The Value of Education - Case Study Example

Introduction For effective and successful leadership, more so in the education sector, a transformational approach needs must be followed. The valueof education in any setting cannot be overestimated bearing in mind that it has in most cases served as a catalyst for success. However, educational success is near impossible without the input of educational leaders, for purposes of this paper, educational leaders fall into various categories, these include; principals, guidance counsellors, administrators, and superintendents most of whom interact with learners in a school setting. A school environment should be healthy and progressive in which positive things are likely to happen and negative ones insulated against. In a negative learning environment, change is not only welcome but also disparately wanted since anyone working or living within what they perceive to be hostile or stagnant conditions will be unlikely to be neither productive nor supportive of the institution goals. It is therefore crucial that the intimates of a learning environment feel that they are engaged in realistic and positive pursuits, this can easily be achieved through transformational leadership (Bryant 2003, p.37). A transformational leader will set out to create the most comfortable, accepting, and enabling environment, (Kotlyar and Karakowsky 2006, p.379) geared at the end of the day to increase student and teacher participation self-esteem sense of responsibility. Over the years, educational policy makes have invariably come to assume that successful policy implementation is largely dependent on the quality and character of leaders on the ground particularly at the school level (Brown, Anfara, Hartman, Mahar, &Mills, 2002, p.116). As a result of this assumption which has been empirically and theoretically found to be true, by several studies, there has risen considerable interest on how to best develop and nurture effective leaders in the educational front (Hallinger 2003, p.5: Leithwood and Jantzi 2006, p.201). This essay sets out to investigate the effects of transformational leadership on school environment with the aim of determining and evaluating the impacts of its application by teachers in order to map a connection between transformational leadership and teacher performance. Background James M Burns, a presidential biographer and an expert in leadership, carried out the first formal studies on transformational leadership. He was the first to suggest the concept, which he loosely defines as one where of leaders and followers working in tandem so that each party can help the other advance concerning morality and motivation (Burns, 1978). The subject has gained worldwide prominence over the cause of the last three decades because of two main reasons, one; following the 70s, there were profoundly changed in the global economy which were to a large extent motivated by the advent and aftermath of the second world war. In the face of economic instability following the war, many western companies were forced to undergo paradigm shifts in their manner of doing business because the world had changed significantly. Some of the mitigating factors included rapid technological innovation as well as the emergence of new world powers and economies, many firms were forced to change the traditional old social contract employment, which was replaced by employment as a reward for loyalty (Barbuto 2005, p.28). The resulting premise left companies disarrayed since they had to invent new ways of maintaining employee morale in the hard times as well as new leadership approaches. Secondly, previous theoretical models were generic and only catered for the convectional leader marginalizing the non-typical ones who were becoming common because of the prevailing circumstances (Simic 1998, p.50). Retrospectively, the subject of transformational leadership had been the target of considerable non-school related inquiry for quite a few decades. Initially, it primary focus was on the relationship between leaders and followers in cases where the nexus of the relationship was based on consistent pursuit of certain goals with the intention of bettering the purposes and resources for all involved. It was theorized, that while leaders are instrumental in precipitation of change and “transformation” they are bound inextricably with their followers within the transformational process especially owing to the fact that transformational leaders could answer to the title because of their interest in realizing their followers’ full potential. (Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio 1993, p.52). Leaders that embody strength of vision and a good personality are able to inspire their followers to readjust their expectations and perceptions on life such that they can increase their motivation to focus on mutual goals (Kotlyar and Karakowsky 2007, p.40). Contrary to the transactional leadership model wherein the relationship is give and take, in transformational leadership, the leader’s personality and capacity to bring about change through setting precedents and inspiration are central in the making of a good leader (Bass 1990, p.23). Therefore, the engenderment of transformational leaders is in that they can act as moral exemplars for the; team, organization or for purposes of this paper the school. Concisely, transformational leadership is often narrowed down by means of four elements which are also called the four “Is” of transformational leadership (Leithwood and Jantzi 2006, p.212), they include: Individualized consideration This is described as the extent to which a leader pays attention to each individual followers needs, this pertains mentoring or personally coaching them, in addition the leader in this instant is expected to give advice maintain open communication and constantly challenging them so as to give them the requisite experience. This way, the followers will ultimately develop a stinger will and a more focused sense of intrinsic motivation in which the carry out the tasks at hand not just for the rewards expected by the feeling of sat faction they get from it. Intellectual Stimulation Under this element, leaders encourage their followers to be creative and innovative, they encourage new idea and in as much as they may criticize them (Kelly, 2003), they do it discretely to avoid embarrassing