Successful People V Unsuccessful people.

The New Work of Educational Leaders - Book Review

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE

Book Title:                  The New Work of Educational Leaders – Changing leadership practice in an era of school reform

Author:                        Peter Gronn, Faculty Member of Education Department at Monash University, Australia.

Author’s Profile:         A researcher, a professor and a writer. Published books extensively on aspects of school, educational and organizational leadership. His research interests include all aspects of leadership, in particular, learning leadership and the development of leaders, distributed leadership etc.

Publisher:                    Sage Publications, London in 2003.

CONTENTS/THEME

Book Structure

Book is articulated in two parts: the 'architecture' and the 'ecology' of leadership. In Part I, three chapters outline a new building of leadership by developing the themes of design, distribution and disengagement, while in Part II author discusses in five chapters about What do Leaders do?, Leaders’ Committees and Meetings, Leadership Teams, the Emotions of Leaders and lastly Leadership as Greedy Work.

Part I

Designer-leadership means producing leaders according to design specifications. In our context we can relate it to the policy that unless one doesn't get the M.Ed or MA (Education) degree he/she is assumed incompetent to become leader or principal, specifically in government institutions. According to author standards are very important to ensure quality in schools, but along with the standards, work context is also essential as it varies place to place.

Distributed-leadership means interdependency and coordinated work. This theme is presented as an alternative to focused leadership. According to Gronn (2003) researches show that it is the new trend increased after 1980. Distributed leadership is certainly a step up from one person leadership as we can see the work of head teacher is increasing and the responsibilities of managing the school needs to be shared.  This is also articulated by Arrowsimith (2007) that “Distributed leadership (DL) is an emerging form of power distribution in school which extends authority and influence to groups or individuals in a way which is at least partly contrary to hierarchical arrangements” (p.22). In the context of Pakistan, we can partially relate this leadership theme to private educational institutions or self-managed organizations.

Disengagement means inability of school systems to attract principals from among the teaching ranks because teachers are becoming unwilling to take on leadership positions is explored (Gronn, 2003). Teachers use to be in their own comfort zones and because of challenging tasks and responsibilities they hesitate to take initiative.

Part II

Five chapters explain ‘ecology’ of leadership in this part. Author asks, 'What do leaders do?' and then proceeds to offer a detailed synthesis and critical review of research findings since the 1950s across a number of different countries (Gronn, 2003). Then, author focuses on committees/meetings and teams, respectively to strengthen distributed leadership. Finally Gronn draws on earlier concept of 'greedy institutions' to propose that leadership is being reconstructed as 'greedy work', which demands one to be constantly and fully there. Although there are many aspects of this image that are immediately identifiable but there is probably some misunderstanding between 'greedy work', 'greedy practices', 'greedy occupations', 'greedy policies' and 'greedy rulers and policy makers'. There is not clarity about what or who is being greedy, the institutions or the individuals.

REFLECTION/success & challenges

Distributed leadership is the theme which the writer wishes to favour and strengthen. Overall the book draws on a wide range of international literature by referring 471 books/articles. It seems highly a theoretical work. I must say that the themes discussed could be presented in a simple language but I surely agree with Hart (n.d.) who articulates this manner as “some authors seem to neglect the needs of their potential readers and manage to make  relatively simple ideas confusing” (p.10).

REFERENCES

Arrowsmith, T. (2007). Distributed leadership in secondary schools in England: the impact on the role of the head teacher and other issue. Management in Education. 21(2), 21-27.

Gronn, P (2003). The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform. London. Sage Publications.

Hart, C. (n.d). The literature review in research. Doing a Literature Review. London: Sage Publications.

Karim from Altit - a great entertainer - Video Dailymotion

Karim from Altit - a great entertainer - Video Dailymotion

Choosing the field of education

Choosing the field of education

By: Darvesh Karim

Entering the education field has been a very motivated decision for me. This particular decision is completely based on the former experience I had had all the way to the moment I decided I will connect my future with it. Nowadays, when parents are very busy the workers of the educational field are the people, who teach the young generation what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is right and what is wrong and million other things. Every person someday used to be an ordinary pupil that had teachers. The schooling experience of every person may develop either positive or negative attitude towards education in general. It is a fact of common knowledge that one of the most important parts in the educational process is the teacher. Choosing the education field has to be connected with a “calling” of a person, because it requires a lot of professional and personal qualities and constant self-perfection.

My personal experience in school taught me that a teacher could really make a difference in the process of education. A teacher may develop respect to the subject, to the teacher’s personality and to the education in general. A pupil may even see the difference in the manner of explaining and presenting the material teaching the same subject.

I discovered this difference when I had a substitute teacher coming to class and making my most hated subject one of the most interesting in the whole school program. I decided that I do want to make children love teaching and show them how fun and interesting learning can be. I decided to make it the reason of my life.

There have been lots of debates on good and bad teachers. And this particular experience made me realize that I do want to make a difference for children and make their education interesting for them in the first place and therefore motivate their own educational activity. I want to become a “good” teacher, not just a teacher reproducing the material student knows, but sharing attitudes, experience and reveal all the interesting sides in the educational process. It is vital to make sure the pupils get only the most positive experience from teaching. My experience made me realize how many mistakes some teachers do and gave the greatest desire to learn everything in order to become a real professional in the field of education.

Such a position towards education may reveal more talented young people among pupils and students. By making the process of education more productive we increase the educational level of the whole nation and I want to make my own personal contribution into this “highly professional education”. I have also thought that sharing the knowledge you have with other people is wonderful, and maybe one day I will inspire a young person to dedicate him/herself to the field of education. And this will be the best reward for me and for all the forces I plan to contribute in this field now. This experience was a “push” in the direction of the field I admire so much.