MY SCHOOL by Dr .Nilesh Gopal das Joshi (beginner reading books for adults .txt) 📕

Aligning instruction with national standards, setting school goals for student performance, measuring progress against those goals and making adjustments in the school programme to improve individual and overall performance are the dynamic aspects of managing curriculum and instruction. School leaders’ purposeful use of data is essential to ensure that attention is being paid to the progress of every student.

Third, with increased school autonomy policies, school leaders have more and more discretion over human and financial resource management. The strategic use of resources and their alignment with pedagogical purposes are key to focusing all operational activities within the school on the objective of improving teaching and learning.

Fourth, recent research (Pont, Nusche and Hopkins, 2008) has highlighted the benefits of school leadership beyond the school borders. Various leadership engagements beyond the school, in partnerships with other schools, communities, social agencies, universities and policy makers can increase professional learning, enhance improvement through mutual assistance and create greater cohesion among all those concerned with the achievement and well-being of every child.

Core responsibilities of school leadership

Supporting, evaluating and developing teacher quality

An essential function of school leadership is to foster “organisational learning”, that is to build the capacity of the school for high performance and continuous improvement through management of the curriculum and teaching programme, development of staff and creating the climate and conditions for collective learning.

Goal-setting, assessment and accountability

School leadership focused on goal-setting, assessment and evaluation can positively influence teacher and student performance. Aligning instruction with external standards, setting school goals for student performance, measuring progress against those goals and making adjustments in the school programme to improve performance are the dynamic aspects of managing curriculum and instruction. School leaders play a key role in integrating external and internal accountability systems by supporting their teaching staff in aligning instruction with agreed learning goals and performance standards.

Strategic resource management

 In increasingly autonomous school systems, school leaders have more and more discretion over human and financial resource management. The strategic use of resources and their alignment with pedagogical purposes can help to focus all operational activities within the school on the objective of improving teaching and learning.

Leadership beyond the school borders

Yet another role that has grown in recent times to add to the repertoire of tasks to be handled by school leaders is that of collaborating with other schools or communities around them. Schools and their leaders are strengthening collaboration, forming networks, sharing resources, or working together. Moreover, school leaders are becoming more broadly engaged in activities beyond their schools, reaching out to their immediate environment and articulating connections between the school and the outside world.

Leadership Capabilities

Authentic educational leaders require a number of leadership capabilities to deal with the tension-filled environment of contemporary schools. The capabilities described here are adapted from the work of Duignan and Burford (2002). The capabilities are categorized into personal, relational, professional and organizationalto give coherence and emphasis to clusters of different capabilities.

A capability constitutes ‘an integration of knowledge, skills and personal qualities used effectively and appropriately in response to varied, familiar and unfamiliar circumstances’.

Personal Capabilities Is self-aware and reflective Projects a sense of self-efficacy and personal identity Uses intuition as well as logic and reason Projects confidence and optimism Exemplifies honesty and integrity Is ethically literate and morally courageous Displays imagination and vision Integrates work and personal life Relational capabilities Is relationally adept Is emotionally mature Communicates with influence Is authentically present Displays a trusting disposition Cultivates collaborative working environments Engages in positive politics Nurtures leadership capabilities in others Professional capabilities Is contextually aware and responsive Displays curriculum and pedagogical know-how Focuses on educational outcomes and accountability Engages in and supports professional learning Demonstrates professional commitment Organizational capabilities Engages in strategic thinking Enhances organizational capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and future expectations Builds a collective and collaborative culture that focuses energies and talents on achieving high-quality performance and outcomes Constructs creative designs for the use of people, time, space and technologies Models cultural sensitivity Demonstrates managerial aptitude and proficiency

 

The Headmaster

The headmaster, as an educational leader holds the key position in the school. As an important component of the school administration, he has two important responsibilities, the administration of the school and supervision of the personnel involved in teaching-learning situation. Everything in the school, the plant, the staff, the curriculum, methods and techniques of teaching, co-curricular activities etc. is organized by him. The efficiency of the school depends on the ability and skill, personality and professional competence of the headmaster. He may be described as the sun around which the educational planets revolve. The character of the school reflects and proclaims the professional character of the headmaster. He is the organizer, leader, governor, business director, co-ordinator, superintendent, example, teacher, guide, philosopher and friend.

Responsibilities of the headmaster have increased due to the expansion of scientific knowledge and the demands of the parents for quality education. Sizes of schools have been increased leading to the problem of management. Also students today are a less homogenous group with respect to interest, outlook of life and home training. As a result, problems of curricula, corses of study, methods of teaching and management have grown.

HM/Principal as a Leader

School leadership is one of the challenging professions. Headmaster is a person who should play the roles as a leader and manager in the school. Leadership plays the key reigns of an organization in bringing success in managing the organization. A leader must have credibility in the organization of uniting to help each other, work together and to ensure continuity and structure of the existing system. They should be able to move their subordinates to go hand in hand and face the current host of problems plaguing the system of education.

Headmaster is a person who brings the school towards achievement through his skill, dedication and character. A headmaster should have the mission and vision to make the school an outstanding learning organization. He is the person who should strive to develop students holistically with a wide range of skills, ability and willingness to face challenges. Leaders determine the degree of influence, effectiveness of the school’s plan, decision and action strategies. A leader’s actions not only affect the organization under his leadership, but also in terms of job satisfaction of the staff.