them and therefore negatively affecting their creativity. Transformational leaders focus on the problem and the possible solution as opposed to assigning blame, they are also very dynamic and have no compunction about discarding old methodologies if they are found to ineffectual. Inspirational motivation This is the degree to which a leader will articulate the vision they intend for their followers to pursue, these leaders will encourage their followers to depart from their comfort zones and dare to try out new ground. Leaders take cognizance of the fact that followers will often need to be encouraged so they can be optimistic about the task, leaders are visionaries and they also possess effective communication skills that can allow them to render the vision effectively. Idealized influence Idealized influence is the extent to which the leader will be a model to their followers, it is imperative that transformational leader’s embrace and embodies values that their follower will desire to copy. As such, the leader is tasked with the onus of passing on leadership skills down the hierarchy on the top of which he/she sits. For example, when a school principle is kind and helpful to the teachers, they will probably copy these attributes and practice them on each other and the learners. Idealized influence is however only possible if the leader has a vision, mission and a set of values, which they constantly aspire to live up to. Critical discussion At the end of the day, each of the elements is connected on a solid basis of; respect, encouragement, and the sort of personalized influence that comes to bear in transformational leadership. The leader’s personality however must be genuine and they should not just act out transformational leadership, it should be a part of who they are since their followers will use their conduct as a blue print for their own; therefore, any inconsistency in the leadership model and all the followers may lose trust and jeopardize the leader’s legitimacy and effectiveness. Quintessentially, transformational leaders should be viewed as trustworthy, and charismatic role model figures who lead from the front, they are aware of their followers underlying weakness as well as their own and therefore they take action to align different members or teams to the task they are best suited for. As a result, the model of transformational leadership has been applied to a multicity of disciplines gaining considerably more latitude than it had when it was initially a primarily managerial tool. Nevertheless, it has its down, or dark side, (so to speak) owing to the primarily personalized connection between leaders and followers, there is always a risk of leaders who may manipulate their followers and mislead them (Barnett, McCormick & Conners 2001, p.28). This has been done over the ages by political demagogues such as Hitler and other nefarious leaders who use their personal connection to their followers to exploit use and sometime abuse them. Nevertheless, the model still provides frameworks for various scenarios such as business, military and most importantly, in this context pedagogy. When applied, transformational leadership has been proven to be more effective than convectional leadership ergo its continued relevance as a leadership subject. Theory in action In as school setting, transformational leadership creates an organizational capacity through which the individuals and collectives can build a set of competencies with instructional leadership shared such that several people collaborating carry out certain specific leadership activities. Under this theory, it is assumed that the principal will simultaneously work on instructional and transformational tasks; ideally, if they are a transformational leader, the principle will seek to instil the highest possible levels of commitment in the staff working under them in order to facilitate and develop the organizational capacity for improving the school (Firestone 1996, p.400). On the other hand, as an instructional leader, they will collaborate with teachers in order to ensure they meet the instructional goals for pedagogy as set down in the curriculum (Marks and Printy 2003, p.281). In as much as instructional and transformational leadership as essentially distinct leadership styles, their combination results in an integrated model that is reflective of the transformational influence owing to the collaborative endeavour between the principal and teacher. At the core of a schools organizational structure lies leadership on which the school depends for the sake of creating a productive future through a process of continuous self-rejuvenation and renewal. In order to improve on leadership, many schools in the UK have adopted transformational leadership techniques through which the head teacher or principal engages the teachers in sustained dialogue and joint decision making in regard to educational matters. One of the methods schools in the contemporarily setting are applying to boost their performance is by broadening the scope and capacity of their leaders. To this end, some school heads engage tutors in constant discourse and in the making of decisions concerning pedagogical issues, this way, they are acknowledging their professionalism and capitalizing on their Knowledge and skills. Study 1 In a study carried out by Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi, titled, “Transformational School Leadership for Large-Scale Reform: Effects on students, teachers, and their classroom Practices” they carried out a survey in which the put to test of a model of transformational leadership that was specially made for a school environment. In their theoretical research prior to the study they had conclude that majority of the literature on the subject proposed transformational leadership in schools facing challenges, however they wanted to get empirical proof for or against this generic conclusion. Through data collected from a four-year evaluation of England’s national literacy and data collected during the survey, Leithwood and Jantzi carried out a survey to test the impacts of a distributed school specific transformational model of leadership on teachers in regard to motivation capacity, classroom practice and gains in the achievement of their leaners (Earl et al., 2003). 