Educational Leadership

8 Pages 1972 Words

When I first came to the building I am leading, I felt I had to begin my leadership with a transactional approach. I felt this way because my predecessor used a top down or boss management approach. He had a very organized and well-run building. There was a high level of compliance by staff, but not much commitment or trust for leadership. Improving student performance in an inner city middle school requires a high level of commitment. In order to move to move the culture of the building from compliance to commitment, I had to move the leadership style from Boss management to Transformational. One does not do that without the trust of his/her staff. By being a transactional leader, I was able to get tasks completed where my staff developed a sense of trust and dependency towards me. They came to realize, they could count on me and I on them. So, I felt I had to implement a leadership change process that started with transactional leadership before I could move into transformational leadership.

Instructional Leadership Theory
Instructional leadership is being shared with teachers, and in its most progressive forms it is being cast as coaching reflection, collegial investigation, study teams, explorations into uncertain matters, and problem solving (Glanz & Neville, 1997). Gkickman (1985) defined the five primary tasks of instructional leadership as direct assistance to teachers, group development, staff development, curriculum development and action research.

Interview response:
I think I have successfully provided for the five areas as defined by Glickman. In my building the teachers’ team-teach with time for a daily team meeting that in-service or staff development as needed or requested. I als...