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Educational leadership: roles and responsibilities
Theories and models of educational leadership
Theories and models of educational leadership
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Introduction
Principals need to perform many tasks adequately so schools run productively and do not languish from a lack of a talent leader. As stated by Seyfarth (2008) in his book Human Resource Leadership for Effective Schools, there are seven essential functions that certainly contribute to make principals work prolifically. After reading the first essential function that states that principals need to maintain school grounds and buildings safe, clean and attractive, I realized that these were going to be the tasks I will perform better. On the other hand, the sixth essential function that affirms that principals are supposed to plan, develop, supervise and evaluate the instructional programs is the one I feel less capable to accomplish. According to McClure (1921), principals must grow in capacity and in vision to understand where to fix problems. For that reason, it is paramount to have in mind the seven essential functions and use it to find out our strengths and work on our weak points.
Selecting Administrative Personnel
Seyfarth (2008) wrote that the seven essential functions are very important
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I will ask stakeholders to help me because skilled principals acknowledge the importance of knowing they cannot be in charge of all duties (Gale & Bishop, 2014). Additionally, I feel that I am less capable supervising and planning because I do not like to see mistakes, especially when I already explained how the work should be done. To shun situations that might hinder my ability to supervise, I will work hard to have satisfactory communication with staff members. By the same token, when it comes to developing and evaluating, I also feel that my way of bringing up new ideas without listening to others is a negative attitude that will obstruct staff members to express their
Chapter one of Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals opens with one of the most influential traits of what an effective principal should possess, the communication trait. To be successful in any venue in life, you must be able to communicate with people; this is especially true in the education world. Principals are responsible for communicating with people in all walks of life, parents, students, teacher, administrative office personnel and the general public, as an administrator, you must make each of these individuals feel a sense of trust and belonging while communicating with them. Principals use conversations and gesture to build confidence and open lines of communication for learning and growth.
Standard 1 of the Florida Principal Leadership Standards (2011) describe the priority of the school leader as, “effective school leaders demonstrate that the student learning is their top priority through leadership actions that build and support a learning organization focus on student success”. Our number one priority and focus is and always should be our students. They are the reason behind our professions. It is the faculty the ones who should be supported by the administrators. The leaders should celebrate their success, encourage them, support their assertive instructional decisions, and motivate them each day to create the right conditions for learning. The principals must plan to project growth the most accurate possible, employing all the help that they could get for this challenging task. Students should not be affected because qualified teachers are not available. Strategic schools use the resources at had to relocate, and alleviate the human resources problems.
Marzano, R. D. (2009, February). High Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership. Educational Leadership: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development , pp. 62-68.
A Harvard Business Review article (Rosh & Offermann, 2013) states that the first step to being an effective and authentic leader is to build a foundation of self-knowledge. A better understanding of these strengths will unfold, as feedback is received from the individuals tasked with the PAMS assessment. The analysis indicates strengths in the areas of planning, organizing, controlling, and utilization of tools and technology. These strengths are clear and powerful attributes that any manager or leader should possess. The capability of developing a course of action is equivalent to the success in a leadership role; it is from the numerous leaders contained within an organization that plans are derived and subsequently executed and without effective leaders many initiatives would never flourish (DuBois, Koch, Hanlon, Nyatuga, & Kerr,
The School Leadership Team (STT) has a huge responsibility to lead, including instructional coaching duties, and mentoring the new teachers. Parameters were set in place by the principal, offering a clear vision, including clearly-defined values and teachers are becoming empowered through leadership opportunities, which have been devoid in the past. Therefore, I think the leadership style is effective, because the administrator is willing to share the leadership, and I have witnessed firsthand the impact an instructional coach is having on the school, and the individual growth of that coach is becoming immeasurable. 2. The principals current practice is to have her “office” on the go. At the practicum site, there is a spot in the school, which is centrally located at four corners of the building, and this is where the principal can be found during the day, most of the time. She is setup with a cart, her laptop, cell phone and a daily planner, and likes to be out in the building, rubbing shoulders with teachers and kids. I believe the leadership style is effective because the principals mobile cart has created a transparent environment where teachers and scholars can easily interact with the building administrator and the leader is able to accomplish essential tasks while keeping close contact with stakeholders, which contributes to a
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).
Through the interview, it is proven that Fayol’s four functions; Mintzberg’s managerial roles and Katz’s idea of management skills are essential to be part of the manager consideration when making a decision because these theories are able to assist in organisation’s progress. Tracy (2014), suggested “The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance” and this could be reflected in Manager X as he has proven that organisation performance is top priority for him. To make a conclusion on this topic of discussion, a manager duty is to function as a leader of an organisation, a negotiator with the clients, a motivator to the team and the coordinator of the whole organisation’s progress.