A great headmaster is the person who effectively implements the trust and responsibility by providing a solid foundation and conducive environment in order to live up the excellent learning culture.

As a functionary, hundreds and thousands of eyes watch him, judge him, and measure him and are eager to follow his noble examples. Unless he has a perceiving eye and understanding heart and all-adjusting mental poise, he is bound to fall in his duties. The headmaster should be firm in his dealings, resolute in his convictions and decisions and relentless in his execution.

They perform five key practices well:

ƒ Shaping a vision of academic success for all students.

 ƒ Creating a climate hospitable to education.

ƒ Cultivating leadership in others.

 ƒ Improving instruction.

ƒ Managing people, data and processes to foster school improvement.

All the activities in an educational institution should get properly directed by the headmaster. As an efficient leader he should provide active leadership to the following activities:

Leader of academic activities: Since he is the supreme authority responsible for successful implementation of all the academic activities in school, it is his duty to initiate or give direction for proper planning of academic activities and co-curricular activities. Leader of Administrative duties: Like academic activities, administration of school is to be properly managed and supervised by the headmaster. He has to ensure that different administrative tasks are distributed effectively among his subordinates. Discipline: It is the prime duty of the headmaster as a leader to maintain discipline in schools. His inability to lead a school will result in disruptive behavior. Human management: As an effective leader, the headmaster should be able to manage human resources effectively. Financial management: All financial transactions in a school are issued in his name and it is to be subjected to the final approval of the headmaster.

The principal, as a leader, is challenged to develop a distinctive mission with a long-term plan with a set of quality policies, plans and strategies. Other important challenges are involving everybody in an environment of equality. Leaders in Total Quality Management organizations should do/have the following:

Have a vision of total quality for his/her institution Have a clear commitment to the quality improvement process Communicate the quality message Ensure that the student’s needs are at the center of the institution’s policies and practices Lead staff development Be careful not to blame others when problem arise, without looking at the evidence; most problems result from institutional policies, not staff failure Lead innovations within institutions Ensure that organizational structures clearly define responsibilities and provide the maximum delegation compatible with accountability Be committed to removal of artificial barriers whether organizational or cultural Build effective teams Develop appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating success

A number of studies have been made of leadership and the relationship of leadership to the group. Myers, after making an extensive analysis of these studies, proposed the following generalizations:

Leadership is the product of interaction. Leadership cannot be structured in advance. A leader in one situation will not automatically be a leader in another situation. Leadership does not result from a status position, but rather from how a person behaves in an organization. Whether a person is a leader in a group depends upon the group’s perception of him. The way a leader perceives his role determines his actions. Most groups have more than one person occupying the leadership role. Leadership fosters positive sentiments toward the group activity and persons in the group. Leadership may be democratic or autocratic. Leadership protects the critical group norms. Program development that involves only persons of a single position (such as principals or teachers) is not as comprehensive or lasting as that which involves people of various positions in the organization.

Academic management and academic leadership

Managers do things right; leaders do the right things. Managers accomplish goals; leaders set goals. Managers are tactical; leaders are strategic. Managers maintain the status quo; leaders change the status quo. Managers focus on the here-and-now; leaders focus on the future. Managers emphasize efficiency; leaders emphasize effectiveness. Managers execute visions; leaders create visions. Managers emphasize facts; leaders emphasize values.

It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a leader and a manager, because much of the time managers and leaders do the same things and have many of the same characteristics. For example, managers and leaders are equally likely to:

Be intelligent, articulate, able to synthesize information, and capable of persuading others Be charismatic (although they may display charisma of different kinds: managers increase their influence because of the charisma of their office, while the influence of leaders is enhanced by their personal charisma) Have an expanded sense of responsibility, together with a diminished need for control.

The primary differences between managers and leaders arise not from the offices they hold, or from their activities, but from how the different sources of their authority affect the ways in which members of the department respond to them. In essence:

Management is a function performed by appointed officials in a hierarchical organizational structure. The influence of a manager essentially comes from the legal governance authority granted to the position, and not from the personality or other characteristics of the incumbent. Leadership involves influencing others by inspiring their trust, and motivating them through words and deeds. The influence of leaders is not based on any specific legal authority, but on the professional and moral authority ascribed to them by the members of the department; the

Managers

Managers are appointed from above. Managers possess legal authority. Managers influence the department through reasonable/legal use of rewards, sanctions, and authority of office. Managers may augment their influence through the charisma of their office. Managers consistently fulfill the expected requirements of the job description

Leaders

Leaders are anointed from below by the department. Leaders possess professional and moral authority. Leaders may voluntarily forgo the use of legally acceptable influence that may lead to alienation of department members. Leaders may augment their influence through the charisma of their personalities. Leaders consistently engage the department in constructive activities exceeding expectations.

These two roles are not mutually exclusive. For example, individuals who have been appointed from above may also be anointed from below because they are seen as possessing professional/moral authority, personal charisma and a desire to avoid alienating members of the department. When this happens, managers may be leaders as well.

Educational management and educational leadership

Educational management and educational leadership