ETL504 Assignment 1 A1: Concept Map of Leadership

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Link to concept map

ETL504 Assignment 1 B: Reflective Critical Analysis

     As a fairly young educator, I was very new to the field of leadership theory at the start of this subject. When I began reading about leadership styles, I believed that you had to choose one and that was the way you operated. Planning out a concept map and a reading by Stewart (2006) has helped me to see that highly effective leaders will employ multiple leadership styles in order to successfully lead their teams towards their desired outcomes. This task has enabled me to see leadership through a new lens.

     When exploring the many different styles of leadership, I was immediately drawn to the idea of servant leadership (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). The concept of leading from the middle of an organisation, in my case a primary school, was completely new and in many ways reassuring. Teacher librarians (TLs) act in leadership roles when they support their colleagues and their students achieve particular goals. As a servant leader, one can act as a mentor, confidant, tutor, resource guide, cheer squad, and possibly even inspiration. It is a role where it is possible to make a real difference, without the added responsibilities of being part of the school executive.

     The leadership skills required for all styles of leadership resonated with me. In my short time in the classroom and the library, I have seen examples of strong leaders and weak leaders. The thing that really differentiates the two are the strength of their interpersonal skills (BenBrocker, 2012, March 22). Teachers and TLs generally have great technical skills in the fields of educational theory, pedagogy and curriculum knowledge. Most also have solid conceptual skills, such as problem solving and decision making. But the one area that some have a serious deficit in are the interpersonal skills, primarily those of trust, authenticity, honesty, and clear communication (Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009). Without a solid foundation of these skills, people do not follow leaders completely which can cause barriers and complications on the path to making the school a better place for its students.

     Transformational leadership hold a lot of promise. I really like the idea of ensuring that a school begins moving towards the future with a vision that will surpass a single solo leader (Avolio et al., 2009). A goal of the ideal school environment is admirable, however only really functional if there are achievable and realistic steps set out to make it a reality. I feel that transformational leadership is likely to be difficult to attain when there are so many external pressures and limitations imposed upon schools by government bodies and other external parties. Therefore, I view transformational leadership as only one of the pieces of the leadership puzzle that fit together for TLs and the school environment.

     Through the extended reading into servant leadership and transformational leadership, I have become more inspired by the impact I may have on my colleagues and the overall school environment. I think I will be happy to lead without any other formal title than that of ‘Teacher Librarian’.

References

Avolio, B., Walumbwa, F., & Weber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(Paper 37), 421-449. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621

BenBrocker. (2012, March 22). Leadership theory and critical skills [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAzhiEsZtY

Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). Some theories and theorists on leadership. School leadership that works : From research to results (pp. 13-27). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved from http://www.csuau.eblib.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/patron/Read.aspx?p=280397.

Stewart, J. (2006). Transformational leadership: An evolving concept examined through the works of Burns, Bass, Avolio, and Leithwood. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, (54). Retrieved from: http://www.umanitoba.ca/publications/cjeap/pdf_files/stewart.pdf

Don Tapscott: Four Principles of an Open World.

I have just finished watching a TED Talk by Don Tapscott (2012) on the "four principles for the open world." The following is a reflection on his talk and how I feel these principles apply to a school library.

Tapscott (2012) has been exploring the concept of openness and the way that technology is driving a change towards a more open modern world. He discusses how the internet and contemporary technology are going to be what brings society out of the industrial era in the same way that the printing press moved society from the agrarian society of the feudal system into the industrial age.

Previous models of organisation are beginning to fail and he likens this to a "burning platform." There comes a time when there is a greater cost to remain where you are , doing what you have always done, than the cost of moving on to something different, even it is very new or experimental.

The four principles that Tapscott (2012) identified were collaboration, transparency, sharing, and empowerment, with each corresponding to a different definition of openness.

Collaboration: We are more successful at many pursuits, including in the business world, where we are more productive when we collaborate with others. By taking a risk and seeing help from others, it may be possible to completely exceed the possible outcomes that could be produced by the people in your immediate organisation. Social media can play a large role in this field, as we can gain knowledge from people on the other side of the world to us.

Transparency: No longer, can you count on anything staying hidden from the public eye. It is imperative that organisations are transparent in all of their actions and that they communicate pertinent information with all of their stake holders. Transparency places great value in trust and integrity. Tapscott (2012) summed up the effect of being transparent when he said that "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Sharing: Mainly concerned with intellectual property, more businesses are giving up their private assets and moving towards more innovative business models. The example of the record industry highlighted this point. Rather than changing the way they do business and creating an innovative way of distributing their products, they instead sought legal action against those they felt were infringing on their intellectual property. It is time to reinvent business models and become "a rising tide that lifts all boats."

Empowerment: Simply put, knowledge and intelligence is power. The internet has made access to up-to-date information much easier to obtain.  The open world is bringing freedom with it. Taspcott (2012) gave examples of how technology is becoming a tool for military advancement and has saved countless lives from being lost.

After watching Don Tapscott (2012) discussing the principles required for an open world, my thinking has shifted towards how these principles apply to a school library environment.

• Collaboration is key in a school environment. Teaching cannot occur in a vacuum and it is imperative that teachers collaborate with their colleagues, their leadership team, and their teacher librarian to plan teaching units of work that inspire and engage their students. We should also being to explore the possibility of collaborating with other teachers and teacher librarians from around the world.
• Transparency and accountability are things that cannot be ignored by schools. As educators, we are accountable to our students, their parents, our colleagues, our executive, our governing body, our state government and the federal government. We have to account for all of our actions and make sure that our teaching and learning intentions are clear and explicit. As teacher librarians, we are accountable for all of the resources that we provide access to and the information that they contains, as well as being responsible for budgets and other administrative components of the business side of schools.
• Sharing goes hand in hand with collaboration. As teachers and teacher librarians, we are in the market of information and knowledge. We need to ensure that we are providing our students with information in ways that are easily accessible to them. This may soon lead to the need for new ways of transferring this information and knowledge, as we move away from the classroom structures of the industrial age and into the unknown.
• It is a teachers job to empower their students. Children are the leaders of tomorrow and it is vital that we equip our students with the knowledge and skills required to harness the freedom that immediate access to information brings. We need to encourage innovation and creativity and school libraries can play and important role in this.

There is so much more to explore about these 4 principles. I would love to explore the role that a teacher librarian can play in empowering our students more in the future.

TED. (2012, June 28). Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfqwHT3u1-8