Educational Leadership Comprehensive Exam - Educational Leadership Essay

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Educational Leadership

Comprehensive Exam - Educational Leadership

Theoretical and conceptual knowledge

There is increasing interest in educational leadership in this current century. This can be attributed to the belief that making differences in the educational sector and impacting student outcomes requires quality leadership. All over the world, there is increased recognition of the need of schools to have effective and efficient leaders and mangers in order to provide quality education to students. In addition to this, stakeholders in the education sector such as the government and private institutions are continuing to embrace the idea of human resources being their major asset in ensuring they stay competitive in the sector. Therefore they need to have a highly skilled workforce that is well trained and motivated to impart knowledge to the learners. However, these teachers also need highly effective leadership from the senior and middle-level managers. Educational leadership is thus a very important field in ensuring that educational institutions meet their set goals and objectives.

Educational leadership is largely a pluralist field. This means that there are many competing interests in schools and the practices in schools differ greatly. As stated by Bush (2007)

, educational leadership is not just a branch of the management field. It is a highly specialized field of leadership and management that draws on the qualities of the education field and thus in nature is contextualized. Educational leadership focuses on the key goal or education that is to impart knowledge to the students. Therefore it focuses on this goal which applying other principles of management that have been tried and tested years before.

The senior level management of the organization often sets the goals and objectives of educational institutions. In most cases, these are the principal and the trustees or board members, who are the governing body of the school. The roles of these stakeholders who set the goals and objectives of the schools are not mutually exclusive. Rather they complement each other. The senior level management of the school thus focuses on the external and internal pressures of the school such as legislation, expectations from the government and the general public, and expectations of the students and teachers in order to deliver goals that reflect their views and needs. A key issue in developing of goals and objectives as identified by Bush (2007)

is that the senior management faces the challenge of modifying government regulations and policy in order to meet the needs of other stakeholders such as the learners and teachers.

Concepts and theories in educational leadership

The concepts of educational leadership and educational management are presented in different ways. While there is an overlap in the two terminologies, it is thought that educational leadership is linked with times of change within the institution while management is an everyday activity that maintains the educational institution. The author also presents the case for the importance of leadership and management in the success of the organization Cuban, 1988()

Another definition of the concepts of leadership and management is presented by Bush (1998)Day, Harris, and Hadfield (2001)

who in their study of effectiveness of twelve schools created a discussion for the dilemmas in school management and leadership. One of the identified dilemmas relates to how management is linked to effectiveness and efficiency of systems while leadership is focused on motivation and development of the members of the institution.

builds on this and states that leadership is linked to the values or mission of the organization while management is involved with the day-to-day technical and implementation issues in the organization.

There are many theories that can be used in defining and conceptualizing educational leadership. These can be divided into nine categories as defined by Bush (2003)

. These are managerial, participative, transformational, interpersonal, transactional, post-modern, contingency, moral and instructional.

Managerial theories

According to Caldwell (1992)

who argue that managers and leaders in schools are involved in an iterative process of setting goals, identifying needs, setting priorities, planning, budgeting, implementation and evaluation. From these two definitions, the important factor to note is that managerial leadership theories do not focus on vision which is a key component of most other leadership theories. Leithwood, Jantzi, and Steinbach (1999)

, managerial leadership requires leaders to focus on functions, behaviors and tasks in order to facilitate success of the organization. This is similar to the definition provided by Blake and Mouton present one managerial theory and state that educational leadership is a form of managerial grid. The authors identify two dimensions of orientation of leaders as being focused on either productivity (task orientation) or people (relationship orientation).

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According to the authors, they state that there are five leadership styles that emerge from this grid. These are country club leadership where leaders place more emphasis on the relationships that exist in the organization compared to emphasis on production. The second is authority obedience where they emphasize on power, authority and control and third is impoverished management where the leaders do the bare minimum required to maintain their jobs. The fourth style is non-management of the organization whereby the leaders strive to maintain status quo and go along with anything that is said or done in order to keep their jobs. The last is team management where they emphasize a high concern for both production and interpersonal relationships.

Participative leadership theories

According to Sergiovanni (1984)

, who states that participative leadership strengthens interpersonal bonds between staff, management and the learners and improves learning outcomes, points out a key theme. Leithwood et al. (1999)

, participative leadership theories assume that decisions made in the institution should be made collectively by involving all players. The other assumptions that are common in these theories are that increased participation will increase the effectiveness of the school, justifies democratic principles and that leadership is available to any legitimate stakeholders.

One important participative leadership theory is that developed by Barth who states that leaders should be servants and should participate in building effective learning communities. They do this through coaching, influence and empowering learners. The author states that when the leader in a school creates a plan of action that is developed in collaboration with the members of staff, the plan becomes easy to implement and has the end results of attainment of goals and high motivation of staff members.

The theory developed by Bennis complements that of Barth by arguing that activities such as planning, organizing and monitoring should be done together with the staff. This will lead to greater attention to goals and increased trust, which increases the commitment of staff members to the vision of the leader.

Transformational leadership theories

Caldwell and Spinks (1992)

who state that for transformational leadership to succeed, there is need to gain the commitment of subordinates or followers through participatory activities support this. Leithwood et al. (1999)

and Leithwood (1994)

creates a conceptual framework for transformational leadership that is based on eight key themes. These are building the vision of the school, establishing the goals and objectives, providing stimulation at an intellectual level, modeling of best practices and values, creating expectations of high performance, creating a productivity-oriented culture and fostering participation in decision-making.

Though transformational leadership theories can be thought to be similar to participative leadership theories, there are inherent differences. One is that transformational leadership requires actions at all levels and not just participation in decision-making. This means that principals need to incorporate the staff members in management of physical, financial and human resources. Secondly, in transformational leadership theories, the stakeholders are engaged in the attainment of educational objectives. This is done through charismatic and heroic activities on the part of the leader that raise the leader's power to influence educational outcomes and not just direct them.

One key theory of transformational leadership is that presented by Blanchard (1989)

who state that leaders involve their followers in identifying and addressing challenges within the educational institution by empowering them to share in needs assessment, prioritization and decision-making. This theory is also supported by Conger's theory, which states that leaders attempt to influence others to pursue the established goals and objectives by establishing relationships with those in the organization and creating sufficient gains to their commitment. Leaders also empower their followers to acquire knowledge about situations towards the success of the organization.

Interpersonal leadership theories

Interpersonal leadership theories place emphasis on relationships between people in the organization as the key vessels for success, as presented by Brewer, Ainsworth and Wayne, leaders cannot function alone, they require help from other members of the school and the relationships between the leader and the teachers define the success in achieving set goals and objectives. Another theory as posited by Green which presents 13 characteristics of nurturing schools also presents the importance of relationships between teachers, students, and the management in the success of the school.

Transactional leadership theories

Transactional leadership theories focus on the relationship between teachers and leaders being based on exchange of resources. Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2011(Miller and Miller (2001)

define transactional leadership argue that through….....

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