Introduction
This essay examines my personal experience in India as a Primary teacher in Indian School. Being a teacher inside the school, I always considered myself as an effective teacher in teaching my students as well as prepare them future responsible citizens of the country. In this essay I will discuss the following points 1) effective leadership and management in schools. 2) My personal experience in India as an effective Leader. 3) Comparison between western and Eastern school culture. 4) Expectations of management from school Leaders 5) Efficiency and progression in school results. 6) flexibility to work on multifaceted roles. In this following exposition, I will explore how the effective leadership plays a key role in enhancing learning environment in both the classroom and school. As a school teacher, Here, I will disclose teacher leadership in action and take an account on the functions of teachers who lead.( Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2005;2004) We will see the first difference between western and eastern school culture as I have worked in India as a primary teacher as well as in UK. (Feldhoff, T. et al. (2022) Additionally, I will discuss and highlight the distinction between effective leadership in India and as well as UK schools. Moreover, I will discuss expectations of management from school middle leaders. Nevertheless, Principals are responsible for the development of supportive school culture including the proactive school mindset. (Brown M & Rutherford D (1995).
Main Body
It is really hard to define what is effective leadership is? There are almost as many definitions of Leadership as there are persons who attempted to define it. ( Bass, 1990, p11) According to Yukl (2013, p2), “Researchers usually define leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon of most interest to them”. Washbush(2005, p1084) assets that we are “mostly left with endless discussions” and “remain intent on calling almost everything leadership” and we are now “too confused and distracted to notice !” Effective Leadership in a school is the most contested issue. Every stakeholder has a different opinion about school effective leader. It depends on personal experience. It keeps on changing and depends on various educational settings. (MacBeath, J. (2002). Moreover, there is not one style of educational Leadership.” Leadership is all about influencing others with a view to accomplishing a common goal and facilitating circumstances and environment that will help to reach the target”. (Ekstrand, J. et al. (2018;2017; pp. 527–531)
Leadership Process: Leadership Style, Situation and Sources of Power (ResearchGate)
The different Views of Leadership
The five major functions of leadership are categorized as follows.
- Set a goal and concentrate on it.
- Organise a high performance, Team.
- Keep the group inspired
- Maintain a good relationship with your subordinates.
- Keep workers happy to reduce attrition
Leadership is defined in numerous ways based on different subjects. These definitions of leadership do not apply to all leaders in all circumstances. (Sethraman and Suresh, (2014) As a result, a lot of research was done to determine what qualities makes good leaders. Since, long time traits have been given importance for an effective Leadership whereas, study has shown that personality traits are also important. )Sethraman and Suresh, (2014)
Leadership theories :
A few leadership theories will be discussed here.
- Great man theory : Great man theory depict that Leaders are not created, they are born. It states, that depending on the situation, the innate qualities will show themselves. Since, men were only in the position of leadership in past. Henceforth, this theory was warmly accepted by our historians and named as great man theory. Over the years, various research were conducted and this idea became obsolete. (Maj Earl Russel, 2011)
- Trait theory Method : theory was one of the first theories of leadership. This theory focussed on fundamental characteristics such as physical and personal qualities along with the competencies a leader should have. It is predicted that fundamental characteristics are the reason for the behaviour of leaders. Likewise to the great man theory this strategy states that leaders have trait that they are born with that last for a long period, similar like great man idea. (Fleenor, John W., 2011).
- Contingency Theory: The focus of contingency theory is on environment elements that could decide the most effective leadership style in a given situation. Some of the contributing variables are scenario, followers and leadership styles. (Kendra Cherry, n.d).
- Situational Theory : According to situation theory, Leaders should select the optimal leadership based on the circumstances and the target audience. (Kendra Cherry, n.d).
- Behaviour Theory : Contrary to the great man theory, behaviour theory assets that leaders are ‘made not born’. It claims that developing one’s leadership skills is possible. (Kendra Cherry, n.d).
- Participative Theory: The ability of a leader to make decision collectively
Or the shared impact of the followers is explained by participatory theory. The team members motivation would increase under this style.
