Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement

Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement

Throughout the many shifts in purposes of education and legislation, national, state and local as well as the deeply embedded historical discourse, educators are challenged too sort through all of the assumptions and ideas that impact teaching and learning and to call into question those assumptions that are barriers to student and staff learning (Psencik, 2009). As administrators, principals and teachers, we must focus not only to our students' learning to achieve success on state assessments but also to our own and to that of the staff around us. When everyone executes this, then we are on the road of accomplishing collaborated accountability for the growth of the school and becoming a professional community of learners. How leadership is outline frames how people will partake in it. When everyone learns together as a community toward a shared vision and purpose, they are producing an environment in which everyone feels equivalent and worth. This is fundamental to the belief that all adults have the ability to be leaders, which matches our belief that all children can learn in the same manor. In the book, Building Leadership Capacity in Schools, Linda Lambert (2003) helps reinforce this belief and takes a close look at leadership in today's school. It has provided me with many insights, created changes in my way of thinking about leadership, and helped me investigate deeper into more issues that still need further exploration at TSA.

By reading this book, I was able to get many insights about school leadership and organizational behavior. Lambert refers to leadership capacity as a broad based, skillful involvement in the work of leadership. She speaks of five key assumptions that form the conceptual framework for building leadership capacity:

1. Leadership is not a trait theory. Leadership trait theory is the idea that people are born with certain character traits or qualities. Since certain traits are associated with proficient leadership, it assumes that if you could identify people with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders and people with leadership potential. Most of the time the traits are considered to be naturally part of a person's personality from birth. From this standpoint, leadership trait theory tends to assume that people are born as leaders or not as leaders. Lambert states that with the right professional development all people can become leaders.

2. Leadership is about learning. Through the different books I have read in this course, and through the exchange of experiences that have taken place in our discussions, I have come to realize that the preparation for being a successful leader is a collection of experiences and opportunities, rather than simply a credentialing program. As Fullan (2001) calls it, learning in context is an essential characteristic of effective leaders. University preparation is not enough by itself. There is a strong relation between learning and leading.

3. Everyone has the potential and right to work as a leader. People desire for liveliness and purpose within their daily lives. Teachers who exhibit strength are energized by their own curiosities, their team members, and their students; they find bliss and incentive in the daily dilemmas of teaching and are intrigued by the challenge of improving adult learning communities. Teachers become fully alive when their schools and districts provide them with opportunities for skillful participation, inquiry, dialogue, and reflection. Such environments foster leadership. Consequently the principal's roles are to foster and promote this leadership capacity in teachers. Capacity-building principals align their actions to the belief that everyone has the right, responsibility, and capability to work as a leader.

4. Leading is a shared endeavor. We have come to know that involvement is the key to implementing change and increasing commitment. If we are not involved, we will likely resist change, since we tend to be more interested in our ideas than in those of others. Leaders are usually caught between these two positions: the safer and easier position of directive, authoritative leadership and the far more risky, but infinitely more effective human resource principle of involvement. With experience, I believe, most leaders will learn that the effectiveness of their decisions depends on quality and commitment and that commitment comes through involvement. They are then willing to assume the risks and to develop the skills of involving people appropriately. Consequently, the people who make up the community, whether they are teachers, students, or parents, will become sincerely and significantly committed to coming up with solutions to problems. By getting everyone involved, we release some of the natural driving forces already in people. When our external driving forces are synchronized with our internal drives and motivations, we can create a synergistic problem solving team.

5. Leadership requires the redistribution of power and authority. Making changes within schools involves making changes within people/staff too; it involves more re-culturing than re-structuring. Changing human practices, attitudes, and beliefs may be one of the core tasks of leaders, and one of the hardest at the same time. I now know that this change has to be dealt with just as we