Education Management
and School Leadership
The concept of educational leadership
has emerged with the rapidly changing dynamics of education in schools. Schools
that were just confined to textbook teaching, awarding degrees or certificates
have turned into leading organizations and knowledge warehouses. The
understanding that the quality of leadership makes a notable difference to the
school, has made educational management and school leadership synonymous to
each other. Trained and dedicated teachers are the building blocks of a school
nevertheless effective leadership is the axis of quality education. An
effective school can nurture growth, learning, creativity, optimism, curiosity,
conscientiousness etc., owing to the consistency of a positive and assertive
leader. This leader does not only change variables inside the school but also
outside, in the society, combating the prevalent challenges supporting the
widespread belief of society being congruent to school. Effective school leadership
can manage and tackle all the emerging issues. To a great extend, the
reformatory approach accepted by the leader chaperons the change.
While earning a degree in the field of
education, a teacher is imparted subject specific knowledge. Little do the designers
of the curriculum realize that the need is related to the interaction and
interpersonal relations with society, parents, students, and all other
stakeholders, notwithstanding the fact to include life skills to impart and
equip the students with it. Now the question of an ideal school arises, along
with effective learning practices. The Gareth Morgan1 model of
school organization (though apparently obsolete) still exists with a few
reforms. Out of the three models i.e. Bureaucracy,
Social Systems or Community, no model can be claimed to
be the best one. Bureaucratic organizations transfer authority from one person
to a committee, maintain extensive records of students academic work and
behavior, while exercising external control over classroom teaching. Values
that sweep through this model are efficiency, controlled supervision and
regularity. As there is a defined
hierarchy hence there are clear and uniform methods. The Systems Theory
practices the concept of feedback for self regulation and yielding a product.
Systems theory thrives on the value of cooperation with a human touch of
collegiability and flexible roles. The third and the most important model is
Communitarian, based on the values of care and concern for others well being.
Every member of the school is approachable regardless of status.
Leading is an active process and
leadership is multidimensional. Potential leaders recognize, analyse, assess
and then act. However, this carrot needs to be nibbled fast as minutes spent
planning can save hours while execution. The shift in the role from a ‘boss’ to
‘coach’ fulfils the present leadership style. Before discussing about the
leadership styles and roles, it is imperative to build a leader within by
initiating, coordinating, communicating ,recognizing, resolving and most
importantly building a team. The study of leadership and group dynamics states
about a “Team Development Wheel’’, which has four stages. Stage one refers to “forming” indicating polite, impersonal,
watchful and guarded behaviour. The second stage shifts to “storming’’ denoting difficulties, opting out, controlling conflicts
and confronting people. “Norming” is
the third stage moving towards getting organized , developing skills,
establishing procedures, giving feedbacks and confronting issues. The fourth
and the final dimension is “performing”,
relating to resourcefulness, flexibility, being close and supportive.
In fact, from a veteran to a novice, leadership
styles may differ as needed. The leader will have to be justified in selecting
the style. In situational leadership, it is known as Directive behaviour and Supportive
behaviour. Directive behaviour concentrates on ‘what’ and ‘how’. It involves
telling and showing people what to do, how to do it, when to do it, monitoring
performance and providing feedbacks on results. It also develops confidence in
others. Supportive behaviour focuses on developing an individual’s commitment
and initiative. It develops positive attitude towards the goal or task.
Listening, facilitating, self reliant problem solving, encouraging and
involving others in decision making are a few examples of this style. By
placing these two styles on a horizontal and vertical axis, four combinations
of leadership styles emerge from it. Style one ‘Directing’ consists of High Directive behavior and Low Supportive
behavior. In this, the leader provides specific instruction about achieving
goals. He supervises closely, the individual’s performance and by defining,
teaching, showing, planning, prioritizing and monitoring, the task is
accomplished. The feedback further reinvents the goal. The second style stated
is High Directive and High Supportive, also termed as ‘Coaching’. Here, the leader explains decisions, solicits
suggestions from the individuals, praises progress and continues to direct task
accomplishment. Though individual inputs are considered but the final say is of
the leader. By sharing feedback, encouraging and redirecting, the task is taken
to the next level. According to Leadership and Group Dynamics2, the
third style is ‘Supporting’, Low
Directive and High Supportive category, in which the leader reassures,
collaborates and facilitates self reliant problem solving. Style four is ‘Delegating’, which is a combination of
Low Directive and Low Supportive behaviour. The leader empowers the individual
to act independently and provides the appropriate resources to get the job done.
Here, most of the decisions are made by the individual. In all four styles, the
leader, clarifies expectations and goals, observes and monitors performance and
gives feedback.
Giving and receiving feedback is an art
of communication through which the future course of action is determined lest
it should be offered in a manner that is acceptable and useful to the receiver.
An atmosphere of cooperation in a collective undertaking can make the feedbacks
productive. When providing feedback, it should be descriptive and non
judgmental. Also it is observed that it should be provided close to the event
so as to maintain its preciseness. Giving feedback is meaningful only when that
person is willing to relate to it and change the phenomena. Formulating
feedback in specific rather than general terms, will give optimum results. On
the other hand, while receiving feedback, the subject can help the observers by
encouraging them to express their observations. The observers’ comments are
best understood by linking them to specific events that occurred. Also mutual
understanding and cooperation can help construct a healthy learning environment.
