Teachers are classroom leaders. Typically, they respond to situations and context, and manage their class rooms with integrity. They have internalized knowledge of human behaviour, pedagogical practices and group dynamics. They marry curriculum expectations with skills, knowledge and experience.
Once teachers move into leadership roles their jobs have changed. Principal leaders must manage all of the demands of administration: they must chair staff meetings, become system managers and budget specialists. Perhaps the most important aspect of their jobs is as mediators: between teachers, between staff, between parents and staff. They must please a number of their own bosses: all those with a stake in education. Stakeholders demand a great deal of their time. They are pressed between demands above and below. Some days are simply managing their crises.
What is the role you see your principal leader taking?
1. Perhaps as Instructional Leaders, and Program Facilitators?
Expert knowledge enhances the effectiveness of teachers' classroom practices and results in increased student growth.There are 9 Dimensions of Transformational leadership:
- charisma
- goal consensus
- high performance expectations
- individual consideration
- intellectual stimulation
- modelling
- contingent reward
- structuring
- culture building.
2. Do you view the leadership as Transformational Leaders?
These leaders inspire higher levels of commitment and capacity amongst staff. They generate greater effort and productivity to develop a more skilled practice. It increases the capacity of the organization to continuously improve.These leaders have:
3. Are your supervisors Moral Leaders?
These leaders use a system of moral values to guide organization decision making. They increase the sensitivity to the rightness of decisions and facilitate increased participation in decisions. Their decisions are morally justified in democratic schools.
4. Is your management Participative Leaders?
Participative leaders are influenced by interpersonal communications in order to have increased participation in decisions. They have increased capacity of responses, which respond productively to internal and external demands for change. It is a democratic organization.
5. Do you view the leaders in your workplace as Managers, [ boss or a leader ]?
These leaders have positional power and follow policies and procedures. They ensure efficient completion of specified tasks by organization members. They achieve the formal goals of the organization and mange their work through careful attention to checklists.
6. Contingent leaders are situational in that they respond to context.
Their leader behaviours match the goals and result in an increased capacity of he organization to respond to internal and external demands for change. Leaders can change their leadership styles with different employees and in different situations.
More importantly, which works best for you? What do you need in a principal? If you are aspiring to the Principalship, what do you see as the most important qualities of your school leader and how often do you experience these strategies for leadership?
Analyzing the Leadership Behaviour of School Principals
This research paper was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Educational Research conference at Pointe Vedra, Florida on December 1,1999.
The authors compare the leadership behaviours that negatively or positively affect teacher morale and performance. They compared using these classifications: Human Relations, Trust & Decisions, Instructional Leadership, Control and Conflict. I have adapted them into a more positive light.
[ Jennifer Jilks | Articles | Last update: Dec. 16/06]