Reflective Critical Analysis of the concept of
leadership
Initially, I
found the reading for the first two modules of ETL 504 overwhelming, partly
because I wondered how they could be relevant to my situation. At this point, I do not have my own library,
or even my own classroom. I am a casual
teacher who does day to day work, and the odd block when it comes up. I get a lot of library work, but it isn’t the
same as having a library that is my responsibility. In truth, it wasn’t until I started working on
the assignment that my understanding progressed much. My initial thoughts on leadership were brief,
and not particularly insightful, I wrote the following on the forum:
I have observed as I
float in and out of different schools, what a difference a leader can make. The
friendliest, most cohesive, happiest schools seem to be those where the
principal is a visible leader - there is no question in my mind about who they
are.
This
seems woefully inadequate weeks later, when I have learned so much about
leadership, and the exciting possibilities for not just the principal, but also
the Teacher Librarian, and other staff members. Leadership skills are not just
something you have or don’t have, it is possible to develop and improve those
capabilities.
While
leadership styles are described in the literature, and I was particularly drawn
to transformational leadership (Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber, 2009), I imagine I
would incorporate what I considered the best parts of more than one style,
depending on the situation I was in and what worked best to achieve the goals I
was working towards.
Leadership begins
with a vision for the school, specific goals are formulated, and it is these
which staff are working towards. A good
leader must get their followers excited about those goals, and support them as they
work together towards them (Marzano, 2005 and Sergiovanni, 2005).
Unsurprisingly,
communication is a fundamental concept which I think underpins much of a
leaders work. Without the ability to
communicate effectively, it is almost impossible to lead well. Communication is vital for building
relationships and putting together workable teams, it is necessary for
collaborative efforts, and for resolving conflicts and solving problems (Browing, 2013).
Communication is the key to building relationships – I have always said
that casual work is difficult because of the lack of relationship with the
children. the same is true of the
leader, without a positive relationship, without trust, the task of leading is more difficult.
From
the beginning of my studies for this Masters course, much has been said of
collaboration and how essential it is for improving student achievement. If the schools purpose is improving students
educational outcomes, and if collaboration
is “the single professional behaviour of teacher librarians that most affects
student achievement” (Haycock, 2007, p32), then collaboration is clearly one of
the most important activities that teachers and TL’s can engage in.
The
more study I do in this course, the more excited I become by the prospect of
being part of a school and running a library.
Librarian as leader was always slightly perplexing however. I wanted to develop a great collection to
meet my communities needs, but leading seemed to be the domain of other
staff. Developing the concept map, and
considering leadership, I have begun to see that it can be a part of the
librarians role. That in fact, the
teacher librarian is a good choice as a leader, with their expertise in
information provision, and insights about the scope of the curriculum.
Avolio, B., Walumbwa,
F., & Weber, T. J. (2009).
Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions. DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
Retrieved April1, 2014, from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/37/
Browing, P. (2013). Building relationships. Creating the conditions for transformational change. Australian Educational Leader. 35(3) 14 - 17. retrieved April 2, 2014 from http://www.minnisjournals.com.au/images/artiles/pdf/article-pdf-0787.pdf
Haycock, K. (2007).
Collaboration: Critical Success
Factors for Student Learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), pp.
25 -35. Retrieved from:
http://www.iasl-online.org/pubs/slw/index.htm