Principal as a leader has to play myriad
roles. This might sound exigent however the accountability defines the position.
Beginning from transportation, health, faculty, finance to capacity building,
public relations or community service, the principal is the link, balancing
between the staff and the management, in possession of massive responsibilities.
This leadership is educational leadership, meaning thereby, working through and
with individuals. So, the school administrator is an initiator, who works laboriously to accomplish simple and complex tasks.
He presents well organized plans and is someone who is self-motivated,
perceiving details in their proper perspective and organizing them into
meaningful plans and programmes. He is a
recognizer, who identifies the
strengths and weakness of the subordinates and pushes them to prove their
potential. He takes an insightful
approach while dealing with his team. By recognizing them, their problems,
thinking, bent and ability, he builds a successful team and never stirs up the
hornet’s nest. Facilitative leadership
also comes into play here. The care, concern and helpful nature enables him to
gain trust of his team, which helps the team both professionally and
personally. As a facilitator, he
creates a permissive, accepting and understanding environment in the school by
sorting out the problems faced by staff members, ranging from diagnosis to
prognosis.
Considering the educational programmes
and evaluation practices, Bloom stated: “The main purpose of formative
evaluation is to determine the degree of mastery of a given learning task and
to pinpoint the part of the task not mastered. Summative evaluation is directed
towards a much more general assessment of the degree to which the larger
outcomes have been attained.” Hence, the principal becomes an instructional leader. Finding facts, gathering data, interpreting, generating
instructions for guidance and immaculate working ascertains progress. Looking
at communication and its various facets, it becomes the greatest source to
convince. The leader should be an effective
speaker, one who can do impressive public speaking to turn the chimes into
his favour. Besides, conveying opinions candidly casts an imprint in the mind
of the public that the school is in safe hands. Overcoming the conjectures and
hearsays, the school administrator is also a coordinator. He takes the responsibility to coordinate with all of
the human resource in school. He encourages people to participate in policy
development and planning. The concept of ‘loose’ supervision could be a better
idea as he may be aware of the happenings around but does not constantly impose
his will in everything. The leader is a financial
leader also, with the basic
responsibility of reviewing the accounts. As each bill passes through his palm,
he needs to possess an eye of accuracy to keep the expenses under control, as,
if the finances go wrong, the repercussions are disastrous. Most well defined
role of the principal is being a curriculum
leader. Though the senior school
curriculum is well defined and well designed, yet the leader has to ensure the
effective implementation of the same by constant supervision and follow-up. To
make certain, the levels of learning to rise, he must adopt innovative
pedagogical styles and evaluation methods. Being a social leader is the need of the hour for a school administrator.
Establishing the congruence between man and society by stating that society is
to man what man is to society, is true here. Social obligations are to be fulfilled
to a great extend as the leader is quite dependable, consistent in his
disposition and courteous. Social interaction will expand his horizons of
understanding the prevailing status of society. Consequently, understanding the
child psychology, which makes him a counsellor.
He can judge countenances and differentiate between feign and genuine. He can
guide and motivate students for being high achievers. Ethical leadership is vital for society’s survival. Receding values
in youngsters make it more essential to be taught in the school. The leader
through his talks in the assembly or group interactions can trickle the moral
values in the nascent minds. Achievement
leadership is another jewel in the crown of a leader. Setting challenging goals, both in
work and in self-improvement (sometimes together) is it’s descriptor. High
standards are demonstrated and expected. The leader shows faith in the
capabilities of the follower to succeed. This approach is best when the task is
complex. Last but the most important of all is Visionary leadership1. Of
course, if the leader has a strong vision, democratic style of leadership will
work well to generate fresh ideas to execute that vision. To explore the
potential forces or to restructure effectiveness, astute leadership quality
will always be the discernible force. Be it institutional planning, competency
enrichment or translation of vision into mission, an outstanding leader will
never lose the sight of his purpose. Explicit knowledge of Mission and Vision will
ensure its effective fulfillment. Visionary leader motivates people by making
clear to them how work fits into a larger vision for the organization,
explaining them all the standards to achieve it and move towards the grand
mission. If the authority shares it strongly with the team, associate,
affiliate and assign tasks to the members by identifying their strengths,
vision can be converted into mission. Faculty meetings play an imperative role
in the accomplishment of mission. They are concerned directly with feedback,
whether positive or negative, their professional growth and need along with
skilful orientation. Solutions to specific problems are deliberated and discussed.
If the agenda of meeting is given prior, the faculty can come prepared,
eliminating the unnecessary and focusing on the vital factors of reflection. The
administrator, in this situation can adopt a coaching, democratic or
authoritative style of leadership. A leader being fluid and lucid can fit into
any style. They are exquisitely sensitive to the impact they are having on
others and seamlessly adjust their style to get best results, highlighting the
factor of emotional intelligence.
In a nutshell, the leader being an
alchemist can foster transitions with his conscious, consistent and conditioned
manifestations. Association with a higher moral position is motivating and will
result in people following a leader who promotes this. Continuous self development,
commitment, competency and cooperation are the key words of successful school
leadership and education management.
References:-
1. School
administration and management by PVV Satya Narayana
2. Leadership
that gets results- Harvard Business Review
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