Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Distributed Leadership for teacher leadership, Word count = 887 - Coggle…
Distributed Leadership for teacher leadership
Principal as leader of leaders
: not rendered redundant but possessing role that becomes one of holding the institution's pieces together in a productive relationship (Haris and Muijs,2003)
TRUST: Lieberman, Saxl & Miles (as cited in Grant,et al, 2010) As ‘leader of leaders’, their responsibility is that of building a school culture established on trust
Advantages
: Distributed leadership results in increased influence in instructional leadership from formal leaders.
Disadvantages
: because the role of principal is an official one, it is important that those entrusted with unofficial roles understand that it is the principal who is accountable to all. According McBeath (as cited in Grant, 2010)
TRUST
implies responsibility and accountability, some teachers may act as they please and disregard the trust entrusted them.
However, without trust a school will be subjected to what McGregor, (1956) refers to as theory X evidenced in management’s belief that members dislike their work and have little motivation, consequently using an authoritarian style of management. A very hands on approach involving the micromanagement of people's work to ensure that it gets done properly. Authority is rarely delegated, and power remains centralized.
Emotional Intelligence
: Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize emotions in one's self and in others, to understand their causes and effects, and to manage emotions effectively to suit a goal or situation.(Salovey & Mayer, 1990).
Graven (as cited in Grant,et al, 2010) suggests emotional maturity which informs the school management capacity to admit when they do not know something. And the ability to correspond with the necessary human resource from the professional community.
Teacher professional Communities/ Networks
: Fullan (as cited in DeMarco, 2018) asserts that building collective capacity among school leaders and teachers through teacher communities sets the conditions for sustained innovation and risk-taking which improves the quality of student learning.
Monitoring and support
: Support from the school management team is critical as it leads to effective teacher leadership, Magee (as cited in Harris & Muij, 2003)
Mentoring and support can work to improve teacher
self-efficacy
which is attributed to the way teachers perceive their ability or mastery. According to Bandura (as cited in DeMarco, 2018) the best way to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy is through mastery experiences.
Gatto (2002). “Networks provide mechanical solutions to human problems, when a slow organic process of self-awareness, self-discovery, and cooperation is what is required if any solution is to stick… School Networks do great harm by appearing enough like real communities to create expectations that they can manage human social and psychological needs. The reality is that they cannot.”
Barriers to teacher leadership
Organisational barriers
:Top down leadership models dominating most schools today, (Harris & Muijs, 2003)
Lack of formalized roles prove to be a barrier to meaningful teacher leadership, Boles (cited in Harris & Muijs, 2003)
Professional Barriers
: Between teacher leaders and non volunteers or between formal leaders and subordinates as a result of accountability.
Lieberman et al(as cited in Harris & Muij, 2003) explains how volunteer teacher leaders may be made to feel excluded
McBeath (as cited in Grant,et al, 2010) highlights how management may be perceived as barriers as a consequence of the risk in building a culture of trust while accountability remains under formal leadership roles. Because formal school leaders are charged with the full weight of accountability they become unwilling to redeploy power to teachers in fear of inadequate performance
Structural barriers
: According to Harris and Muijs (2003) these are barriers that hinder teachers from working outside their subject areas. Their removal works to ensure that there are opportunities for teachers to collaborate outside their subject areas.
Communiation
:According to Harris and Muijs (2003) communication between teachers working together regularly works as an indicator of school health
Opportunites
Senior lecturer delegates internal marking supervision and chief moderation to a subordinate lecturer
Senior delegates exam timetable organisational duties to subordinate lecturers.
Same level lecturers are given the opportunity to perform class visits and assist each other as peers.
Collaborations
: Little (as cited in Harris and Muijs, 2003) maintains that collaborative relationships between teachers and school management teams work to allow new ideas and teacher leadership to spread and impact the school as a whole.
Curriculum development
: According to Harris and Muijs (2003) collaborative efforts relating to curriculum development are encouraged as they are an important activity of teacher leadership. Some teachers are assisted to fully understand their curriculum.
Challenges
: According to DeMarco (2018), a common criticism of distributive leadership is that leadership can be too disjointed and as a result, poor communication between leaders and limited efficiency becomes the school theme. This must be carefully monitored as communication was a significant predictor for teachers with 4–14 years of experience.
Building policy
: Allows subordinates ownership of initiative as they personally choose what matters enough to be specified in policy.
According to Harris and Muijs (2003) teacher leadership has implications on policy and if introduced well, teacher leadership will positively affect teacher professionalism, recruitment, retention and performance.
Nurturing a culture of success
: Stone et al maintains that educators are most likely to assume informal leadership roles if there exist a culture of shared leadership in the institution.
Lieberman, Saxl & Miles (as cited in Grant, et al, 2010) hold the view that sharing in decision-making authority is enabled and safeguarded by cultures of support and collaboration.
Word count = 887