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Is type of principal leadership really critical to student
success?
Nephra Nazir – Howai (91720192)
The University of the West Indies
St. Augustine
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I strongly support the view that the style of leadership
adopted by a school’s principal ultimately impacts the success of
students, academic or otherwise. The success that is oftentimes
sought from students, whether it is achievement in examinations,
sport or competitions, finds its origins in the way the school is
managed, its teachers are lead, and its students are inspired to
produce successful outcomes. These are the decisions that are
made by the principal, who must have a clearly defined vision and
mission for the school that incorporates its definition of
student success and that is agreed upon by all relevant
stakeholders. This must be consistently realized by the principal
and through his or her actions and decisions and should be
filtered down continuously to the teachers and the students to
create a culture and climate that supports the achievement of
student success, an end result that is beneficial to the future
of the student and to the school. Principals, through their
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choice of the appropriate leadership style, are able to create a
safe and orderly environment, that result in high levels of
learning and building of self confidence, responsibility and
perseverance in students.(Cotton,2003)
The stimulus asks for the consideration of two important
factors that impact student success: First, what are the various
leadership styles that can be adopted by a principal when running
a school and second, how is student success defined by the school
and the principal. These two elements are critical in how student
success is rated.
While there are many definitions and theories related to the
concept of leadership, Hersey and Blanchard (1988), in their
Situational Leadership Model, best captures how a principal
should approach leadership and management of a school to afford
successful outcomes. In utilizing the four styles of leadership,
Autocratic, Democratic, Participative (encouraging and social)
and Laissez – Faire (delegating) they state that situational
leaders would utilize the appropriate response, dependant on the
situation and circumstance. The principal can also employs the
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idea of transformational leadership, where subordinates are
motivated to do more than they are originally expected to do
(Bass 1997) and instructional leadership where the actions of a
principal, or those he influences or assist, promote growth in
student learning.(Leadership for Student Success E-Lead) When
this is put into practice, the principal fosters educational
achievement by making it a priority. The principal works with the
teacher to define educational objectives that create a
collaborative learning environment. This type of leadership
clarifies the vision of the school and gives the principal a
clearer sense of what takes place in the classroom, thereby
enhancing the whole idea of student achievement.(Leadership for
Student Success E-Lead) When these three styles of leadership are
brought together, through the actions of the principal it allows
for a decision making process that guides and motivates teachers
to realize greater sense of teacher efficacy and ultimately a
greater chance of student success.
The term success in its simplest form is defined as the
accomplishment of an aim or purpose. (Oxford Dictionary 1989)
However, in defining student success, especially in the context
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of today’s society, it is not as straightforward as saying that a
student has passed his/her five subjects, so therefore he/she is
successful. In defining success purely from an academic point of
view, other levels of success such as sport, learning social and
practical skills, reading and writing and numeracy skill, are
discounted. Therefore, the principal who considers how success is
defined by the school and what is considered as achievement and
then aligns this to the school’s vision, culture and climate, is
in a better position to measure and achieve successful students.
While a principal does not directly teach students, it is
important for a principal to understand the relationship between
what he/she does and the impact on the duties a teacher carries
out and more importantly a teacher’s efficacy. The idea of self -
efficacy comes out of Banduara’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986),
which states that a person believes that he or she can perform
behaviours that are necessary to bring about a desired outcome.
When applied to the concept of teaching, teacher efficacy is seen
as the extent to which a teacher believes that he/she can affect
student performance. (Hipp, 1995) The definitions put forward by
Bandura and Hipp, especially with regard to teacher efficacy and
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its link to student performance clearly identifies why principals
need to carefully consider the decisions they make as they affect
teachers.
The principal therefore needs to adopt the role of
instructional leader, where the actions of the principal or those
assists promote growth in student learning. According to the
National Commission on Excellence and Education (1983), the
principal as an instructional leader needs to be able to manage
data collected on student performance, head school improvement,
be knowledgeable of curriculum and instruction methodologies, and
have the expertise to guide teachers out of isolation and into
professional learning communities. Lashway (2002) added that
instructional leaders need to deeper their endeavours into the
science of teaching and learning, offer professional development
to teachers, and utilize data analysis of student performance. In
adopting this style of leadership, the principal, in an indirect
way, secures the ability to positively impact the teacher in
numerous ways that leads to student achievement and success.
