By Dion Ginanto
Principal
leadership is an important factor for promoting high quality of innovation in
schools. In every school in the world, including my school where I teach in
Indonesia, they are trying to find the best model of leadership to be applied
to improve the quality of schools. The principals in Indonesia use different
kinds of leadership, but mostly they use the traditional model of leadership.
Traditional leadership here means that the principal is the hero (head) of the
school. In other words, the growth of the schools depends on the quality of the
principal. Spillane et al. (2004) wrote that it is generally acknowledged that
where there are good schools, there are good leaders. But then, if a principal
leaves the school, it will be difficult to find a successor because candidates
do not have the same capacity as their former principal. As a result, when the
principal is changing, all the policies also change. Therefore, I believe that
the model of the lone instructional leader should be changed. Schools in
Indonesia should try to start applying a model of leadership that does not
focus on a single person, but rather all teachers can be the experts:
distributed leadership. In this essay I discuss some issues related to distributed
leadership: What distributed leadership is, leadership behaviors affecting
distributed leadership, specific steps to assure distributed leadership, and some
challenges in distributed leadership.
What is distributed leadership? Spillane
et al. (2004) defined distributed leadership as not solely a function of an
individual’s ability, skill, charisma, and/or cognition. Distributed leadership
assures that the best understanding of leadership is as a practice distributed
over leaders, followers, and their situation. In addition, distributed
leadership poses the challenge of how to distribute responsibility and
authority for guidance and direction of instruction, and learning about
instruction, so as to increase the likelihood that the decisions of individual
teachers and principals about what to do, and what to learn how to do, combine
into collective benefits for student learning (Elmore, 2000). Therefore, I can
conclude that distributed leadership is the practice of leadership in which the
leader is no longer a central leader who gives top to bottom commands, instead,
the roles of the principal can be distributed (but not be delegated) to all
members; it means involving everyone’s expertise, ideas, and efforts.
What leadership behaviors affect
distributed leadership? In answering this question, I adapt the leadership
behavior offered by Goldrin et al. (2007). They listed three domains that
affect leadership behavior: knowledge and skills, personal characteristics, and
values and beliefs. Leadership behavior is the key process that leaders should
accomplish to improve academic and social learning for all students (core
components: high standards of performance, rigorous curriculum, quality
instruction, supportive culture of learning and professional behavior,
connections to external conditions, and systemic performance accountability (Goldring
et al. (2007)). In order to be able to
influence others in regard to distributed leadership, I would like to sharpen
my leadership behavior. First of all, I will deepen my leadership skills and
knowledge by gathering as much as information and theory as I can about
distributed leadership. I will also engage myself in some leadership training.
Second of all, to develop my personal characteristics, I will always improve my
positive attitudes, for instance, being a role model for the school family.
Finally, I will try my best to have strong values and beliefs. I will strengthen
my leadership by making it the core of my being, defining who I am and how I
choose to be, to do, or to have. I will always try to answer my questions: Why
should I be different from other people? Why should I choose to do certain
things and avoid others? What am I
committed to? And why do I behave in a certain way?
After I have been able to shape my
leadership behavior especially in distributed leadership, I would then focus on
some specific steps to develop distributed leadership skill. I would use POAC (Planning, Organizing,
Actuating and Controlling). POAC is the basic concept of management by George
R. Terry. POAC has been implemented in every organization in the world to
maintain the sustainability of the organization (Anon., 2012). Spillane et al. (2004) drew the relationship
between leadership and management. A good management can maintain the
organizational arrangement more effectively and efficiently.
1. Planning
Planning
is an important process of leadership (Goldring et al., 2007). In this step, I
would like to plan to create the good performance of teachers, the curriculum
and the school climate. To make these performances happen, I would do a careful
planning in hiring qualified teachers. Qualified teachers mean that they are
required not only be able to teach students, but they also need to be able to
work in-group and to understand the school’s goals. To create a rigorous
curriculum, I would like to engage the school community to set up curriculum
planning, including gathering the data needed both to implement systemic
accountability in the school and to monitor the curriculum and instruction
quality (Goldring et al., 2007). To create a better school climate, I would
like to be selective in reaching out to the input of the new students. It does
not mean I would discriminate among students; I believe however, that better
input can influence a better outcome.
2. Organizing
The
key point of distributed leadership is that all people understand their
responsibilities. In distributed leadership, I agree with West Chester
University (WCU) that not everyone is a decision-maker, but everyone is an
expert whose knowledge contributes to the decision-making process (WCU, 2012).
Therefore, in organizing my planning, I will make sure that all in the school’s
society understands their job description, and that core components are
available and used well. To make this happened, I will promote ongoing Personal
Development (PD) for staff members.
3. Actuating
The important thing in action is that I will
be proactive rather than reactive in pursuing school goals. I will actively
engage school staff in implementing a rigorous curriculum that is aligned with
high standards for students’ performance. In this step, I will not only engage
the internal school family, but I will also encourage the external communities
(parents, board members, superintendents, practitioners, etc.) to contribute in
developing our school (e.g., building up effective communication).
4. Controlling
The
last step in promoting distributed leadership in my school is to control,
monitor, and evaluate what we have done so far. In this step, I will collect
the data to be analyzed together with the school members to make judgments that
guide decisions and actions for sustainable improvement (Goldring et al.,
2007).
In promoting distributed leadership,
I believe there will be some challenges. To list the challenges that I will
probably find in applying distributed leadership, I quote the ideas of
DeFlaminis, according to whom there are some conditions that inhibit
distributed leadership (DeFlaminis, 2008 in Mavrogordato, 2012): 1) A history
of distrust and hostility in the school. 2) Past negative experiences in
sharing leadership. 3) Lack of Leadership credibility and consistency. 4) A toxic
or dysfunctional culture. To deal with these problems, I will also adapt the
Idea of DeFlaminis: 1) Clear and shared mission/vision. 2) Structures to
facilitate planning and discussion (professional learning communities). 3).
Rational trust. 4). A culture that supports collaboration (Mavrogordato,
20012).
All in all, I understand that there
are several leadership models to be applied to schools, such as instructional,
transformational, shared leadership, etc. However, as I have observed so far,
distributed leadership is one of the ideal models of leadership that can be
applied in my school in Indonesia. In promoting distributed leadership, I will
shape my leadership behaviors (knowledge and skills, personal characteristics,
and values and beliefs). After that I will apply POAC as my steps to promote
distributed leadership in my school. The
final outcome of applying distributed leadership is the students’ successes.
References
Anon.
(2012) . Management Concepts and Applications/Management. Wikibooks. Retrieved
from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Management_Concepts_and_Applications/Management
Elmore,
R.F. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. Washington, D.C.:
The Albert Shanker Institute.
Goldring,
E., Porter, A.C., Murphy, J., Elliot, S.N. & Cravens, X. (2007). Assessing
learning centered-leadership: Connections to research, professional standards,
and current practices. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.
Mavrogordato,
Madeline. (2012) The evolving practice of school leaders (Week 10). A class presentation. Michigan: Michigan
State University.
Spilane, J.P.,
Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2004). Towards a theory of leadership
practice: A distributed perspective. Journal
of curriculum Studies, 36(1), 3-34.
West Chester University (WCU). (2012)
Distributed leadership. Pennsylvania. Retrieved from http://www.wcupa.edu/_information/afa/VPAdminFiscal/DistLead.htm
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