Educational Leadership Reflection

Introduction

This paper explains a reflective account of Leadership and Management Theory with respect to Education. The scope of the paper will revolve around critical evaluation of the author’s abilities coupled with the quality of using them as a leader, an assessment of role of other administrative stakeholders of education and analysis of various forms of leadership models. They advance the mutual relationship between education management and education leadership to the point of establishing the right balance. The author through the help of some of the models addressed has gained a better understanding of Leadership and Management Theory in Education and this has shaped him into better leader as evaluated below. In fact, evaluation of roles of other leaders appreciates different approached employed by different managers with the sole purpose of using education as the agent of bringing development in the society (McCaffery, 2018).

My qualities and abilities as a leader

Self-belief

An effective principal should have unwavering belief in oneself and this evokes conviction and integrity in dispensing duties. This quality does not hold back one from trying out new ideas in the plight for change. Effecting change may be difficult based on the fear of imminent initial failure and the tasking responsibility of bringing together constitutive assets of a project then running it thereafter. That aside, this quality ensures that one remains steadfast and on course even when faced with difficult situations. I did not hesitate to seek for support from donors, relevant connections and look from within for motivation when challenged with problems. One source of strength and motivation is the conviction to the discipline and the promise of improving welfare of students under my care. The conviction in itself is a sense of purpose and as such a drive. Such levels of confidence is described as infectious and effective in part as it offers clarity with separation of emotion from decision making and constantly reminding me of objectives of project at hand (Adams& Velarde, 2018). Another important aspect of self-belief is resilience. Incessancy helped me get back on my feet any time I was overwhelmed by previous tasks; and was highly dependent on belief of that one’s strengths and abilities can catapult him or her to better position despite downfall.

My Willingness to learn

Fostering collaboration with staff to build teaching and learning relationships is prerogative of a good principal. It represents reciprocity of flow of knowledge in so far as Principal- Staff and Principal-student relationships are concerned. The whole of school community is active in contribution to knowledge repository and are motivated (Kok & McDonald, 2017). As a good leader, I was therefore expected to be cognizant of many leadership skills. The consistency, fairness and soundness of my decisions echoed virtues. Ability to offer such kind of judgments prove that I am up to date with skills of fundamental professional leadership, contribute to growing knowledge of this profession and take time to know what peers have learnt in their experience. This is an important phase of professional growth and other principals take it upon themselves to develop such learning tools. I have adopted various steps of growth of incremental learning from personal, peer-organized discussions, local principal forums (Gkorezis, 2016).

Support and Guidance

I understood that success of the school depended on ultimate well-being of staff in all spheres of their lives. As such, maintaining a measured level of care among them is important. The nature of relationship is pegged on my ability to tell their needs and follow through with appropriate mitigating steps. As the manager of a school, I ensured that I recognized presence of staff, sought to know their status and take an initiative based on how they felt. Empathy ensures mutual understanding and improves production through better relationships at work. Understanding well-being of staff improves trust which in turn encourages teamwork. Also, I took it upon myself to guide willing and capable junior staff on the workings of leadership. Such mentorship programs tap into the potential of different staff irrespective of level of administration they oversee (Harling, 2018). The output of their services is thereby enhanced. Such programs must include all stakeholders of the school since they play important roles in the school. Support is not limited to mentorship alone but appropriate allocation of resources, in tandem with spirit and objectives of the institution, to provoke high productivity (Harris & DeFlaminis, 2016). Support and guidance thus foster better relationships which directly sustains leadership.

Setting and upholding moral compass

I faced the challenge of maintaining a community with different members of the society. The general guideline is to narrow the spaces in moral, academic, religious, traditional, cultural and economic aspect of students’ lives for harmonious co-existence. It is was my moral obligation to help students get personal fulfillment to be a blessing to themselves, the school and community and beyond. I insisted on partnerships and arrangements founded on principles of openness, respect for one another and trust. Communities found on trust have better dispute resolving mechanisms where they can be noted and solved amicably. I mustered the skill of wading through complex ethical and cultural conundrums to rest them as soon they came up. This moral commitment should not be limited to students alone but should help in spear-heading professional growth of peer leaders and staff under ones care. Here too, the underlying principles of trust and mutual respect must be observed (Ololube et al., 2015).

Role of leaders and managers in educational setting and different models of leadership

Since the choosing of models of leadership is a preserve of leaders and managers in education as used in this context, the roles addressed thus will be the models: the need to succeed in a given role is premised on their selection in part. As such, leadership models are linked with leadership styles. Note that this field of study has seen changes in tags chronologically; from educational administration, to educational management and currently stands at educational leadership (Rooney et al., 2019). Models in this paper are based on four elements of concept of structure, most explicit choice of strategy, environmental input and level of agreement on aims to be achieved (Torrance & Humes, 2015). As done below, an educational management model is discussed and the most appropriate leadership styles mentioned alongside to go with it.

Cultural Model of Educational Management

Members hold dear elements of ideology, rituals, traditions, values, norms, attitudes, symbols, beliefs and ideas. Based on these, they evaluate their behaviors and those of their colleagues. These elements are very important to such institutions and their members. It is important that perspectives of members are included in structure of institution and what it stands for. The most appropriate leadership style to implement this management model with is moral leadership. This lays emphasis on all elements that define Cultural Model management. Other authors have referred to it as spiritual leadership (Weiner, S. G. 2017), poetic leadership (Manning, 2017), authentic leadership (Muller et al., 2017) and ethical leadership (Shcherbakova et al., 2016). Mr Dennis is a former principal at Kingsbury High inLondon and his fatherly guidance involves taking time out of his schedule to give insightful teachings to all members of the school community, always done in turns. This tradition begun with his posting at the school.

