Empowering Leadership Skills of Female Learners in

Mixed-Gender EFL classrooms

Toury Fouzia

Aims: What is Leadership? What is a leader? What are the characteristics Of a Leader? Leadership and Education How can we make leader Students? What is Educational leadership? What Relation is between Education, women

empowerment and leadership? How can we Create girl/woman leaders? Leadership Teaching Activities Conclusion

What is Leadership?

‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.’

Steve Jobs

‘Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.’

JOHN C. MAXWELL, Leadership Gold

‘Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.’

Dwight D. Eisenhower

A group Context

Goal

Influence

Leadership

What is a leader?

‘To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow

someone who doesn't know where he is going.’

. JOE NAMATH

What are the characteristics Of a Leader?

• Strong drive for responsibility,

• Focus on completing the task,

• Vigour and persistence in pursuit of goals,

• Originality in problem-solving,

• Drive to exercise initiative in social settings,

• Self-confidence,

• Sense of personal identity,• Willingness to accept consequences

of decisions and actions

• Readiness to adsorb interpersonal stress,

• Willingness to tolerate frustration and delay

• Ability to influence the behaviour of others,

• Capacity to structure social systems to the purpose in hand.

Leadership and Education

• Leadership is mainly related to:What we teach; How we teach; What goals we want to achieve and what type of students we want to have.

How can we make leader Students?

• Give Responsibility• Set roles• Give tasks• Evaluate achievement• Create Competition• Interpret• Motivate• Give Reward

What is Educational leadership?

Educational Leader Student leader

Interactive Roles of Educational Leadership:

Educational Leader

Reflective about his teaching

What

How

Why

Student Leader

Reflective about his learning

What

How

Why

“Educate a man you educate one person. Educate a woman you educate the whole family”

Jawharlal Nehru

Education

Women Empowerment

Leadership

• It is universally accepted that education is a significant instrument in improving the status of woman.

• Education is the key to create equitable environment; where woman can gain confidence, recognize their rights and claim them.

• If a woman is educated then it will build self-confidence and this will result in empowerment.

Raise The living standards

To have a source of income

Education for woman

How can we Create girl/woman leaders?

One key to leadership is self-perception: girls need to develop their self-confidence in their own skills and leadership competencies.

To provide supportive environments in which they can acquire leadership experience .

To give a successful leadership program that addresses the girls’ need for emotional safety, and desire for social and personal development.

A healthy educational environment can develop leadership skills and offer leadership opportunities at younger ages.

HOW?

Be a Leadership Example or give a leadership example;

Break those ‘sexism’ stereotypes;

Stress: “There are different leadership styles”

Encourage her voice; Provide Early Leadership

Opportunities Find ways that she can

make a difference.

Leadership Teaching Activities

Sunshine cards name

Everyone writes his/her name sun in the centre of a piece of paper and draws a sun around their name.

Pass your paper around to the person on your right. That person will write something positive about you and they do not have to sign their name.

Continue to pass your name around until everyone has written something on all the papers.

Creative names tag

Give everyone 15 min to make their own name tag.

A student can list her/his hobbies, draw a picture, give a self-profile…etc.

Talent Show:

Everyone selects one talent or special gift that she possesses and can demonstrates for the group.

Students introduce themselves, explain what their special talent is, and then perform their special talent for the group.

What Are Your Hopes Today?

What are your new Resolutions?

I. Your Leadership Calendar

You mark twelve different days on your calendar spread out over four or six months.

At the end of each marked day, you should write down some leadership behavior (either positive or negative) that you exercised during that day.  

Each behavior should be followed by a reaction statement that answers two questions:

“How did I feel about my action or behavior?”  and  “How does this action or behavior jive with what I know about leadership best practices?”

The best thing: You write different words and ask students to

choose to describe themselves:

Hot Hot Hot Tamale

Hot Hot Hot Tamale requires students to reflect on positive qualities about themselves.

You guide the lesson by having the whole class sitting in a circle together.

Nerf balls or plastic peppers can be used to pass around the circle.

You may have more than one pepper passing around at one time.

When you yell "Hot Hot Hot Tamale" the students with the peppers or balls in their hands stop and recite one positive quality about themselves.

This activity builds self esteem in children by having them think of their positive attributes.

The Magic Wand

You have just found a magic wand that allows you to change three work related activities. You can change anything you want.

How would you change yourself, your job, your boss, coworkers, an important project, etc.?

Discuss why it is important to make the change? Discuss what you would change if you become

the boss for a month. This activity helps to learn about others' desires

and frustrations.

I Admire you: Name five traits of a successful person:

I Admire You

This game helps to identify leadership qualities and helps individuals decide what leadership qualities they are going to form. You will need writing utensils, paper, and a blackboard or flip chart for this activity.

Have everyone think of someone whom they consider an effective leader. Write down the qualities that make that person a good leader. Have each team compile a list of qualities that make a good leader. Discuss why these qualities are important. Have one person from each team write the qualities they discussed on

the board or flip chart. On a clean piece of paper, have each individual write what leadership quality he or she is going to develop.

Instruct everyone to take this paper home and tape it where they can see it every day, as a reminder of the leadership qualities he or she is striving for

Leadership Values 

 It is important that leaders clarify their own sense of leadership values. 

 Reflect upon the values that define your role as a leader?  Then individually circle five values listed below that best complete the following sentence:

" _________________ is a ‘cornerstone’ in my approach to leadership."