There are various ways of characterizing leadership such as Effective Leadership, Transformational (democratic/participative), Transactional (authoritarian/ directive) distributed and charismatic Leadership. (Ekstrand, J. et al. (2018;2017;). This essay review and evaluate the literature on leadership styles and their effect on several aspect of quality of work life. Presently, organizations need effective leader who comprehends the challenges of the rapidly transforming global environment. (Nanjundeswaraswamy, and Swamy, 2014)
Transformational Leadership : Transformational leaders can inspire and motivate followers to put the interest of the group ahead of their own by offering vision, meaning, challenges and stimulation. (Ekstrand, J. et al. (2018;2017;) Leaders use exceptional forms of influence which moves followers to achieve organisational goals. (Burns,1978; Bass,1998).
Transactional Leadership (Burns 1978) focuses on exchange between leader and follower. The foundation of transactional leadership is rewarding and reprimanding followers based on their successes or failures. Schools Leaders those who practice transactional leadership encourage interaction between managers and employees.
Charismatic Leadership : Charismatic Leaders can arouse and inspire their people to perform through their deep emotional bonds and affinity with their followers. (Bass, 1985b) Charisma is regarded as attributional phenomenon and type of influence. However, charismatic leadership is uncommon and fleeting and it can be dangerous. (House 1976)
Distributed Leadership: Distributed Leadership is primarily concerned with the practice of leadership rather than the leaders themselves or their responsibilities, routine and structure. In the end, how leadership is distributed is more crucial than whether it is distributed. (Gronn2000)
Effective Leadership: Different stakeholders have different opinions on the effectiveness of leadership dependent on their experience. Schools continuous change responding to a range of factors, henceforth it cannot be static. (MacBeath, J. (2002). Effectiveness ins assessed based on the effects of influence on a single person, team, group or organization (According to yukl (2013, p8)
Introduction of Argument
In this essay, I will discuss Effective educational Leadership in different settings in Eastern (India) context and compare it with Western(UK). It is commonly acknowledged that effective leadership is essential in achieving school development. (OFSTED 2000). Here, I will examine how school leadership is different and complex in different countries. Education leadership is different in eastern and western context and settings. Effective Leaders makes crucial decisions in school surroundings on day to basis to run the education system perfectly. (Alma Harris (2002) whereas, Research shows that headteachers who managed changes in the school in challenging situations are from the uniformity in their leadership. ((Hallinger & Heck 1996; Lashway 1997) Effective Leadership is taking crucial decisions with the collaboration of staff and line employees. The school is effected by leadership since it is essential to substantiation. (Sherman, & Myran, 2009)
Educational Leadership and Effectiveness In school in different settings
Effective Leader can only fulfil the objectives of organisation. He is the one who satisfy the needs and expectations of followers. Yukl (2013, p8) (Effective leadership in Indian school is full of turbulences, in which some are light, moderate, severe and extreme. Principals in India face leadership challenges such as workload, quality, money, education structure. School Leadership is both demanding and complex including essential responsibilities. (Jerdborg2020; Leithwood, Harris, and Hopkins2020). Effective Leader focus on academic advancement of every student regardless of family background or economic background which is the most important sign of school performance and improvement. (ICSEI Editorial’ (2014) pp-293-294)
Cultural Differences
In my opinion a principal can only be effective leader when he understands cultural differences to implement effective pedagogy in the school. The current education culture in India unquestionably needs numerous reforms. The most crucial thing is to change the mentality of people. Parents and teachers should not shame a student who is struggling academically by discussing his shortcomings in public. Whereas this situation is reversed if any child is not performing well in education, teachers recognised him and provide him one to one support to understand his special needs by giving additional support.
The second biggest challenge for head teacher is low quality of public education system. The actual amount of education pupil receive in government school as well as quality of instruction they receive are in credibly inadequate to develop them perfectly. However, British education system had worked to improve quality of education. Nevertheless, headteacher has to understand these basic differences to improve cultural differences and staff expectations and needs.
