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Dion Ginanto
The role of principal cannot be separated
from the context of the community, because principals are supposed to
understand what the community expects for the school. The principal should be
able to develop relationships not only internally (faculty, staff and student) but
also with the external community (parents, stakeholders, districts, and state and
federal government), in order to create a positive educational climate. The positive principal’s community leadership
can have big impact on the school community, and therefore it can influence students’
success significantly. Thus, principals are encouraged to be actively engaged
in the community activities as well as to become an influence in the community.
To prepare myself to become a future leader, I will start to participate in the
community activities while I am studying in college. As my first step, I attended
the Mercy and Merciful activity held
by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Michigan State University in order to
gain deep information about the leadership skills and values applied in that
organization. In this article I will discuss what I learned from MSA: The
outside view of the school principal, the role of the principal in the
community, addressing social justice in my leadership practice, and actions of community
leadership practice.
The Outside View of the
School Principal
On
January 24, 2013, I attended the meeting of the MSA members, who discussed
“Mercy and Merciful in Islam”, the meeting is set like a seminar; it was opened
by the president of MSA, and then it continued with discussion led by a speaker
who is also a member of MSA. There were approximately 50 students who attended
the discussion held in the Eppley Center, MSU. All the participants at that
night were Muslims, yet often times the meetings were attended by non-Muslims. The
speaker spent about 40 minutes presenting ideas about the Mercy of Merciful,
citing the Quran (holly book of Muslim) and the Hadiths (guidance for Muslims
from the prophet Muhammad); the audiences then continued with informal
discussion.
What is MSA? In order to get
information about MSA, I browsed the MSA website, and I found the following
about MSA:
MSA stands for the
Muslim Students' Association. Its purpose is to bring Muslim students together
on campus, and it tries to educate both Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam.
Many MSAs across the nation have social, political, and educational activities
to help achieve these goals. One thing that many MSAs have in common is the
annual Islam Awareness Week. This Event varies from campus to campus but its goal
is usually the same: to educate people about Islam and wipe away negative
stereotypes about the beautiful religion. The MSA at MSU is more than just a
group of people in an organization. It's a family of brothers and sisters in
Islam. It strives to bring people together for the sake of God. (Anon: 2013)
In seeking a deeper understanding about MSA as one community
organization outside school, I also interviewed the president of MSA: AM (I use
initials for confidentially reasons). After the discussion in the meeting, I
set up an interview appointment with her. She agreed to be interviewed using
social media: facebook.com.
I
then asked her my first question: “What is the vision of MSA?” AM answered:
“The vision of the MSA is to serve as an open platform for Muslims and
non-Muslims alike to seek assistance, representation, community, and also
growth.” In my opinion, the vision of MSA is very unique; even though MSA is a
Muslim student association, MSA serves as an open platform to non-Muslims to
seek assistance, representation, community, and growth. MSA is a very good
community organization that I can use as one of the sources for my leadership as
principal. Because I believe in being a good school principal, I am not only
focusing on inside the building; I also need to focus on the outside community in
order to create an effective school.
The Role of the Principal
in the Community
Flessa (2009) conducted research
on four principals in an urban school in Northern California, and the result
was really fascinating, because the four principals in the study used their
discretion to distance the school from its surrounding community (from parents,
basically), and they justified the distance by saying that the parental
community was just too much trouble for there to be any measurable benefit from
making connections beyond the schoolhouse walls. These four principals who kept
distance from the community has made the urban schools they led never perform
well.
The four perspectives of these
four principals contradicted with the idea of Delpit (2006), who suggested that
schools must revel in the diversity of their students and that of the world
outside the classroom community. Khalifa (2012) also asserted in his paper that
principals’ increased community presence helps develop and maintain culturally
appropriate school and community leadership practices. In line with this, the
MSA president uses her leadership skills to maintain the relationships and
networks of MSA with the community outside campus. Moreover, MSA not only
serves Muslim students; it also serves non-Muslim students. From my interview,
I learned about three leadership values applied by MSA in maintaining its relationship
with the outside community: collaboration, equity (open-minded), and trust.
a.
Collaborative
Writer : How MSA can share Islamic leadership values
to the members?
AM :
MSA shares Islamic leadership values by having executive board members who have been put in place to
represent those values to the best of their abilities and also offer and
encourage new leaderships with our elections.
From the interview, I concluded
that one of the leadership values that AM has is collaboration. By having shared
leadership with the executive board members in order to represent these values to
the best of their abilities in doing their programs, MSA has represented the
collaborative values of the organization. Collaborative values have become very
important in the organization, since these values can trigger and support a sense
of belonging of the members to their organization.
