| This article will discuss three different leadership styles and how they can function within the educational context of a high school environment. The outcome of this article is to raise awareness to the importance to these three different leadership styles.
Descriptions and Examples of Leadership Styles
The moral leadership style promotes the teaching of a values based education in schools. These values promote public good, improve teaching and learning and in general look to benefit all of society. The leader must not show favoritism, not promote a political viewpoint and in a sense take an altruistic world view where he or she puts the interests of others before self. This voice of leadership is a new kind of leadership as it represents the voice of practice which historically has been largely neglected in the traditional school management styles. It has become extremely important to treat all students equally ensuring at all times that the fairness in practices is understood by all concerned.
Examples of such practices are departmental assessment statements. These specifically make it clear to all students and staff how reassessment opportunities for internal assessments are handled. These policy statements ensure fairness for everyone that they effect. The practices reinforce that every action that educators take reinforces the moral values they are teaching. The values can therefore be taught through every aspect of the school culture.
The collaborative leadership style is an internal collaborative partnership between the school leader and staff. The style is a result of values and structures fostered and facilitated by aware and active leaders who promote staff participation in planning, problem solving and decision making. In practice this means establishing a framework of internal and external skills and practices, which take into account the reality of what will actually works in any given situation. This is a shared leadership approach.
Examples of shared practices in the high school environment are the departmental management documents. These documents establish routines procedures, which specify how departmental staff are to work together collectively to meet common goals. The documents are established through staff consultation. The policies expectations are in fact practically possible. Anything that involves the staff in how a department functions will improve the quality of teaching and learning. This is because collective decisions take into account everyone’s input.
The contextual leadership style is defined as a strategy by which directive and supportive behavior can be modified according to the level of development and commitment of the subordinate. This means highly skilled and motivated staff need little direction and support. Whereas a young but keen subordinate will need a lot of direction due to a lack of experience, but low levels of support due to high motivation.
The contextual leadership style is tailored to the events and determines the amount of support required by the individual, or individuals, and is matched in terms of their own personal career development and motivation. In practice what this means in a secondary school is that a department head or school leader must get to know the staff for whom they are responsible. They must ascertain what they are thinking and thereby determine where they want to go. Once this is established the leader can promote the staff member by tailoring the professional development to their needs.
Effective Leadership and the Implications
Effective leadership will provide more time for a school to concentrate on the real issues of improving the teaching and learning outcomes for the students. Delegation is essential to achieve the goals of the school as it is a way of sharing responsibility. It taps into the expertise of the teachers and thereby encourages professional growth. Teachers need to be encouraged to grow professionally according to their own personal expertise. The leadership style that a school community desires will directly impact how well a school functions and how well the students meet their educational goals.
A school needs to become aware and decide what style or combination of styles, best suits its particular educational environment and school community. The real challenge becomes, only if required, how to decide and implement any necessary changes.
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