School Culture

School Culture

 

 

            Several articles highlight the fact that many staff members do not need their principal to be the go-to person for technical issues and they don’t need their principal to be completely up-to-date with the newest “whiz-bang” in education.  What they do want is “communication skills, comfort, empathy, decision making, influence, time management, self-management and commitment.” (Sharma, p.537) Teachers don’t want someone to come into their classroom to tell them how to teach, teachers want a human being with human being feelings to be their leader.  Someone who they can go to at the end of a hard day, say everything that they are feeling to, and then be greeted with a warm smile the next day at work knowing that today is going to be better.  I am thinking of an administrator in my district at this time who works really hard at gaining knowledge about educational practices, but what he really needs to do for the teachers is just spend some time getting to know us and supporting us. 

           

            Grissom notes that the most effective way for a principal to influence his or her school is to establish a positive school culture.  This includes “an ability to target resources where they are needed, hire the best available teachers, provide teachers with the opportunities they need to improve, and keep the school running smoothly.” (Grissom, p.32). Basically, this means that principals should allow teachers to teach.  They are trained and competent individuals.  Obviously, if there is a habitual occurrence that warrants administrator intervention, the principal should be the first one on the scene but for the majority of your teachers, they need someone who can keep the school running smoothly and support them in their endeavors.  Viviano agrees and asserts that “A leader inspires and encourages a collaborative approach. A leader empowers teachers and fosters self-governance” (2012, p.3-4) 

 

            Faqir Taj establishes three levels for principal leadership development.  The first level is self-focused, growing skills for the individual principal.  The second level is taking those skills to the staff such as communication skills and how to engage others in the decision making process.  The third level is to develop teams to make decisions that impact the school, then step back after developing a framework inside of your school, to take a more supervisory role where the staff make the majority of the decisions with assistance as necessary from the principal.  The goal here is to have the principal take a “hands-off” approach to decisions that largely impact the student body under the understanding that the teachers are much more connected to the individual students and their needs and therefore they should be making those decisions that directly impact the students.  All the while, the principal is informed of the decisions and available to assist when necessary.

 

 

 

References

 

Grissom, J. A., Loeb, S., & Urban Institute, N. (2009). Triangulating Principal Effectiveness: How Perspectives of Parents, Teachers, and Assistant Principals Identify the Central Importance of Managerial Skills. Working Paper 35. National Center For Analysis Of Longitudinal Data In Education Research

Sharma, S., Sun, H., & Kannan, S. (2012). A Comparative Analysis on Leadership Qualities of School Principals in China, Malaysia & India. International Online Journal Of Educational Sciences, 4(3), 1-014.

Taj, F., & Iqbal, M. (2012). Strategy for Improving Leadership Skills of School Principals. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business, 3(11), 372-377.

Viviano, T. (2012). What 21st Century Leadership in Career and Technical Education Should Look Like. Online Submission