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Leadership theories as they relate to education
Brief Essay on Leadership Styles
Brief Essay on Leadership Styles
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Introduction
The objective that I have for this paper is to present the integration and synthesis of at least three grounded theories and conceptual principles of the educational leadership field. Then, according with guidelines, I will compare and contrast those theories by using different authors’ perspectives, to critically analyze the body of knowledge achieved by those principles and explain how those theories in educational leadership add knowledge through the implementation of their premises and the interaction among them in the area of education. Subsequently, I will be selecting one of the theories examined previously and provide details on how the theory may or may not contribute to the understanding of the educational leadership. As part of this process I will include a discussion with disagreements or unanswered questions of the selected postulation.
Literature Review
The use of theories, according to Antoniou (2013), helps researchers organize and use recurring results for the creation of knowledge or conceptual principles. Thus, from the intention to improve the school academic performance and adjust protocols to new circumstances many investigations have been carried out deriving in new theories (Onorato, 2013). For instance, as a consequence of the increasing demands in academic state standards, complex changes in society, school administrators have seen the compelling need to possess other specific characteristics, such as administrative leadership skills in education (Onorato, 2013). Thus, educational theories that embrace organizational learning, school vision, and school leadership styles have been produce and used for that purpose. In the following section I will synthesize some of those theories that I deem...
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Onorato, M. (2013). Transformational leadership style in the educational sector: An empirical study of corporate manager and education leaders. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17(1), 33-47.
Urick, A., & Bowers, A. J. (2013). What are the different types of principals across the United States? A latent class analysis of principal perception of leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0013161X13489019
Velasco, I., Edmonson, S. L., & Slate, J. R. (2012). Principal leadership behaviors and school climate: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Education Research, 6(3), 315-336.
Yoeli, R., & Berkovich, I. (2010). From personal ethos to organizational vision: Narratives of visionary educational leaders. Journal of Educational Administration, 48(4), 451. doi:10.1108/09578231011054716
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.
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).
Marzano, R. D. (2009, February). High Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership. Educational Leadership: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development , pp. 62-68.
Sternberg, R. J. (2013). Perspectives: Leadership Styles for Academic Administrators: What Works When?. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45(5), 24-27.
David T. Conley, Ph.D. a. The. Education - Leadership -. Vol. 66 No.
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).
Gorton, R. A., & Alston, J. A. (2012). School leadership & administration: Important concepts, case studies, & simulations. (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. [Kindle Version] (pp. 1-323).
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...
Before entering the education field, I worked in the nonprofit arena for an educational association over 16 years. I moved through the ranks and ended up as vice president of personnel and special events. The association president believed in training, therefore, I attended many, many workshops aimed at training those promoted to become strong and competent leaders within the organization. It also helped that I was young and anxious to make a successful track record so, I devoured every class that could move me further up the ladder of leadership. Analyzing the standards of The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, suggest that this is an attempt to define what school excellence and successful teaching of students looks like.
In every institution the type of leadership style is important for a successful environment. In order to establish a successful school environment to compete globally, the leader should comprehend the basic leadership theories and styles (Glickman et al., 2010). The cultures at schools are important to the success of the students and overall of the school, but also can be very difficult to establish and maintain without the proper leadership knowledge (Waite, 1995). In United States many schools could be place in the categories of conventional, congenial, or collegial, because the strategies used for their leadership (Glickman et al., 2010).The chosen school could be classified according to different criteria and could be determine in which area their leadership pertains more. In order to analyzed and classify the leadership, it was imperative to observed the way the leader make decisions, the approached with the stakeholders, how the instruction is delivered, and how they realized their job (Marshall, 2005). In this analysis will be identify the category that this school will be, the school climate, the type of supervision and leadership.
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.
My leadership model would keep quality education and its goal as the universal, underlying focus or vision much like the Instructional Leadership Model. Similarly, capable and motivated educators would be sought, curriculum and instruction would be reviewed for effectiveness, training or additional support would be given to develop teachers’ abilities and appropriate, relevant textbooks and supplies would be provided. However, one key departure from the Instructional Leadership Model is th...
York-Barr, J. & K. Duke (2004) what do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of educational research 74(3), 255-316.
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
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