Leadership and Values in Language Education - Al Akhawayn ...

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104Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual Conference1. choosing textbooks and instructional materials;2. shaping the curriculum;3. setting standards for student behavior;4. deciding whether students are tracked into special classes;5. designing staff development and in-service programs;6. setting promotion and retention policies;7. setting school budgets;8. evaluating teacher performance;9. selecting new teachers and new administratorsSome of these roles (3 & 6), which are exercised by elected teacher leaders, areincluded in the Moroccan university system. However, all the other tasks that areconnected to the classroom context are lacking, a fact which makes the role of theteacher at the university hard and demanding. A teacher needs to be a coursedesigner, a curriculum developer, a test designer, a counselor, and a pedagogue.All this calls for teacher leadership, especially it is believed that whoever theteacher is and whatever he/she does inside the classroom has more impact onlearners’ achievement than any other factors within the university. As a matter offact, following Komives et al (1998), every teacher is in a position to be a leaderby developing his/her own leadership philosophy whose concerns, according to(Hadgkinson, 1983 in Komives et al, op. cit.:68), are “affect, motives, attitudes,beliefs, values, ethics, morals, will, commitment, preferences, norms,expectations, responsibilities”.Given all this state of affairs, the teacher at the university is expected to fulfillhis/her duties with rather big concerns since he/she is considered to be aprofessional who has greater self-governance. Thus, a teacher who is able to builda certain intimacy and passion toward his work would succeed in leading his/herclassroom and achieving his/her goals. To this end, I would suggest somepractices that seem vital to teacher leadership; in fact, some of those practicesoverlap with some principles of English language teaching like learnercenterednessand action research.In designing a course, one needs to take into consideration his/her participants. Inother words, he/she needs to make the course accessible and suitable to their levelof learning. Once in the classroom, the teacher leader needs to choose whichmethodology to use in order to facilitate the teaching and the learning process soas to achieve the proposed goals. The participants do not only need to knowtangible purposes and aims of the course but also be involved in discussing the
105Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual Conferencematerial taught in an attempt to raise their motivation and self-esteem whichmight help them both inside and outside the classroom.Classroom experience is a lifelong learning process. The teacher leader isexpected to reflect and learn from the different practices he/she engages in withthe participants, and being able to constantly question one’s teaching approachesis a necessary step to an understanding of the nature of the teaching/learningprocess. In this respect, one will be able to become aware of his/her weaknessesand strengths, mistakes and successes, for it is viewed that self-examination is thekey to leadership development, and learning is one of the fundamental elementsof any teaching experience. As Bennis (1989:56) has suggested, there are fourelements that play a crucial role in developing self- knowledge:- You are your best teacher.- Accept responsibility- blame no one.- You can learn anything you want to learn.- True understanding comes from reflection on your experience.Professional growth and development are essential to the teacher leader whoneeds to be able to face the difficulty of finding effective ways to change his/herperception so as to get rid of one’s “long-held traditional beliefs with respect topedagogy, culture, and learning” (Andrews, 2007:8). Indeed, instead of merelyusing the same approaches, methods, and course contents throughout one’scareer, he/she needs to keep up with the current ideas and teaching approaches. Inso doing, the teacher will “sustain high level of vigor in the classroom, andprovide appropriate information and feedback to learners” (Heffernan, 2005:5).For this purpose, attending and participating in conferences would undoubtedlyresult in continuous improvement and innovation.Dialogue is a vital component of a teacher leader’s practice inside the classroom.It has proved to be a useful way to approach and know one’s audience (thestudents). In this practice, being a good listener is as important as, and in somecases it is even more important than, being a persuasive speaker. It is critical tolisten to the learners’ concerns and problems with their studies; to this end,empathy is of paramount importance within this kind of relationship between theleader and his/her participants. Komives, et al (op. cit.) has alluded to this pointby asserting that, “the ability to understand others, be understood by others, andtogether create an effective organizational or group environment is the challengeof relational leadership” (p. 159).
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Leadership and Values in Language Education - Al Akhawayn ...

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