Over the last 20 years, a growing literature has emerged on the idea of distributed leadership. In this section, I will draw upon this literature to critically analyse its poor implementation at my school.
What is Distributed Leadership?
According to Yukl (1999) the appeal of distributed leadership lies in its opposition to the concept of the heroic leader or ‘great person’. The ‘great person’ approach to leadership has dominated leadership theory; Charismatic, Transactional, and Transformational are examples of theories in which agency is primarily with the main leader. In these theories, they explain ‘effectiveness’ in terms of the personal characteristics of the leader. Yukl (1999) called for “greater emphasis on reciprocal influence processes
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Rather, it is the reverse; “the heroic leader impulse…may be the aberrant development, rather than distributed leadership” (Gronn, 2008, p. 142). The author does acknowledge that distributed leadership exposes the limits of what an individual leader can do, though he warns of theorising to the extreme ends of a concentrated-dispersed leadership continuum of which “may do less than full justice to patterns of divergent leadership practice” (Gronn, 2008, p. 143). This sentiment of avoiding extreme dichotomy is, perhaps, the salient point in all of the literature; different contexts will require a different form of centralised or distributed influences. It will be shown later in this paper that a strong senior leader is an essential component of leadership from a distributed perspective. The current implementation of grade-level teams at my school is an example of a team foundering without guidance from …show more content…
The first is a distribution of responsibility in response to the ever more expansive number of leadership tasks within schools, and the recognition that no one person could be reasonably accountable for it all (Harris and Spillane, 2008). Secondly, it has become clear that the work of educating students is becoming ever more complex, necessitating a more reactive form of leadership which utilises the skills and knowledge of staff to overcome new challenges or seize opportunities (Gronn, 2002). Knowing the breadth and depth of the skills and knowledge in the faculty at my school, I firmly believe that this is where the opportunity lays. What is missing is a plan for effective implementation or, put another way, for distributed leadership practice to
Frank, V. V. (2009, September). Framework for Improvement: Effective School Leadership Translates into Increased Student Learning. The Learning Principal: National Staff Development Council , pp. 2, 6-7.
According to Northouse (2012), team leadership has become one of the most popular theories of leadership research. A team refers to a group of employees within an organization, who are interdependent of each, and share a common goal which can only be realized through coordination of their activities. Actually, this can be attributed to the fact that team members typically have dissimilar and unique roles that represent critical contributions to collective action. It goes without mentioning that a team can either be virtual or non-virtual (Tiffan, 2014).
DEVELOPMENT & IMPLEMENTATION OF A SHARED VISION: Education leaders facilitate the development and implementation of a shared vision of learning and growth of all students, (1C) Implementing the Vision connection to my action plan. I collaborate with key stakeholders with the intention of fostering a shared vision, one that is proactive in nature. Proactive interventions, such as the development of a BIP will aid in a shared vision of learning and growth for all students regardless of ability levels. INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP: Education leaders shape a collaborative culture of teaching and learning informed by professional standards and focused on student and professional growth (2C) Supporting Teachers to Improve Practice (2D) Feedback on Instruction, directly relates to my action plan as I will engage in open collaborative conversations with teachers, administrators, and essential staff members. I will conduct informal classroom observations with the intension of providing feedback, constructing classroom materials, dispersing information. EXTERNAL CONTEXT AND POLICY Education leaders influence political, social, economic, legal and cultural contexts affecting education to improve education policies and practices (6A) Understanding and Communicating Policy correlates with my action plan. I will inform all essential members of the current legal mandates established by federal law, as safeguarding student
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
There tend to be a variety of concepts regarding how, as well as what should undergo consideration when developing leadership in individuals. Scholars have different suggestions on the kind of approaches that should get observed during the practice. As a result, this paper seeks to unravel various forms of leadership approaches, as well as suggesting the best theory that should be in use when creating a perfect leader. Additionally, the work will establish ways of determining the effectiveness of a leadership program.
