MARKET IDEOLOGY & ACCOUNTABILITY

Both articles are critical of the impact that some of these changes have had on education and training.   Consider how market ideologies and notions of accountability, have impacted upon your workplaces and by implication, on the work of administrators and managers in these settings.

As an international school in Singapore, families have a number of schools to choose from when they arrive on the island. Thus, we need to market our school as a unique experience compared to other schools to attract clients. The school has even hired a marketing department this year in preparation of expanding the school and the need to attract more families to our school. It is evident that more time, energy and finances are being funnelled into the marketing department to enhance the image of the school and promote it in the international market (Apple, 2001, p. 187).

When I first arrived at the school, there was not a lot of accountability to parents in terms of standardised ways of assessments nor accountability of staff to leaders. This has been a huge improvement of our school over the last four years moving slightly towards the other end of the pendulum. With more reporting per year to parents, there has been an increase in teacher workload to ensure that parents continuous are getting feedback about their child.

The school has also increased accountability through internal and external assessments. Measures of Academic Progress (MAPs) testing is now done twice a year by all students year four and above to ensure that the school is compared using a standardised test to other international schools. The school has also increased the number of standardised internal assessments within the primary school to create more trackable data of student across the years.

The school is a profit school and therefore has many key aspects of a business approach to education compared to a government-funded school. One of the things that can be hard is the need to measure all key performance indicators. Our school’s key performance indicators are directly linked to our staff work plans and appraisals even when at times, some of the KPIs we do not have control over.

As I begin to prepare myself to transfer to the Australian school systems in August, I will be interested to see how the different market ideologies and notions of accountability differ in the Australian setting.

References

Apple, M. W. (2001). ‘Markets, standards, teaching and teacher education.’

Topic 1 Discussion

Consider your current professional setting and identify leadership practices which resemble or can be traced to one or more of the leadership perspectives traced in Topic One.

Hierarchical Leadership - There is a clear structural component to the system of people within the organisation and the roles and responsibilities within the hierarchy.

Management vs. Leadership - Many of the tasks that our senior leadership team is focused around the management of people and resources rather than moving people towards a common goal of change. These could include ensuring planning is executed, editing reports, leading meetings with updates, etc. There are also times when the leadership team is inspiring teachers to make transformational changes such as focusing on the mission when implementing new change to appeal to the values of the staff rather than just behaviour.

Role Theory - Teachers are given a very clear outline of their job description (as are all employees within the school). However, the role and responsibilities may be perceived differently depending on who the Head of Primary is (we’ve had some turnover in the last few years). The expectations of teachers by different stakeholders may at times come into conflict making it difficult to navigate to ensure everyone’s expectations can be met.

Is there one perspective which seems dominant?

I believe the hierarchical approach to the organisation is the dominant perspective. While there are growing opportunities for collaborative approaches within the system, the overarching focus remains a top-down approach to the final decision making.

What evidence is there for your conclusion?

While there is no government dictating curriculum etc, the teachers must still follow the directions of their superiors. All final decisions are signed off on by the Head of School. As I’ve mentioned in some of my blog posts, while there is teacher voice within some of the decision making processes to encourage buy in, teachers have limited influence on the final decisions. Policies and procedures are purely created by the senior leadership team and followed by staff. Through the hierarchy model, decision making can be more efficient and often higher quality, however, missing the important aspect of buy-in.

How does the evolution of leadership perspectives impact on current leadership practice in your professional setting?

I believe that the school is trying to move to a more collaborative approach to leadership. Change in mindset, culture and processes take time. It is optimistic that the school providing opportunities for more teacher input such as plus/deltas with events, policies and procedures. Knowing that the school would like to value teacher opinions more, I believe that in time and with an effective leadership team facilitating change management, we will see even more of a shift towards a collegial system.

Recent Constructions of Leadership

Recent Constructions of Leadership

“Much of the current debate about educational leadership . . . has its roots in the larger debate about whether organisations (e.g., your professional setting) are best understood as hierarchical, bureaucratic systems or as collegial, collaborative systems”. (Owens, 2001:55)

• Is it a simple either – or? What factors influence your conclusion?
• To what extent, if any, does the task at hand play a role in understanding organisational purpose and by association the nature of educational leadership?
• What other factors may, can or do influence the debate?
• To what extent do you think the debate is important or even necessary?

Owens suggests there is a debate around the type of system an organisation operates under. However, within most systems, a simple either - or approach is never the case. Education is no exception. In a traditional and historical perspective, the hierarchical systems were more predominant. However, as many schools move towards an inquiry and collaborative  model of teaching and learning, this also flows into the staff rooms in terms of planning and execution of different aspects of the organsiation. I believe that organisations tend to be more hierarchical or collaborative but will also have tendencies of the other type of system given certain situations or tasks.