When reflecting on my leadership styles, strengths and weaknesses I am rushed with thoughts, memories, regrets and actions of personal ways that I have handled past situations in the work place and ways that I plan to handle new situations at my new work place. I have had many successes with the way I handle my leadership role but there are also things that I wish that I could go back in time and change. The way some situations are handled, I think to myself, well this could have been done differently or I could have done this instead of what I did to enhance the outcome of the situation. There is always room for improvement in whatever job or task someone takes on and this is just one of those things. During the development of my PLAP, I have had the chance to weigh out my strengths and weaknesses of my leadership and it has been very effective to seeing where improving needs to be met. The plan has also let me evaluate the direction I hope to head in to achieve my leadership goals.
Building Leadership Capacity in Schools by Linda Lambert touched on a number of key ideas. Lambert provided examples from different schools, principals, and her experiences on obtaining and sustaining leadership capacity while developing her character. Lambert points out that to build leadership capacity in schools there should be participation by parents, students, and staff. Also these are the same characteristic as to becoming a great character in society. In this paper I will talk about the staff and there level of participation. Lambert points out that conversation with individuals about their roles as a leader should take place as individuals take on the task of leadership and character development. One key element in the text was the level of participation and degree of skillfulness for leadership capacity while trying to discover your character. Another element in the text that I found key was to break the dependency relationships on staff and the principal. As we work toward building leadership capacity and charcter, it will take time and time is a big factor on building leadership capacity because there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that we would like to do without strategically planning leadership meetings.
I think this is an issue because although I do enjoy motivating others, I need to ensure that I am providing positive feedback, not to forget the negative because as humans there are always certain aspects that we can improve on. I want to ensure that others do not feel criticized or afraid to provide me with constructive criticism on my work ethic and my leadership style itself. Another one of my weaknesses I would say is that I have a tendency to express my views very strongly sometimes coming off as arrogant when I am in a group or leading a project, I want to manage this weakness by ensuring that when I am in a group I immediately ask my other peers for feedback on the statement I just provided because this will allow me to know what their thoughts are and how they view my perspectives. Another one of my weaknesses is I have a hard time accepting change. For example, I need to learn how to cope with change and realize that not everything I engage in or work on will always go my way because others will have different perspectives and they will not necessarily agree with my ideas all the time. I think understanding my weaknesses is important in particular because if I was not aware of these weaknesses then, I would not be able to improve on them in
Thomas Sergiovanni (2015) describes three essential dimensions of leadership as “the heart, head, and hand of leadership.” The heart describes those characteristics within the school leader that reflect personal “beliefs, values, and dreams.” The head of leadership refers to the practice of teaching and educating. The hand of leadership reflects actions taken by school leaders with respect to management behaviors. (p. 5) Within these elements, there is room for personal choice in how leadership is practiced and it is incumbent on new principals to find an individual leadership style that responds to the uniqueness of each school.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 2004) has become the cornerstone of leadership and management wisdom. The habits emphasize personal responsibility and personal leadership. There is challenge in living everyday under the guidance of the habits but there is also great benefit as living the habits can influence everything we do in life. I was introduced to Covey’s seven habits through a one day seminar at my workplace several years ago. I learned some of the terminology and a few of the concepts but never really understood the power of the practical application of the habits. Reading the Covey materials has taught me that life is not about all the tasks that I accomplish but instead about accomplishing the tasks that support what is important to me. Covey has taught me that there are elemental components that are applicable across the many roles that I have in my life. Those universal elements are integrity, vision, discipline, and passion. Embracing these ideas has opened my eyes to the endless applications and benefits of living the seven habits.
Asking many questions is one of the main ways in which a leader can ensure the success of a specific project. Observing and posing questions is vital to the success of a project in that it assists in forming the initial plan. Asking many questions will ensure that all details of the project are discussed and deliberated over before taking any action, thus reducing the amount of potential problems that may arise. In addition, a brainstorming gathering among all team members will get every member to begin considering all aspects of the project, which will result in more creative ideas. (Clark, 1997). Team members who take part in the each phase, including the planning and finding the resolution, will be more likely to work hard until completion.
It takes a knowledge base and an innovated mind to succeed in a competitive society. Preparing to succeed starts in early education programs where students learn discipline, structure, and organization in a safe learning environment. A teacher's positive relationship, high expectations and confidence in students allow for students to learn in an environment that is conducive for learning. Varied student activities and instructional methods arranged for students to engage in, allows for individuality, growth and a quality education. School administrators have an important role in their community. Their professional behavior must be respected and their leadership must be accepted by those that they serve. They follow the National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NAESP/NASSP) ethical code of behavior. This ethical code helps to assist the profession in protecting those deserving its protection. It also helps to raise the confidence and conscience of administrators on behavioral issues. Fundamental ethical principles are always present to guide administrators in confronting, predicting or defining situations. The administrator serves in a public school. He/she is responsible for providing educational opportunities to all and displaying exemplary professional leadership. The motivational factor for the educational administrators is to do what is best for the student. This is important because students are the future of our country.
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