Ambiguity model of Educational Management

According to empirical study by Cohen and March, focusing on universities in USA, this model is the main model therein and continued that garbage can viewpoint was advanced as a result. Rational process that is commonly employed in formal models of management was rejected here. The name garbage can that was coined depicts the decision making process where all kind of dirt are thrown in (literature is littered with all manner of problems and solutions) (Weiner, 2017). This is rightly used due to incoherent and inconsistent mixing of solutions and problems, type, nature and quality of source; and opportunity choices. From these four factors, we understand that classification majors on lack of clear picture of objectives in the institution, confusion ,chaos, complication in operation of institution, inconsistency in results and operations and loose coupling of staff. As a result of confusion and chaos, the most preferred leadership style is contingency style. It revolves around evaluating ensuing phenomena and reacting promptly rather than focusing on one method to address all problems (Black, 2015). Mr. Aubier is a mathematics teacher at Dublin High and his second grade class cannot keep up with the many mathematical concepts. Poor performance has prompted him to both attempt as many questions as possible and tinker with concepts until a “sensible answer” is obtained or logical flow is established while at it.

Subjective Model of Educational Management

Organizational aims and guidelines tend to be suppressed here as emphasis is made on views and intuitions of steering authority in an institution instead of groups. Here, the concept of an institution is changed from the usual entity that is already tabled to operate solely according to objectives that have been fixed in the past: And modeled around complex set-ups whose successes and failures are as a result of interplay of members’ beliefs, cultures and behaviors. External factors as not significant to this model and are disregarded (Manning, 2017). Closely related to this model in context of education management are emotional and post-modern styles. The latter was advanced more recently and is characterized by language incapability to show reality, emphasis on several meanings and notable attention to diversity. The former style motivates leader to rely on guidelines other than fixed facts. Note however, that it is important to quality performance and longer tenure sustainability when executed well (Amaral et al., 2015). As a principal, of all models, I prefer this method partly because I am a conservative person and because it gets things done.

Political Model of Educational Management

This model assumes that educational policies used and associated decisions made heavily depend on the concept of continuous lobbying by interest groups by establishing alliances and instituting understandings that achieve such objectives. It is heavily dependent on concept of political leadership power play. Conflicts are common happenings. Most power is not necessarily wielded by the institution leader but by factions that have the most leverage. In some papers, application of this model in context of educational administration is called Micro-politics. The concept of power as one of the important constitutive elements of this model can be explained as personal power, actual custody of resources, wielding control over expertise, positional power and coercive power. Other power may be physical power and power to influence boundaries. The most appropriate leadership style here is transactional leadership. It relies on exchange of resources to gain some advantage. This style of leadership stands out as reputable in the wording of members (Shcherbakova et al., 2016). In the University of Southampton, tussle between chair of department of mechanical engineering and some lecturers has caused split between staff.

Collegial Model of Educational Management

It is based on discussion of matters at hand, arguing out points and making agreements. Some or all members in a given field can be said to be sharing power based on the process of making decisions. Distributed and transformational as well as participative styles are commonly used with this model. Participative style also called collegial style gives members a chance to make decisions. Distributed leadership focuses on expertise rather than ranking of members when solving problems and does not hesitate to high skilled members who are low ranking; to solve sensitive matters which would have otherwise been a preserve for top level management (Muller et al., 2017). Transformational style underscores the significance of dedication and expertise to success of an institution. Therefore, ability and personal investment into operation of an organization are important when this leadership style is preferred over others (Endres& Weibler, 2017). North London collegiate is performing well because the imposed collegial model of education where all staff feel appreciated and heard.

Formal Model of Educational Management

This model is defined by bureaucracy, rationale, systems and structures in administration (Buckmiller et al 2016). It is noteworthy that an assumption of hierarchy is made and that at the time of running of an institution, aims and objectives have already been made. The mere position of administrators vests power on them and with that, are charged with responsibility of overseeing operation of establishments they manage. They take both pride in success and blame of failure of the institution. Leadership style most appropriate in this context is management style. Rationality and concentration of tasks are key. One special thing is that unlike other leadership styles, management fully concentrates on overseeing functional operation of an institution and is not largely mandated with innovating structure of the same (Horton, 2017). This is the most common Model pegged on bureaucracy and its workings. It is used in majority of businesses and schools that are formed for this purpose.

Conclusion

This paper notes an evaluation of the author’s approved skills and qualities that help with educational management. They have been discussed as willingness to learn, moral uprightness, self-belief and guidance and support. They have been discussed to depict management ideals of the author. The second part of the paper assessed management models and their associated leadership styles and their use in different context of educational management settings. The only leadership style that does not demand vision from the manager is formal model. Collegial Model appreciates all members of staff by actually listening to their input before taking a stand. Ambiguity model appreciates confusion in execution of leadership style and is likened to garbage can. Cultural model is reliant on beliefs and norms of members and subjective model adopts an individual member’s belief in a conceptual analysis that is subjected to changing interpretation of members’ objectives rather than institution tradition. Political model is highly associated with lobbying and leveraging. All the six models and their accompanying leadership styles equip the author with an array of methods that may help him solve problems in school and become a better manager.

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