29290 teachers who were required to a literacy and numeracy form testing the variables in the writers’ framework took the survey. The measure for student achievement was based on the gains in the UK government’s own stage two tests in both disciplines; the analysis technique applied was the path analytic approach. The three main evinces that emerged after the survey were; there is a very direct and strong connection between transformational leadership in school and the effects of the teachers work setting and motivation , in addition, it was found that albeit weak, there was a moderate albeit significant effect on the classroom technique and practices the teacher uses. The model was however not successful in the establishment for the sake of practical uses the variations of the students’ academic gains. Study 2 This next study was intended to demonstrate the leadership qualities that were identified as contributive to bringing about positive change in schools. The researchers examined and analysed quantitative data that was explored in the context of Alberta Initiative for school improvement, which was seen to be a very timely study to the provincial contextualization of education. This case study involved interviews meant to show the leadership techniques prevalent in educational institutions that were practicing developmental techniques via the first two cycles of AISI. It was found that leadership practices are relative to a given extent if the model of transformational leadership is in place, as the second cycle gets into the final year, AISI serves as a catalyst through which leadership strategies have created a perpetual culture of improvement. Teachers will be building momentum as they become adapted to the use of data to prove that the students learning is gradually improving, AISI has undoubtedly had a substantial role in determining the various responsibilities and learning and teaching experience among teachers as they move from the traditional to traditional to transformational. Through the gradual implementation of transformational leadership in the contemporary school environment, school communities have been constantly mobilized to come up with new and innovative way to improve and ensure the existing learning opportunities provide for quality education for all. After dully considering the evidence from the first study above, it can be conclude that school leadership is unequivocally influential in determining the propensity of teachers to change and adapt their day-to-day teaching tactics. In addition, when a school is run through the approaches of transformational leadership, this and other changes concerning motivation capacity team building, work achievement and student performance among others are likely to be effected. Finally, it is not enough simply for leaders to facilitate change in classroom practices, there is often a fine distinction between classroom practices that will be changed and classroom practices that will be changed with a direct effect on learning outcomes. transformational leaders are expected to navigate around this difference so as to avoid superficial and cosmetic changes that do not have lasting effects or changes for the sake of change. The second study found that in schools where transformational leadership is practiced, there are formal teacher leadership roles in place with specific designations such as a lead teacher, faculty representative or mentor among others. Even when not explicitly identified, it was determined that informal leadership was most prevalent in schools where the staff practiced teamwork by sharing their best practices, and experience indirectly mentoring and modelling from each other (Leithwood, 1997). Leithwood and Jantzi also found in their report that principals and teachers leadership techniques are often mutually enforcing or supportive, ergo they warrant further investigation and research since they may result in more complicated models of leadership than the transformational one if incisively examined (p. 34). Ultimately, leadership is a continuous process and not an instant fix or magical solution, at the end of the day, the studies and theoretical construct examined herein is highly informative in respect to the impact of leadership in school improvement projects. Admittedly, for majority of policy makers, the importance of leadership as a lens through which school effects can be explained in unparalleled, in fact, that millions are being spent in the improvement of leadership is testament of the need for radical school leadership reforms (Crawford et al., 2003, p.11). Nevertheless, as stated earlier, there has been very little empirical evidence to direct the discourse on this matter and therefore although it is abundantly clear that the leadership technique in many schools requires to be improved on it is unlikely to be effected until there is adequate empirical proof to the fact. At present, many schools apply the transactional and instructional models of leadership, in as much as they can also be and have been effective in many cases; these methods cannot offers anywhere near as much as transformational leadership does (Hoyt & Blascovich 2003, p.502). There are four prevalent characteristics of transformational leadership and it is these that policy maker and leaders in various schools should aspire to integrate within their systems, they are; a shared vision, school culture, collaborative decision making and teacher leadership. A common thread unites them all because they form the core philosophical foundations that constitute the basis of school development ultimately forming the infrastructure for change. References Barbuto, J.E. (Jnr) (2005). Motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: a test of antecedents. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 11(4), 26-40. Barnett, K., McCormick, J. & Conners, R. (2001). Transformational leadership in schools – panacea, placebo or problem? Journal of Educational Administration, 39(1), pp. 24-46 Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, (Winter): 19-31. Bass, B.M. (1990). Bass & Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership. Theory, Research and Managerial Applications (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press. Bass,B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations.NewYork: Free Press. Bass,B. M.,& Avolio,B. J. (1993). 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