multi-faceted phenomena of the concept (Elwell & Elikofer, 2013). Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood organizational and psychological areas of study. Despite volumes of research and numerous theories, no one theory of leadership emerged as the sole predictor of the success of educational leaders. The current body of knowledge about leadership consists of narrow definitions of leader effectiveness that are disconnected from their context (Latham, 2014). Educational leadership influences and affects every dimension of the educational process from the
...l man who enables others to think and do in his way (role model) and his employees work him for unconditional loyalty (e.g. his PA), also, adopt a fair system of rewards and punishments; however, as a leader sometimes he just needs some transformational styles which respect and communicate with followers equally rather than forced them to shut up rudely. As for organizational culture, the article obtains further understanding that some factors attribute to detect cultures existed in an organisation, communication system, for example. As a result, it can be identified that his culture not only can be classified as power but task. Moreover, due to the changeable outside environment, compounded and flexible cultures seems to be a better way for an organisation’s sustainable development. Therefore, leadership is tightly related to organizational culture.
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Many theorists have long reported that paying attention to school culture is the most important action that a leader can perform. Impact of learning is mediated through climate and culture of the school and is not a direct effect (Hallinger and Heck 1998).
As mentioned before, leadership styles take an important role in running a school. Unfortunately, many principals have not yet defined their leadership style and struggle to administrate their school. They are responsible not only of teachers and students, but of every employee in the school. They have the power to control all the resources available to improve and meet academic goals. Despite their power, principals need to identify appropriate leadership styles to succeed as
In schools everyday are many people influencing and taking the important role in education and supervision. In these roles are collaborating, teachers, principal, students, and educational supervisors, all these are the main basics of this process (Annan & Ryba, 2013). In an immediate setting, with a more encompass culture is guide by educators, principals, and other staff that supports the student’s success in a daily basis. In any school the culture is really important, but could be hard to establish and maintain (Moccozet, et al., 2009). In establishing a successful school it is pertain that all the staff have the knowledge about the different styles while leading, the main three are congenial, collegial, and conventional (Glickman, et al., 2010). Every school is classify by the leadership style and the decisions that are made, the instruction, the interactions with the stakeholders, or how the administration is done. Furthermore, will be analyze the supervision styles, the culture and the platform that will be follow.