Leadership and Management Development in Education (Education ...

MODELS OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP21sion have been defined, and goals agreed, they have to be converted into strategicand operational management. The implementation phase of the decisionprocess is just as crucial as the development of the school’s vision. Managementwithout vision is rightly criticised as ‘managerialist’ but vision without effectiveimplementation is bound to lead to frustration. Managerial leadership is a vitalpart of the armoury of any successful principal (Bush 2003: 186).A weakness of such an approach, however, is that it is rarely focused on thekey task of managing teaching and learning and it does not require sustainedengagement with school-level stakeholders. As a result, school and studentoutcomes may be disappointing and governments may become concernedabout their inability to compete effectively in a global economy. Thisperception is reflected, for example, in the decision of the highly centralisedSeychelles’ government to require all their headteachers to acquire master’slevelqualifications in educational leadership. It also influenced the report ofthe Task Team set up by the South African government shortly after the firstdemocratic elections in 1994:Improving the quality of learning … requires strategies which focus onchange at the school and classroom levels … Managers can no longer simplywait for instructions or decisions from government. The pace of change,and the need to be adaptable and responsive to local circumstances requiresthat managers develop new skills and ways of working. (Department of Education1996: 13–14)Improving the quality of learning requires an approach to leadership development,which focuses on ‘instructional leadership’. This means attempting tochange the mindset of leaders to regard the processes of teaching and learningas central to their role, rather than simply leaving such matters to classroomteachers. As we noted earlier, however, this model relates to the direction ratherthan the process of leadership. While encouraging leaders to focus on teachingand learning, it offers little guidance on how they should do so. ‘It says littleabout the process by which instructional leadership is to be developed. Itfocuses on the “what” rather than the “how” of educational leadership. In thisrespect, it is a limited and partial model’ (Bush 2003: 186).To address the limitations of the instructional model, it makes sense to link itto an approach that addresses the process as well as the direction of leadership.Transformational leadership is currently in vogue as it accords closely with thepresent emphasis on vision as the central dimension of leadership. Successfulleaders are expected to engage with staff and other stakeholders to produce higherlevels of commitment to achieving the goals of the organisation which, in turn,are linked to the vision. As Miller and Miller (2001: 182) suggest, ‘through thetransforming process, the motives of the leader and follower merge’.