The collaborative value is
part of the ELCC standards # 4.1:Collaborate with families and other community
members (Whitehead, Boschee, and Decker, 2013). Accordingly, as a strong principal,
I will apply this value in leading my building to make outside relationship
with the community. Collaboration among teachers, staffs, students, parents,
and the community can promote the effectiveness of the school.
b.
Equity
(open-minded)
An unequal learning
opportunity can happen in every place, whether
in the west or the east part of the world. Therefore, all principals should
have the equity value in leading their institution. In regard to the community
perspective, every leader should be discouraged from discriminating against the
students or parents. We cannot discriminate against the community based on
their gender, race, language, culture, religion, etc. Lopez, Scribner, and
Mahitivanichcha (2001) believes that “if parents
felt genuinely welcome on the school campus, and are treated with respect and
dignity, future involvement would be a likely possibility” (p. 272). Further,
Lopez (2003) asserted that “school leaders must be prepared to work with
individuals who are culturally different and help create learning environments
that foster respect, tolerance, and intercultural understanding” ( Lopez, 2003 p.71).
AM in our interview also
signaled the importance of the equity in the organization:
Writer : How do you share mercy values to non-Muslim
students?
AM :
We share mercy through Islamic Awareness Week, Fast-a-Thon (where we encourage
non-Muslims to fast for a day and we donate money for each person fasting),
Project Downtown (where we give sandwiches to the homeless) and through
different projects throughout the year.
The first activity mentioned above, Fast-a-Thon is promoted not only with
Muslims, but also with those who are not Muslims. This indicates that MSA does
not see religion as a divider in their institution; this also indicates how
open minded the e-board of MSA is. The second activity, Project Downtown which
gives donations to the homeless, also reflects the spirit of togetherness.
Those kinds of activities are good examples to be applied on the school campus
in order to promote the spirit of togetherness between schools and their the
outside community.
c.
Trust
Chang
(1993), in Khalifa (2012), contended that building trust in the community is
the major challenge to developing meaningful collaborations. Therefore, as a
school leader, I will develop my integrity to show my trust to my staffs,
students, and the community. MSA at MSU tries to develop trust from the inside
of their organization, to trigger further trust of the community (brother and
sisterhood).
Writer :
What are the principals’ values that MSA has in the organization?
AM : We definitely value spiritual growth as
well as social growth -- we encourage our members to become better Muslims but
we would like to encourage a brother and sisterhood among our members to do
that as well.
I believe if principals can put trust in
all the elements of their school, a better and more positive climate in the
school will come true.
Addressing
Social Justice in My Leadership Practice
Theoharis (2007) summarized
researchers’ ideas about leadership for social justice. He concluded that the
tremendous success of schools is not only for White, middle-class, and affluent
students but also needs to include students from varied racial, socio-economic,
linguistics, and cultural backgrounds. In addition, Lopez (2003) asserted in
his article that school leaders must be prepared to work with individuals who
are currently different, and to help create learning environments that foster
respect, tolerance, and intercultural understanding. Therefore, based on my
observation of MSA as a community organization outside school, if I become a
principal I will practice three kinds of leadership roles: social justice
leader, community leader, and parent engager.
a.
Social
Justice Leader
Theoharis
(2007) defined the Social Justice Leader as a leader who makes issues of
diversity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other historically and
currently marginalizing conditions in the United Sates) central to his/her
advocacy, leadership practice, and vision. He also defined this leadership as
the ability of a principal to address and eliminate marginalization in schools.
Lopez (2003), contended that “school leaders should have an awareness of the
effect of racism and how it intersects with other areas of difference such as
gender, sexual orientation, disability, and class oppression” (p.71). Two
activities exemplified by the president of MSA; Fast-a-Thon (that gives opportunities to non-Muslim to fast) and Project Down Town (that gives donations
to the homeless) are the programs that can be adopted for implementation in
schools. I do not suggest adopting activities that represent any kind of
religions; instead we can adopt some activities that can enhance social based
oriented that represent unity in diversities. Therefore, as a school leader I
will promote equality and equity among teachers, students, and parents for
example by giving training on diversity and social justice to the buildings and
community, enhancing the staffs capacity, and strengthening school culture and
community in order to raise all students’ achievement.
b.