On the one hand, School climate refers to how students, parents their experiences at school in terms of norms, values and beliefs that form their school community. A principal need to understand school climate to be an effective leader in India. Parris, L., Neves, J. R., & La Salle, T. (2018). On the other hand, British education system is used of international students henceforth head teacher is used of these challenges.
Effective leadership and management in school
After reading transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, distributed Leadership, I found that effective leadership is the only one which can improve School Culture. One of the biggest turbulence is shortage of money in government schools. (Batra, P. (2021) As a principal in Indian School, it becomes a barrier in improving school resources. Whereas, in UK schools have sufficient monetary assistance to support themselves for long time. The second challenge is curriculum which is unable to meet the needs of a wide range of difficulty in learners in India. The curriculum is centrally planned little flexibility for local adjustments for teachers to experiments and test novel ideas. The curriculum is typically seen as a mechanism for controlling and adjusting contemporary educational institutions to the requirements and trends of society. (Batra, P. (2021). It has been observed in a government school that teachers claim that they work between eight and twelve hours each day in the classrooms managing three to four batches. (Krishnamoorthy, R. (2020) However, this is not seen UK school as they have hired resources to plan out school function properly.
Effectiveness in School
Advantages of Effective Leadership:
Effective leaders set an example for their team members because the leaders who successfully achieves some positive result in school gains the respect, admiration and trust of their team. (Grint, K. (2007.) If there is no effective leadership in an school no changes will be made because there will be no leader to inspire and guide the employees and school.
- Management and school administration will be improved due to employee retention. Many schools’ employers still face difficulties related to teacher shortage while school management used variety of strategies to keep teachers in classrooms. (Tran, H., & Smith, D. A. (2020).
- Gains in student achievement. School effective leadership has been proven to have made undeniably significant contributions to present high school reform. (Silins, H. and Mulford, B. (2002)
- Maintains school annual results
- Strong Connection among parents students and teachers (Hackmann, D.G. (2014b)
- Happy Students. Research is showing that effective principals are most concerned with the well being of students, staff and curriculum delivery. (Baker & Dellar, 1999; Blase & Blase, 1999).
- Happy staff
- Good performance in OFSTED inspection
- Positive community feedback.
Hierarchy of a School
- (Garston Manor School)
- This is hierarchy of a school
Leadership in a school
Disadvantages of Effective Leadership:
- In absence of Effective Leadership students might have under performance during exams. According to Reynolds (1992), schools with high percentage of less gifted students would struggle to compete in the academic success stakes. He believed that student enrolment had a significant impact on academic success and orientation. (Reynolds(1992)
- Negative effect on examination performance. In lack of Effective Leadership it has been observed that head teacher was failing to reduce absenteeism which had a negative impact on exams. (Reynolds, D. et al. (1996)
- Dictatorial style of management. In absence of effective leadership, it is believed that teachers will be under- valued. (Reynolds, D. et al. (1996)
Skills for becoming an effective Leader according to me
According to me an effective leader should be well versed in communication with team members as well as an active listener. Additionally, he must have personal vision and belief.
- Good interpersonal Skills
- Good Communication
- Comprehension skills
- Open to suggestion
- Difference between listening everyone and establishing rules
- Good Network
- Creative and practical at the same time
- Problem solving ability
- Reflective Thinking
- Good Decision Maker
- Confident
- Time management skills
- Good Team Leader
- Strong Social Skills
- Calm and patient
Leadership strategies for Effectiveness:
Maintaining relationship is key to effective leadership. Emotions are the heart of Effective leadership. Headteachers should have ability to lead in a number of contexts such as pedagogy, organisational, cultural development. Effective Leadership is just only one aspect of excellent leadership. Sustainability and change are key elements of Effective Leadership in schools.
Conclusion
This essay finds out that Effective Leadership can only be maintained in a school with the excellent team building with staff, teachers, parents, principal and governors. There should be interconnectedness among school, home and community. This means head teacher should communicate well with parents, staff, community leaders and governors. An Effective Leaders should maintain equilibrium inside the school and outside with clients.
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