The Art of Educational LeadershipBalancing Performance and Accountability

Chapter 1: The Leadership Challenge

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

The Science of Leadership vs. The Art of Leadership

• Science – Taught & measured by lectures, textbooks, and licensure exams

• Art – Measured by practice (learning by doing)

- modeling

- observation

- must pass the “test of credibility” in real schooling situations

Leaders and Leadership are Universal in the Human Experience

• Partial Leadership – Informal or indigenous leaders within an organization.

• Grassroots political organizer Saul Alinsky (1909-1972) was a firm believer than leadership within an organization could exist within the rank and file, not just at the head. In order for an organization to be effective, organizers/persons had to know who the true leaders were.

Point to Ponder…When have you experienced partial leadership in your professional or personal life? Somewhere in your past, people looked up to you for your thoughts or deeds. This partial leadership experience (if it were positive) undoubtedly led you to pursue the path to complete leadership.

Guiding Question: What is the path to transformation in

becoming a complete leader?

• Formal Academic Study (Pedagogy and Practice)• Internship in a real educational setting complete

with mentoring & opportunity for practice*• Continuation of your personal and professional

growth

*Internship as a part of the path to complete leadership is critical-

leadership candidates need an opportunity to try out the skills and

knowledge acquired in the university classroom.

The Path to Complete Leadership, cont’d.

• A Purposive Construction of Self Emerging leaders must carefully construct a public version of their persona,

referred to ask the “Mask of Command” When we are leading, we are acting out a role, hence leadership is an art form The art of leadership is a public performance that unlike acting, it requires the

necessary background and skills necessary to do the job Key to the art of leadership is the emerging leader’s ability to constantly reinvent

themselves, particularly in the face of defeat

Point to Ponder: Think about the leaders you have known – when technology, standards, or approaches/measures to learning have changed, how has the leader’s ability to change or reinvent themselves contributed to their success or failure?

The Path to Complete Leadership, cont’d.

• The Importance of Individual Agency Individual agency represents the “man on a mission” – one

person driven by their own commitment, ideals, a mission, or a cause to make a difference

Leaders are made, not born – much of what we come to know about leaders (or believe) is actually constructed by his or her followers

The Path to Complete Leadership, cont’d.

Common Elements

Scie

nce

Art

Leadership vs. Management• Manager: A maintenance role; seeks to improve the functions of

the current organization. A manager is bound to the organization, maintains a conservative outlook, and is slow to accept change (possible threat to existence)

• Leader: Primary function is to change the organization

Managers are the least likely to affect significant change within an organization. Change, when initiated by management, is considered to be more “tinkering” than real transformation.

W. Edwards Deming (father of TQM) indicated that “significant change in an organization can never be brought without outside intervention”. A system cannot fully understand itself.

Activity: Reform vs. Refinement?Block Scheduling Cooperative Learning

Performance Pay Curriculum Alignment

Looping Vouchers & Charter Schools

Parental Involvement Strategic Planning

Writing Across the Curriculum Phonics

The Middle School Constructivist Teaching

Accountability Zero-Based Budgeting

Group Counseling Clinical Supervision

Gifted Education Team Teaching

Differentiated Instruction De-tracking

Leadership vs. Management, cont’d.

So…which persona is better for schools? Leaders or Managers?

Fenwick English:

“Schools are in desperate need of both leaders

and managers…Leadership is necessary to organizational growth

and change. If an organization is not managed, it cannot be

led well.”

Leadership and management, though different, must work in

tandem to effectively run a school.

Conclusion and Final Considerations

• Partial leadership experiences guide us to desire to be a “complete leader”. The path to complete leadership includes:

Formal academic study, internship experience, and personal/professional growth Purposive construction of self Individual agency Management and leadership capacity

Final Points to Ponder…•Are we as educators performing more in a management or a leadership capacity? •Do you agree with English that the path to complete leadership must pass through the internship phase/process? •Do our own dissertation proposals seek to advance pedagogy & practice from a leadership or managerial standpoint?