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

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66Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual ConferenceIt is undoubtedly true that there is no education development without effectiveleadership and there is no effective leadership without teachers’ activeparticipation in curriculum formulation. This reveals the bottom-up orientation ofthis approach which calls first for teacher’s contribution before taking anydecision that opts for curriculum change. If education plays an important role inimproving society, so does effective leadership in improving teaching practices.To this end, leaders need to change their attitudes towards their members. Theyshould view them as their ‘participants (members) and not ‘followers’)‘stakeholders’ by the virtue of the negative connotation the word ‘followers’ mayhold. Participants need to observe that the leader’s use of words that define theleader and the community as one have to change. Leaders need to make use ofinclusive words like we, us and our in their speeches either in informal or formalmeetings. The use of inclusive words may suggest an effort by the leader to makethe institution achieve better results and to solve problems collectively (Greiner,2002). Leaders are required to work collaboratively and should “maintain mutualrespect among all members of the campus community” (Diamond, 2002:19).Leaders, the administration staff, the teaching staff as well as the students mustfeel that they are an integral part of any decision making. If they feelmarginalised as members within the campus community, it will be difficult if notimpossible to take initiatives and decisions, especially if we are looking forwardto achieving lasting change and improving student achievement outcomes.Likewise, teachers are required to:• Develop, pilot and new teaching practices• Provide pre-service and in-service training• Respond to the learning needs of the students• Conduct and participate in professional development• Engage the family in the work of the classroom and the school• Participate in recruitment and hiring of new teachers• Be flexibility and open• Reflect the policy and the philosophy of the institution at largeDiamond (et. al., 2002); Williams-Boyd (2002:9-10).5.2 No Effective Educational Leadership without Students’ contributionGiven the fact that the ultimate goal of the institution mission is to improve thestudents’ achievement and bring about effective sustainable learning, the studentsshould participate in the syllabus design and the school management. Theinstitution is, therefore, required to conduct, to borrow Yalden’s (1987) words, a
67Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual Conference‘discussion’ or ‘negotiation’ analysis in which case students are invited toactively participate in discussing their needs and wants with their languageinstructors Students are therefore able “to make some recommendations as towhat should happen in the resultant course” (Robinson, 1991:14). It is alsoessential to take students’ needs into consideration whatever the clashes thatmight emerge between students’ personal needs and the teacher’s perceived needson the one hand, and between the students’ needs and the institutions’ needs onthe other, working collaboratively with a hope to meet the expectations of each(Larouz, 1996).Importantly, students will have the chance to be aware of their own needs andwants as well as their preferred styles of learning which are to be taken intoaccount by all the concerned. It could be suggested that there could be nolanguage development or syllabus development without negotiating with thestudents about what and how they wish to learn because involving students indecision making may provide insights into language learning and teaching as wellas the making of the textbook, as Kemmis and Mactaggart (1986:171) note“curriculum negotiation involves giving students a voice in the choice anddevelopment of learning opportunities in the classroom: both the what and thehow of the curriculum.”Moreover, the role of the students needs to change. They should know that theyare responsible for their own learning and therefore should not be dependent toomuch on the teacher. The teacher is there to guide and to assist but most of thejob is done by the students themselves. They should change from ‘Jug learners’ to‘Candle learners’ (Scholfield, 1987). ‘Jug learners’ are those who regardthemselves as jugs to be filled with knowledge, that is, those who prefer toreceive knowledge from other people (from teachers) . ‘Candle learners’, on theother hand, are those learners who are regarded as candles to be lit with ideas andthen burn with their own light of learning, that is, those who bring light tolearning. They are highly motivated to the extent that they can contribute andseek for knowledge. They do not wait for their teacher to feed them, but take theinitiative themselves. Hence, if most of our students prefer to be taughteverything by the teacher, one should not be surprised as this is the sort ofeducation that used to be in the past and still exists not only in Morocco butprobably in most of the Arab world and The Third World in general where theteacher is the model, the ‘Mr know-all’ and students play only a passive role(Larouz, 1996). Perhaps this concept of individualisation in language teachingand learning, “aims at providing as many permutations as possible to the learner
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