Leadership for Change - Artifact One Reflection:
As part of our initial readings in Dr. Pinto’s EDUC 5205G Leadership and Technology course, Fullan & Leithwood's (2012) 21st Century Leadership: Looking Forward explains that preparing and developing school leaders for the 21st-century requires "clearly defined responsibilities, access to appropriate professional development, and leader acknowledgment of their pivotal role in improving school and student performance" (p. 2). Key to my learning journey, this journal introducted the Transformational Leadership Model as something that would influence my work throughout the course:
As outlined in Hughes & Burke’s (2014), The Digital Principle, leaning on the work of Bass & Avolio (1994), the transformational leader is an idealized influencer, an inspirational motivator, an intellectual stimulator, and is always considerate of the needs of those they lead (p. 8). Though, as Fullan & Leithwood (2012) warn, "the biggest change, especially here...is the degree to which education leaders feel responsible for taking action quite directly to a fairly substantial and well-specified set of goals from the ministry” (p. 2). In other words, acting as an agent for change in an institution that is set in its ways will always be a challenge.
Artifact One, under the subtheme of Leadership for Change, is my written report from an interview with an educational technology leader. As outlined in the EDUC 5205G Leadership and Technology course syllabus, the purpose of this assignment is to connect theory to practice: "Identify a technology leader and conduct an interview. After the interview, reflect upon the responses, and make connections to readings, resources, and class discussions” (Hughes, 2015). My questions (available for download at the bottom of this page) were specifically drafted to judge if my interview subject was a transformational leader or not. While my subject certainly attempts to be the transformational leader as described by Hughes and Burke (2014), the inner workings of the institution make this difficult at best. In short, the desire to be an agent of change does not necessarily mean that change is easy to come by.
My interviewee listed three obstacles: (1) a lack of buy-in from upper administration to new pedagogies (and the materials to support them), (2) a lack of buy-in from staff, and (3) a lack of allocated time for skills development. Stating that the institution labels itself a '21st-century school', my interviewee observes the institution unable to guide its staff beyond "how things have always been done". As the change agent in the school, efforts are often slowed, if not outright thwarted from a top-down administrative style of management (Griffiths, 2015).
Interestingly, when as a class we presented our papers, my findings were not unique. In fact, almost every student in EDUC 5205G had executive management practices as the core complaint of their interviewees. The educational technology leader may be charged with promoting change, but traditional practices are difficult to overcome. Perhaps the change agent in the educational setting needs to be, first and foremost, the head of the school and not someone lower on the organizational chart. As Pokharel (2014) states in Principal as Transformational Leader: Getting to Know New Dimension in School Leadership, the transformational principal, as the agent of change, must encourage all parts of the educational leadership development system to work together to make the system more consistent. Since the primary purpose of schools is teaching and learning, all responsible stakeholders must support student achievement and it is the principal who must lead this (p. 65). If the change agent in the school is not the one who can make the hard (and final) decisions on 21st-century learning, perhaps real change will remain elusive.
Artifact One, under the subtheme of Leadership for Change, is my written report from an interview with an educational technology leader. As outlined in the EDUC 5205G Leadership and Technology course syllabus, the purpose of this assignment is to connect theory to practice: "Identify a technology leader and conduct an interview. After the interview, reflect upon the responses, and make connections to readings, resources, and class discussions” (Hughes, 2015). My questions (available for download at the bottom of this page) were specifically drafted to judge if my interview subject was a transformational leader or not. While my subject certainly attempts to be the transformational leader as described by Hughes and Burke (2014), the inner workings of the institution make this difficult at best. In short, the desire to be an agent of change does not necessarily mean that change is easy to come by.
My interviewee listed three obstacles: (1) a lack of buy-in from upper administration to new pedagogies (and the materials to support them), (2) a lack of buy-in from staff, and (3) a lack of allocated time for skills development. Stating that the institution labels itself a '21st-century school', my interviewee observes the institution unable to guide its staff beyond "how things have always been done". As the change agent in the school, efforts are often slowed, if not outright thwarted from a top-down administrative style of management (Griffiths, 2015).
Interestingly, when as a class we presented our papers, my findings were not unique. In fact, almost every student in EDUC 5205G had executive management practices as the core complaint of their interviewees. The educational technology leader may be charged with promoting change, but traditional practices are difficult to overcome. Perhaps the change agent in the educational setting needs to be, first and foremost, the head of the school and not someone lower on the organizational chart. As Pokharel (2014) states in Principal as Transformational Leader: Getting to Know New Dimension in School Leadership, the transformational principal, as the agent of change, must encourage all parts of the educational leadership development system to work together to make the system more consistent. Since the primary purpose of schools is teaching and learning, all responsible stakeholders must support student achievement and it is the principal who must lead this (p. 65). If the change agent in the school is not the one who can make the hard (and final) decisions on 21st-century learning, perhaps real change will remain elusive.
Artifact One: Interview with an Educational Technology Leader
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An Interview with an Educational Technology Leader | |
File Size: | 221 kb |
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List of interview questions | |
File Size: | 50 kb |
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Here is the audio interview that was the basis for the paper: