Leadership is a theme that is prevalent in the current
discourse of education and teacher professionalism. Leaders can be defined as, by the Oxford Dictionary Online as “the
person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country”. In education,
leaders were considered to be individual who were promoted to a ‘leadership
role’ such as Head of Department or Senior Leader. This view is changing as the
notion of teacher leadership takes hold, but in this post I will consider the
skills, attitudes and dispositions needed for more traditional leadership
roles.
Leaders in promoted leadership roles will
take account of the Standard for Leadership and Management, which includes both
the Standard for Middle Leadership and the Standard for Headship. This standard
lays the foundations for professionalism and challenges in promoted leadership roles,
which is required by all middle leaders and head teachers, and supports leaders
to consider continuous improvement for themselves and the whole school
community. The Standard for Leadership and Management, as with the other
standards, is underpinned by the themes of professional values, sustainability
and leadership. Professional values are demonstrated through all of our
professional relationships and practices and is at the core of professional
leadership.
Leaders
must remember that policy is “both a product and process” Bell and Stevenson
(2006), that helps guide the development of both curriculum and staff capacity
to allow the school to deliver a quality experience for students. Policy
development is a “product of compromise, negotiation, dispute and struggle”
Bell and Stevenson (2006), and leaders have to maintain an
overview of both the product in the curriculum provision, to allow pupils to
achieve their potential and also the process to allow staff ownership of the
curriculum they teach.
To
be a successful school leader, leaders need to take into account opposing views
on the purposes of education from all stakeholders and produce a coherent and
workable solution. This involves developing, managing and interpreting policy
for the school community and then supporting its implementation through
colleagues.
School leaders are
challenged to support their community to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values
and practices needed to take decisions which are compatible with a sustainable
future in a just and equitable world. Each pupil as an individual, should be
given opportunities to enhance their talents and strengths, and to skill
themselves for the global marketplace into which they will emerge. It is the
leaders’ responsibility to make sure that there is a multi-agency approach to
reaching this goal. Along with the autonomy within the local authority setting,
leaders are accountable to the stakeholders, especially the students, for
providing opportunities for excellent learning experiences leading to attainment
and achievement.
Leaders
are also challenged to engage in partnership working that benefits their
learnings and their learning community. Head teachers and middle leaders supported
through the Standard for Leadership and Management foster collegiate working
and deploy coaching and mentoring as appropriate to develop leadership capacity
in others.
Successful leaders
need to continue to seek improvement in their own skills and abilities. A
report entitled ‘Decoding leadership: What really
matters’ suggests that there are some common leadership traits that correlate
to successful leadership. These are;
Solving problems effectively – problem solving through
gathering and analysing the impact of pieces of information leads then to
decision making.
Operating with a strong results orientation: in an education context this means keeping a
focus on pupil attainment and achievement.
Seeking different perspectives – this means
involving the community and then making informed decisions to achieve the best
experiences for students. As Fullan (2001) states “Effective leaders
listen attentively—you can almost hear them listening”.
Supporting others – by
building trust and inspire others to improve student outcomes.
If
all of this seems daunting them perhaps it can be simplified into the
statement;
‘Leaders need a telescope and a microscope’
The
telescope allows school leaders to see future opportunities and the microscope
help to focus on the day to day needs of the community.
Bibliography
Barton, A, Grant, A, & Horn M. (2012) Leading in the 21st century: Six global leaders confront the personal and professional challenges of a new era of uncertainty.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/leading_in_the_21st_century
Collins,
J. (2001). Good to Great. New York: Harper Collins.
Hendricks,
C. Blog post: The role of the teacher should be privileged over any leadership
role:http://chronotopeblog.com/2016/01/24/the-role-of-teacher-should-be-privileged-over-any-leadership-role/
Feser,
C. Mayol, F & Srinivsan, R. (2105) Decoding leadership: What really matters
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/decoding_leadership_what_really_matters
Fullan,
M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.
No comments:
Post a Comment