There was a cold and brutal murder that involved the strangulation of an innocent girl awaiting her own high school graduation, Hae Min Lee, on January 13, 1999. She was only 17 at the time, with a bright future ahead; good grades, involved in many school activities, responsible, and well-known by many. Only a senior at her school, in a small town in Baltimore, Maryland, she was found dead at Leakin Park, only a few miles away from Woodlawn high school, where she attended until her murder. About 18 years later, her brutal death is still a mystery, and the true question is, who really killed Hae Min Lee and what was their motive? Jay Wilds is guilty of Hae Min Lee’s murder, another student at Woodlawn High School, committed on January 13,
In School Leadership that Works Marzano introduces twenty-one responsibilities of a school leader (see Appendix A). These leadership responsibilities are used in the two change orders discussed by Marzano, McNulty and Waters (2005). “Some innovations require changes that are gradual and subtle; others require changes that are dra...
Leadership can take many different forms, depending on the person and the situation in which it is needed. Collaborative leadership is a leadership style in which a leader brings together a large group of people, with a variety of backgrounds, to make a productive decision and act upon it. According to Chrislip and Larson (1994):
Throughout the course of a Master’s counseling program, moments of doubt, and a lack of working knowledge are bound to play a major role in the confidence a future counselor will posses in effectively implementing interventions early on in the instructional phase of his or her career. Corey (2010) states that an effective group leader, is able to become aware of their own vulnerabilities, and take responsibility in their responses. To become aware of a possible vulnerable area, a counselor must first take a concise look into their personal strengths and weakness, and then decide to actively seek out assistance with working on vulnerabilities. In exploring the roles of an effective group leader, I have realized that within the group process, I most fear the roles of a group leader that pertain to direct confrontation of a client, I also fear that the improper implementation of a intervention could lead to potential harm of the client. Attending to these fears I hold regarding group member confrontation, and intervention implementation is the key to gaining further understanding into how I can become comfortable with these essential functions of a group leader. The current paper will take a closer look into my vulnerabilities, using current research to gain insight into how I can overcome fears, when facilitating a task, psycho-educational, counseling, and psychotherapy group.
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...
In building leadership capacity it is important to ensure that there is broad-based skillful participation. We want the students, parents, community, and staff to be participants. This is important because it allows for staff to take responsibility for the growth and development for not only themselves but for their peers in doing the work of leadership. It is helpful to have the community working together towards the common goal as opposed to ...
The concept of leadership arises out of the need for cooperative action by human beings to achieve certain goals. Leadership seeks to identify and deploy the groups’ pooled resources to tackle problems in order to achieve set objectives. While human beings are independent and capable of individual action, there are many situations in real life that require dependence on one person or a small group of people who have a broad view of the intervening issues enabling them to direct the actions of the rest of the individuals. The degree of success from this effort is a measure of the leadership skill present within a team.
Stroup, J. (2004). Managing leadership: toward a new and usable understanding of what leadership is and how to manage it. Lincoln, NE. iUniverse, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2011 from http://managingleadership.com/blog/2008/09/04/great-man-theory/
In most leadership, stories, the central theme is that there is one vital leader who undertakes and effects the success of the organization. However, according to Spillane (2005), there is more to leadership than this; many people are involved behind the scenes and, it is more of a team leadership rather than a central leadership. Unlike instructional or transformational leadership, which focus on the characteristics and roles of the individual leader, distributive leadership focuses on how different players in the school setting conduct their distributed activities. As a result, it is important to point out that distributed leadership entails a division of work and specialization of labor. Each faculty or staff member is responsible for utilizing
The role of teacher leader has been defined as “teachers who aspire to stretch beyond their classrooms to engage in leadership roles that take many shapes and forms, both “informal and formal”. (ECS, 2010). Teacher leadership has also been described as “the process by which teachers, individually and collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.” (ECS, 2010). In years past, a majority of teacher leadership roles took the form of department chair, committee chair, grade level chair, etc. It was more of a representative role versus a leadership role. Their responsibility primarily involved dispersing information from administration to their counterparts and taking information back to administration from the group. Their position lacked decision-making power and true leadership that brings about “real” change. These tasks are still viewed as opportunities for teacher leadership; however, recently, the