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As an instructional leader, the principal can make teaching
and student learning a priority in terms of managing the school
and are discussed and improved along with the management of
resources, infrastructure and finances. The principal will also
be up to date in the content of the curriculum and instructional
material so that when changes are made either to the curriculum
itself or to the teaching materials that are used in the
classroom the principal will be aware of such changes and be able
to advise teachers of such changes. A principal’s curriculum
knowledge positively impacts the teacher and the student, as this
assists in the alignment of the curriculum to the needs of the
student and also to the external environment and gives the
teacher the ability to keep teaching and classroom activities
current and relevant. Adopting an instructional leadership style
also allows the principal the opportunity to carry out data
analysis on past and current student performance with the end
result of determining what is working and what is not in the
delivery of the curriculum by teachers. The principal can then
use such data analysis to determine what areas of professional
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development are necessary to improve deficiencies and to enhance
or refine practices that are working.
These core elements, when carried out by principals
consistently, allow for the deepening of teacher efficacy.
Teachers believe that when they are supported by their principal,
their personal teacher efficacy is affected positively, and they
believe that they are more likely to motivate and reach students.
Teachers also believe that their general teaching efficacy is
positively reinforced when their instructional programs are
supported by, as well as when they are defended by the principal
when they are met with unreasonable demands from the external
environment. This reinforces importance of the principal’s
involvement in curriculum delivery through the reinforcement of
teacher efficacy as this directly impacts how successful students
are in and out of their school.
An educational leader promotes the success of every student
by acting with integrity, fairness and in an ethical manner.
(Educational Leadership Policy Standards 2008) The framework that
incorporates the ethic of justice (rules, fairness,
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equity),critique (inequities in school and society) and care (the
enrichment of human life) and the principal’s own philosophical
perspective that seeks to reinforces the vision and policies of
the Ministry of Education, as well the creation and institution
of the school’s own internal vision and policy. These underlying
ethical elements allows the principal to be constantly reflective
of his/her existing state (praxis) and the state of the school to
ensure that maintenance of positive practices are realized and
improvements are made when they are required.
A principal guided by ethical practice is then better able
to facilitate the implementation of the school’s vision and
mission, with the aim of establishing and maintaining a healthy
and productive school culture and climate. A school’s culture can
be defined as the guiding beliefs and values evident in the way a
school operates, (Fullan 2007) while the school’s climate is seen
as the quality and character of school life. It is the heart and
soul of a school and it is the element that draws teachers and
students to want to be a part of it. (Friedberg and Stein 1999)
The combination of a school’s culture and climate is the major
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influence student achievement. Unhealthy school cultures and
climates are indicators of poor leadership, unhappy teachers and
students, which results in low achievement.
Therefore, when a principal has a clear understanding of the
importance of the impact of the school’s culture and climate,
he/she is able to gain the insights needed to foster values,
beliefs and attitudes in teachers and students that will result
in student success. The principal is then able to act as a
‘change agent’ and transform the school when necessary, to infuse
values and positive behaviours into the practices of teachers
that support high achievement in students.
The indirect link between school leadership (the principal)
and student achievement and success is clear and supported by the
research done on it. The influence that the principal has,
through the adoption of instructional and transformational
leadership styles, in affecting the school’s culture as ethical,
value based and positive one and having these practiced in a
positive, safe and orderly school climate creates an environment
where teachers are encouraged and assisted by the principal in
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recognizing their competencies and their areas of improvement, in
setting goals to achieve best practice and mastery and providing
access to professional development and constructive feedback on
their actions. More importantly, principals create a safe,
nurturing, caring and ethical backdrop for students to learn and
develop academically, to achieve high levels of confidence,
responsibility and agency which all contribute to student
achievement and success.
In today’s educational framework, schools, when defining success,
oftentimes neglect to address the relationship between a child’s
current learning and their own lives. (Schools for a New Society
2006) They are taught, but with no defined pathway as to how
their education can help them create a life for themselves in the
world they will ultimately enter. The decisions of a principal
become critical in this sense to ensure that the school becomes a
transition mechanism for the child to be able to successfully
function in the wider society
Therefore, a fundamental role of the school, often seen as a part
of its hidden curriculum, but really should be an clear and
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defined goal set by the school’s administration, is to ensure
that the student is equipped with the skills that allows them to
function in mainstream society and to provide the knowledge to
access opportunities for social and economic mobility. (Sociology
notes my e-learning) This concept should align with all that is
done regarding the child, so that academic work, extra and co-
curricular activities become synonymous with that sense of agency
required of a student and the needs of the external environment.
