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LEADERSHIPWhat's In It For Schools?

Thomas J Sergiovanni

RoutledgeFalmer, 2001

Thomas Sergiovanni

Thomas Sergiovanni is Professor of Education at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.

Overview

This book believes in leadership, but not leadership invested only in individuals or only in hierarchies. Leadership that will win for all of our children is based on ideas and is expressed as a function for which all are responsible. Every leadership act leads to more leadership helping the school to become a community of leaders.

Problem with simple theories

Theories or to do lists can't always be generalized. Too rational, too scripted for messy world of education.

Same things produce different results in different contexts.

Leadership not about finding solutions but helping others understand the problems and how to live with them in an imperfect world.

In this untidy world the choice we have is to live with leadership as a fantasy that looks good, sounds good but doesn't work, or as an admittedly complex and messy idea that once properly understood can energize both leaders and those they serve.

(pg.22)

Chapter 17 Principles of Good Leaders

Invert the ruleCauses and consequencesAmoeba TheorySense and MeaningBuild with CanvasBe humble in decision makingMoral aspects

Invert the Rule

Managerially loose, culturally tightNOTManagerially tight, culturally loose

Teachers respond to culture (values, beliefs), NOT diktats and coercion

If you don't invert rule, reforms will either be resisted or avoided, or won't work as intended (teachers will put on pretense of adoption)

Causes and Consequences

Restructuring should be a consequence of improvements to learning.i.e. changes to structures, procedures, systems should support improvements to learning, not cause them

Claims that restructuring will cause improvements to learning should be rejected as simplistic nonsense.

Think Amoeba

Imagine a school as a giant, glob-like amoeba. The leader is the nucleus: brings order, direction and definition; helps others make sense of the big picture.

The leader (nucleus) seeks to get everyone else (protoplasm) to the other side of the street (vision). It is not a linear, rational process that can be planned in advance with specific, expected outcomes, but a subtle, responsive process with a broad vision.

Amoeba v Railroad

The traditional railroad model of leadership emphasises: ends (objectives)

ways (strategy)

means (resources, people, methods).

The amoeba model emphasises means-ways-ends. In other words, get the people right first: develop them and get them working together with a shared vision.

Emphasise Sense and Meaning

Transactional leadership - incentives motivate what gets rewarded gets done - but if people don't believe in what's being done, they will only play along while the incentives are there.

Sense and meaning, and a common purpose satisfaction motivates - what is rewarding gets done

Build with Canvas

(I think this is what Sergiovanni means!)

The canvas is the policies, aims, curriculum, systems that give the school its public face.

Having the right public face will actually give a school greater freedom to interpret, decide and function in ways that make sense.

Externally imposed curricula or requirements can often be interpreted or implemented flexibly schools should use this flexibility.

eg ENC NC never that prescriptive, QCA schemes were always optional.

Form Follows Function

(Part of building with canvas)

Function (tasks) should determine the form (systems and structures). The form is there to support the function.

In the absence of function/tasks (eg formative assessment), a form/system will fill the void (eg standardised assessment linked to computerized software). Then functions (eg tests, data recording, targets based on levels) will be created to serve the form (the system, the software).

Also (my thought), if the Head is so disconnected from what teachers are doing that they are unaware of function, form will be imposed from the top regardless, and functions will be forced to change in order to serve the form, even if the old functions worked. This can create huge teacher resentment.

Be humble in decision making

Humble Style

Reasoned procrastinationUses trial and errorReflective

Decision staggeringSlow, incremental change (low-key decisions)Uses feedback to check progress

Rambo Style

DirectDecisivePersistentConsistentBeing consistent for the sake of consistency.

Remember moral aspects

Is the competence, wellbeing and independence of the follower being enhanced?

Leadership isn't just about efficiency and effectiveness, but also about what is good, what is right, what makes sense and what is worth doing.

Ideas Based Leadership

Chapter 2Lead through ideas cognitive leadership

Ideas (not policies, position, power or personality) should be the source of a leader's authority.

Ideas give the leader substance and make him stand for something worth following.

Ideas at the heart of the school culture.

Ideas Based Leadership

Ideas-based leadership indicates to teachers that they are respected, capable, autonomous professionals.

Teachers share ideas, purpose, values, beliefs.

Sources of Authority

Rules-Based LeadershipSource of authority is bureaucracy (rules, hierarchies, mandates, standards, policies, job descriptions, contracts). Teachers must follow or face the consequences (often made to feel insecure, the odd-one-out or a disappointment).

Personality-Based LeadershipSource of authority is a leader's personality (charisma, motivational skills)

Ideas-Based LeadershipSource of authority is shared ideas. The leader is the symbol for the ideas.

Sources of Authority

Traditional sources of leadership authority are:ExpertiseExperienceCredentialsPositionInterpersonal style

Useful, but not enough.

Also needs SPIRIT:ValuesBeliefsTrust and honestyCharacterSymbolic leadership: being a role model

Shared Leadership

Leadership should be everywhere

Leadership density

Community of leaders

Leadership increases in value if it is shared

Shared Followership

Leader is the head follower.

Teachers and leaders share ideas, purpose, values, beliefs.

Leader as Lead Follower

The leader is the nucleus in the amoeba.

Acts as a model for other followers, eg by supporting teachers, engaging in conversation, leading discussion, assisting meetings, presiding over ceremonies, use of language, displaying attitudes.

The leader's actions symbolize the vision and help teachers and students make sense of it.

Leader as Lead Follower

Leadership based on stewardship and service, not authority, rules or personality.

Conversation not Communication

As head follower, the leader engages others in conversation. Conversation generates ideas.

Other models have the leader engaging in one-way communication, issuing directives, reminders and reprimands.

eg top-down email communication used to enforce top-down management

THREELEADERSHIPMODELS

Pyramid Theory

Relies on direct supervision through management hierarchy.

Uses standardized policies and systems to ensure all managers think and act in the same way.

Railroad Theory

Uses standardized practices which are monitored by managers (often using tick boxes or standardized tests).

Examples: prescribed teaching methods (eg synthetic phonics), approved teaching programmes (eg NLS, NNS).

Disempowers and deskills teachers and heads. Leads to instructional teaching methods, rather than exploratory or creative learning.

High Performance Theory

Relies on measureable outcomes, stated as standardized standards.

Teachers are free to use methods (though outcomes and related tests tend to determine these.)

Standards and tests are set by distant authority (eg government)

All three models treat schools as formal organizations manufacturing standardized products.

Does not suit the messy world of education. Students are not standardized. Gives little room for professional discretion or intuition.

What is to be done and how is not decided by the people who actually do it (teachers and students), so meaning, purpose and emotional commitment is lost.

Standardized practices lead to standardized results for a nonstandardized student body and a nonstandard world.

Shared Purpose and Values

Glues the amoeba together.

Focuses attention on what's important.

Teachers can do own thing as long as it embodies the shared purpose and shared values.

Thoughts

Shared leadership isn't about giving lots of people leadership positions and titled. It's about leadership being part of the school culture.

Subject Leaders

These were freely distributed to all at my last school, whether you liked it or not. But it turned into a to do list that focused on checking up on fellow teachers (eg planning and marking).

They were a way for the Head to offload administrative tasks to teachers.

What a subject leader should have been was a source of knowledge and example of good practice.

Communities of Responsibility

Chapter 4

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