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

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48Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual ConferenceAs Allen explains, it is the dialogical voice that is more likely to bringmeaningful change and transform educational practices since unlike itspredecessors it involves a substantial amount of commitment and risk-taking. Bybeing empowered through a sense of ownership of their job, teachers are likely totake a vested interest in enhancing the performance of their organization.Today, it is taken almost as axiomatic that effective leadership correlates withschool improvement. Such a claim is substantiated by a sizeable body of research.Mulford (2006) reports on a project called Leadership for OrganizationalLearning and Student Outcomes (LOLSO) conducted through the AustralianResearch Council. The Project found that distributive leadership has a directrelationship with students’ scholastic achievement. The exemplary head teacherdisplays a “caring ethos” towards other teachers; teachers were treated with greatrespect and encouraged to exchange their ideas about curriculum developmentand school policies. Mulford concludes that, in order to ensure scholasticachievement, teachers should be held in high esteem and be encouraged to makedecisions about school business.In their overview of the literature on distributed leadership, Harris and Muijs(2002) identify three major benefits of distributed leadership:Improving school effectiveness: The authors explain that several studies suggestthat collaboration between teachers is key in school effectiveness. For instance,Taylor and Bogotch (1994), based on data gleaned from 637 teachers, found thatthere is a positive correlation between school participation and schooleffectiveness. Another study by Wong (1996) claims that a strong sense ofcollaboration between teachers and principals has a positive impact on students’learning.Improving teacher effectiveness: Harris and Muijs cite Smylie (1995) who arguesthat there are several ways in which teacher leadership can impact teachereffectiveness. Smylie explains that by engaging teachers through distributedleadership, teachers’ expertise will reach new heights and their confidence andself-esteem will be boosted. As a result, they will be more apt to take risks andexperiment with novel, cutting-edge teaching methods, which in turn will have abeneficial impact on their effectiveness as teachers and leaders both inside andoutside the classroom.Contributing to school improvement: The two scholars contend that currentresearch shows that collegiality, an essential component of distributed leadership,
49Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual Conferenceis crucial in improving schools and ensuring their success. Collegiality entailscontinuous collaboration of teachers’ efforts as well as their co-operation andnetworking. Mitchell and Sackney (2000) have found that school improvement ismore likely to take place when teachers have confidence in themselves, in theability of their colleagues to create change, and in the ability of their schools toenhance their professional development (cited in Harris and Muijs, 2002).In order to achieve these benefits, it is thus necessary to view teachers as partnersin the educational process. Partnership can be established by “stretching”leadership, to use Spillane and Sherer’s (2004) term, across teachers. Some ofthe areas in which leadership can be stretched, henceforth enabling teachers totake up their potential as leaders, are as follows:• Evaluation of colleagues’ teaching performance• Selection of textbooks and instructional materials• Recruitment of new staff, teachers, and administrators• Curriculum development and action research• School policies• Coordination of programs• Professional development• Coaching and mentoring students3. Team power—Distributed Leadership at WorkIn this section, I provide a concrete case of how distributed leadership is put towork in an education center in Morocco. This is done with a view to helpingreaders who are willing to take action see how distributed leadership can create ademocratic atmosphere that promotes students’ learning and teachers’ selfesteem.I will use pseudonyms when referring to teachers in order not to disclosetheir identity. On average, teachers in this center teach two courses, with twosections each, for a total of twelve hours per week. Three aspects of distributedleadership are discussed below: collaboration, collegiality, and involvement incommittees.Collaboration: Although the center under scrutiny is run by a director, Sabrina,she is not the one who selects the materials for the course. At the beginning ofeach semester, one coordinator is appointed per course. The coordinator usuallyvolunteers to coordinate a course and if nobody shows initiative, the directorappoints one. In the worst case scenario, when nobody is willing to coordinate a
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