Community
Leader
Community
Leader is one of the roles of the principal in the global era (Whitehead,
Boschee, and Decker, 2013). Community as defined by Khalifa (2012) refers to
structures, institutions, and relationships that operate in the spaces
community members occupy. “Community” is performed in residences, markets,
churches, Masonic Lodges, schools, and other neighborhood milieus”(p. 4). Furthermore,
Carpenter-Aeby & Aeby (2001); Walker (2005) in Khalifa (2012), asserted
that based on several studies, school leadership can play a role in
community-oriented goals, improve the neighborhood community, and thus improve
the lives of the students. Consequently, when I become a leader someday, I will
apply my community leader role in leading my institution. I can endorse some
activities that involve the community, such as: celebrating the Muslim days
with the community, developing community in the school’s neighborhood,
celebrating Indonesian independence day with the community, organizing donation
day for the community in need, etc. I believe those kinds of activities can
promote the involvement of the community in creating the successful school I hope
to lead.
c.
Parent
Engager Leader
Recent research suggests that
“parent participation often enhances student self-esteem, improves parent-child
relationships, and helps parents develop positive attitudes toward schools”
(Brown, 1998, in Lopez, Scribner & Mahitivanechcha, 2001). Theoharis (2007)
reported that principals he observed were successful because of the warmth and
welcoming climate of their schools and because of how the principals reached
out to the community and families. Additionally, staff members and principals
can create a welcoming environment for parents by building on their cultural
values, such as stressing personal contacts, and communication while facilitating
structural accommodations that encourage parental involvement (Scribner, Young,
& Pedroza, 1999, in Lopez, Scribner & Mahitivanechcha, 2001).
Accordingly, in being a parent engager leader in the future, I will advance parent
engaging activities such as home visits, telephone calls to parents, creating
parents’ social media group, creating parents’ fun activities, etc.
Actions of Community
Leadership Practice
“Because we are an inclusive and
diverse organization, MSA does not have problems with discrimination, thank God”
(AM-MSA president). As a future leader, I will obviously emulate the values
that MSA has enacted as an organization: inclusiveness and diversity. In line
with this, Lopez (2003) argued that today’s administrator must not only be able
to navigate successfully the cultural divisions, but must also have a thorough
understanding of political systems, intergovernmental relations, micro
politics, community participation, interest groups, and theories of power and
conflict in order effectively to do their job.
Therefore, I have already planned my
actions in the future regarding to the leadership practice to the community: (1)
parent engagement (home visits, intensive communications: telephone call,
parental fun activities, parental training, making parent clubs, empowering
parents to get involved in the schools activities, etc); (2) community engagement
(community development activities, celebrating Independence Day with the community,
celebrating Islamic days with the community, organizing donation days with
communities, providing a welcoming environment, hosting school and community
parties); (3) politics and bureaucracy involvement (understanding the constitution
and regulations; making a good connections with the district leader, superintendent,
legislators, etc.; performing seminars about bureaucracy with the staff and
community); and (4) private sector involvement (encouraging the public sectors
to have stronger cooperation and networks with the private sectors, making donations
to the private sectors, inviting private sectors and trainers to school).
All in all, the role of the principal in
the community is very important to create a successful school. Principals
should understand the values of principals, the roles of principals and the
actions of principal in the community. Principals should engage in community
activities by always involving themselves in the schools’ neighborhoods.
MSA-MSU, which I visited last week, is a good example of how roles and the values
of leaderships are enacted in an organization.
Given the statements and examples above,
there are some inquiries that need to be explored in future studies: (1) What
are the possible resistances that principals may get from parents or the community?
(2) What and to what extent are the possible resistances that staff members may
have in opposing the principals’ policies in the community?, (3) What
strategies do principals need to enact if they find resistances from both staff
members and parents in the community? Last but not least, if we want to have a
successful school, all principals should balance the relationships inside and
outside the school community. Therefore, one of the roles of the principal is community
leader.
References:
Anon. (n.d). About us. Retrieved from http://msumsa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=64
Delpit, L. (2006). Other peoples children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New
York: New Press.
Flessa, J. (2009). Urban school
principals, deficit frameworks, and implications for leadership. Journal of School Leadership, 19, 334-368.
Lopez G.R., Scribner J.D, &
Mahitivanichcha, K. (2001). Redifining parental involvement: Lessons from high
migrant-impacted schools. American
Educational Research Journal, 38(2),
253-288.
Theoharis, G. (2007). Social justice
educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice
leadership. Educational Administration
Quarterly, 43(2), 221-258.
Khalifa, M. (2012). A re-newe-ed paradigm
in successful urban school leadership: Principal as community leader. Educational Administration Quarterly, xx(x), 1-39.
Lopez G. R. (2003). The (racially
neutral) politics of education: A critical race theory perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(1), 68-94.
Whitehead,
B., Bjoschee, F., Decker, R., (2013). The
Principal: Leadership for a Global Society; Los Angeles CA., Sage.
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