I believe that my school still functions as a hierarchical system in most departments and overall systemic structure. In a number of our policies, the structural organisational flowchart diagram is evidence showing who reports to who and who holds what responsibilities at each level. This further perpetuates the idea that a hierarchy exists.

That being said, my education technology department operates much more as a collaborative team. When designing our digital citizenship curriculum, it began with a clear mission and vision from my supervisor. However, the creation and execution was collaborative not only between the department but also with parents, students and staff.

I also find many examples where something is implemented (for example report cards moving online only) and then feedback is asked for after and sometimes before. This feedback is used to continually refine the decisions of the senior leadership team in their vision and execution of ideas with the final say being made by those in higher power.

Factors that influence the debate include the government or governing body of the school. Some private schools have board members instead of a government dictating certain aspects of the school while other schools may have higher parent community say.

Our school does use a more collegial, collaborative approach for a number of initiatives. Our working groups in Primary are divided by interest (inquiry, mathematics, language). The groups meet about once a month to discuss what they would like to research in and how this impacts the school. Much of our curriculum programme developments have been explored through this avenue before being signed off on by the senior leadership team (which does perpetuate the hierarchy) but then the training and implementation is lead by the developing staff members. This helps to empower all staff members to be contributing members to the ongoing development of our school programmes with current teaching and learning strategies.

Readings

Owens, R. (2001). Mainstreams of organizational thought. In Organizational behavior in education : instructional leadership and school reform (7th ed.) (pp. 34-54). Boston : Allyn and Bacon.

Owens, R. G. (2004). Organizational theory in the modern period. In Organizational behavior in education : adaptive leadership and school reform (8th ed.) (pp. 104- 150). Boston: Pearson/A and B.

Owens, Robert G. (2011) Organizational Behaviour in Education: Leadership and School Reform (pp 199-221). Boston: Pearson.

Trait Theory of Leadership

How relevant is the trait theory to your workplace?

When I was reading this article, it made me think of the IB Learner Profile and transdisciplinary skills to some degree. The learner profile attributes are ten qualities as teachers we try to instil in our students to help them be successful beyond our school. It is difficult to measure these attributes (How do you measuring caring vs very caring vs exceptionally caring objectively?).  

In the workplace, qualities are used as identifiers in appraisals and are outlined in job descriptions. Again though, it can be difficult to objectively measure and provide evidence for any of these qualities except for observations, anecdotes and perhaps comparisons between people. Often a person with certain characteristics is encouraged to apply for certain jobs. However, while the person may have certain qualities, they still have to use them effectively in the given context to hold any value for the organisation. It is also important to remember that with subjectivity can come different perspectives. A strong driven leader may also be seen as too pushy with their agendas

Strengths of Trait Theory of Leadership

• Exists due to characteristics people want in their ‘heros’ p 13
• Quick way to identify potential ‘good leaders’
• Highlights ‘idealistic’ characteristics people want in leaders

Weaknesses of Trait Theory of Leadership

• Good leadership not based on physical traits (age, height, weight, appearance) p. 11
• Doesn’t take into account social context (good in one context, not the other) p 11
• Separates people into ‘leaders’ and ‘non-leaders’ through subjective judgements  p.12
• Over simplistic and doesn’t take into account all factors of what makes a good leader p 13
• Low correlation between good leadership and characteristics (and some contradicting)

Does your nation or province have a framework which lists the capabilities or competencies of educational leadership?

Working in an international private school in Singapore, I am not aware of a framework of capabilities or competencies of educational leadership. It has been interesting to read about the  Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) in others’ blogs.

References

Watkins, P. (1986). The trait approach. In A critical review of leadership concepts and research: The implications for educational administration (pp. 11-13, 21-25, 28),

Heroic Masculinist Notion of Leadership

While I believe that non-white male leaders are becoming more prevalent, there is still a lack of equality. As a female in the international teaching setting in Asia, it is very rare to find female heads of school or even female Heads of Secondary/Primary. In my current organisation, our senior leadership team consists of 5 administrators (head of schools, head of secondary, head of primary, head of student services and director of education technology). Of those five, only the head of student services is female.

It is also challenging in Asian countries with the stereotypes of our parent community expecting a male to be the dominant leaders in the schools. I have been in many meetings where a parent from an Asian country continuously looks to my male counterpart to answer, even when I have already provided him with the answer. There is definitely a need to break down gender stereotypes and support equality.

As a female aspiring to be in leadership, it is difficult to find female leaders and mentors to look up. It can be frustrating with education being a profession with a higher percentage of female educators, and yet, so few females reach the top of the leadership chain. I’ve recently received a copy of Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and am looking forward to hearing her perspective on this topic.