 

" _________________ is a ‘cornerstone’ in my approach to leadership."  ACHIEVEMENT ADVENTURE CHALLENGE CONTROL CREATIVITY ECONOMIC BALANCE FAIRNESS FREEDOM HAPPINESS HARDWORK HONESTY HARMONY INVOLVEMENT ORDER 

AFFECTION COMFORT CONFORMITY COOPERATION DIRECTNESS EXPERTNESS FLEXIBILITY FRIENDSHIP HELPFULNESS INDEPENDENCE INTEGRITY LEADERSHIP MORALITY ETHICS LOYALTY VALUES RESPECT  

Organization and Planning: Organizing a Party

Work in groups of three or four and plan a party:

1. Make a list of things you have to do ( write the invitations, send the invitations, choose the food, plan the music, etc)

2. Each students should have a task to do and place to go.

3. It is a team project in which everyone is involved to do a particular task.

Grammar: React as in the example:

Men get better salaries.They used to get better salaries, but now

women get the same salaries as men.

Men get better posts….

Men enjoy privileges…

Men have got more rights than men…

Men have got more job opportunities…

Writing: Write about these subjects:

Boys: How would you feel if your wife earned more money than you?

Girls: How would you feel if you earned much more money than your husband?

In my future life I might …

I could …I may …But I’ll definitely …

Poems for the future - modals

In my future life I’d like to be a cat,

I’d like to sleep for twelve hours

Then dance around my flat.

I’d like to play by moonlight

And sunbathe in the sun,

I’d like to climb a palm tree

And catch my tail for fun.

I’d like to dine on fresh fish

Then drink a sea of milk,

I’d like to live – that’s my

last wish,

Please ban all dogs

from earth![Adapted from:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/poems-

future]

Letter to Self

• A good follow-up activity is is to have participants write a letter to themselves as they will be a year or two in the future

• Such a letter forces them to think about what they wish to accomplish by that date, and, one hopes, inspire them to take action to make those goals happen.

• Have participants address envelopes to their permanent addresses (such as parents' homes) and tuck the letters inside.

• Make a note on your own calendar and make sure to mail the letters near that future date.

• Alternately, use an e-mail service such as FutureMe (free), which will deliver an e-mail with a time delay.

Discuss:International Women's day Means:

1. Women actually exist (for one day)2. Women don't have full human rights (imagine an

international men's year)3. Women are still struggling to survive (Do you feel free to

walk alone at night?)

Do you want to change the world?

You present different destinations where people can go and do voluntary work.

Make students choose one place and discuss why they are making such choice.

Care Work in South

Africa

Conservation in Malaysia

Care work in Costa Rica

Teaching in Tanzania

You write different words and ask students to choose to describe dreams/ future jobs and why?

Minister; President; Police officer; Pilot; Train driver; Music Composer; Graphic Designer; Teacher, etc.

Career Seeking: It's important for teenagers to feel excited about the

future and to have a sense of empowerment when it comes to planning their lives.

Have students make top-five lists of careers they are interested in.

Tell students to seek out internships or opportunities to shadow actual professionals in one of these jobs.

Students must write their resumes, contact potential employers, pitch themselves and their skills, ask for an internship or shadowing opportunity and organize such opportunities into their schedules.

The quick Change Artist game

You pair off into partners facing each other. Each player is to observe his or her partner’s appearance. Then the players turn around back to back and make two or more changes in their dress, hair accessories, etc.

When they face each other again, each partner must identify the changes made by his or her partner.

This game can be repeated several times by changing partners and increasing the number of changes made.

Special Classes

Provide special classes and lectures once a month. Invite a prominent leader in your community to share his

successes and how leadership principles helped him to achieve.

Read a leadership book together and discuss it at the beginning of each of these classes.

Use videos and webcasts to bring in experts in the leadership field to educate your school leadership.

Video of Justin Bieber: Never say Never

What is the key of being successful and making a difference? 

Recognizing a challenge Captivating the attention of influencers Finding support from your communitySeeing the path to successWorking on your personal capacities and

talents.

Assign Classroom Jobs

With students, create a list of jobs for the week. Using the criteria of your choosing, let students earn the opportunity to pick their classroom jobs for the next week. These jobs can cater to their interests and skills.

Classroom Job Examples: 

Post to the Class blog or page;Update Calendar;Moderate review games;Pick start of class music;Watch class pet or plants;Public relations officer (address people who visit class);Standard class jobs like Attendance, Cleaning the boards, putting up chairs, etc.

Guess Who?

This is a game about famous leader women.

If you find out the woman we are looking for, you are the Winner and you will get a Surprise Gift.

Personal Jar

If you have done something positive, or have had a positive emotion, or have changed something in your life, write it in a small paper and put in a jar.

Whenever you have the chance, you can read those papers and reflect on them and on your future plans.

Key Words for a Successful Woman Leader:

Focus;Strong desire to succeed;Good Organization of time;Continuous learning;Taking the initiative;Knowledge is power;Getting out of the secure circle;Getting close to successful leader people.

Conclusion:

This image makes us deeply think about the kind of girls and women we want to have in our community. This little girl is innocently focused, determined and willing to succeed despite all the unpleasant learning conditions. What matters for her as well as for the young boy near her is to take the pen and draw the rainbows of their dreams in their handy notebooks.

So let’s all gather hands to help them to learn and to lead.

References:

What is leadership? Leadership South West, Research1. Say What you Mean. Andre Ballan Dras, 1977.Gd Fernard Nathan1977. The business Intermediate Students’Book. John Allison with Paul Emerson. MC Millan. Putting Education Back into Educational Leadership VIVIANE M. J. ROBINSON . Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland Helping Girls Become Confident Leaders. Posted: July 5th, 2011 by Michele Borba. www.ehow.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaynab_an-Nafzawiyyah http://leadershipteacher.webnode.com/respect-for-self-others/ http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/icebreak.html

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Email: touryfouzia@gmail.com