The 21st Century society demands that for a young person to
survive in it, he/she is required to not only be competent in
language, mathematics, and science, but must also be a confident,
independent, critical thinker and problem solver. (Schools for a
New Society 2006) Therefore, in order to meet the needs of
today’s society and to afford the ability for a child to be
successful in it, the decisions made by the principal, especially
with regard to the curriculum needs to move the child beyond just
academic competence. The school must be prepared to include in
its teachings the development of a child’s sense of agency, the
power to act on and effect positive change in one’s personal and
social context. (Schools for a New Society 2006). At the core of
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student agency is the development of a positive culture and
social identity and an understanding of one’s own history and
relationship to the broader society. (Schools for a New Society
2006). This sense of agency, while is personal to the student,
must be reinforced by the school through its class room
activities and the general culture and climate that set, which
ultimately comes from the school’s administration. When this is
achieved, the principal, through the school environment, would
have positioned the student to achieve success not only within
the school, but also to achieve long term success in the larger
society
While the principal is not directly involved in the teaching of
students, the method of principal management and leadership is
directly linked to the teacher. The impact of the leadership
style adopted by the principal on the teacher is directly related
to what and how the teacher does in the classroom. Therefore the
success or failure of the principal to lead effectively, will be
reflected in the classroom, through the effectiveness of the
teacher or lack thereof to deliver quality lessons, and this will
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ultimately be passed on to the students, thereby affording levels
of success or failure.
Thus far the relationship between school leadership and
student success has remained at the indirect level, where the
principal either affects the teacher or the environment around
the student to bring about student achievement and success.
However, from the perspective of HFLE (Health and Family Life
Education), the principal has the ability to directly affect the
student, through support programs within the school that assist
in the maintenance of the physical health of a student together
with the direct relationships that most principals have with a
child’s parent/guardian, which will allow greater insight into
possible issues and problems a child may be experiencing away
from the school environment that may be a hindrance to student
success.
There is an abundance of research that clearly shows that
nutrition and physical activity are directly linked to academic
achievement. Children who eat well and are physically active are
able to achieve a stronger academic performance than poorly
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nourished and sedentary children, whose cognitive abilities are
diminished due to the lack of nutrition and physical stimulation.
Schools play a critical role in promoting health and helping
young people establish healthy lifelong behaviours. (The Center
for Disease Control and Prevention webpage 2010)Therefore, it is
necessary for principals to ensure that there are school health
programs available to students that assist in the reduction of
poor nutrition and physical stimulation. In doing so, a principal
enhances the ability of the child to achieve greater levels of
success in school.
The establishment and maintenance of student support
programs by the principal, such as school feeding programs, where
meals such as breakfast and lunch are provided for students who
may not have access to regular meals, ensure that a child’s basic
needs are met and that the child’s classroom performance would
not suffer due to poor nutrition. The support of well established
physical education programs and extracurricular activities in
schools by principals also allow children to access healthy
physical stimulation that develops both motor and cognitive
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skills, and also builds social skills such as responsibility and
team work. These elements all contribute to the enhancement of
the student’s capabilities, thereby improving the chances of
successful outcomes and higher levels of achievement in school.
The principal also has the direct opportunity to foster
collaborations with families (parents) and community groups that
establishes a safe and comfortable environment that allows
students to succeed. (Trail 2000) A child’s parent/guardian, for
various reasons (discipline, social issues, family issues) will
go directly to the principal to discuss and resolve such issues.
Through these interactions with parents/guardians, the principal
has the ability to accumulate firsthand knowledge of what a child
may face outside of the school, in his or her community and
family. While the principal may have striven to create a positive
school climate and to engender a high level of teacher efficacy
to increase student achievement, this positive environment may
not stays at the school, still leaving the student to deal with
whatever pressures or issues exist outside of the school
environment. The social pressures, financial issues, family
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issues that affect the child can still create a negative impact
on student success despite the child being supported by a
positive school culture and climate.
This being said, the principal, through his knowledge of
what limitations a child may face outside of the school, may seek
to extend that element of positive culture to help the child
overcome such problems. Utilizing the student support services of
the school, such as the Guidance Councilor, School Safety
Officers, Social and Financial Committees and community groups,
such as the Community Police and Health Facilities, the principal
is able of offer solutions in the form of financial aid,
counseling, or even medical advice that would buffer some of the
emotional and psychological stresses a child may face. In
alleviating some of these stresses, a child is then able to
concentrate better in the classroom, thereby making positive
changes that support and enhance student achievement and success.
(State of Connecticut Board of Education 2008)
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Outside of the quality of teaching in the classroom, principal
leadership is second only to this in its impact on student
learning and success.(Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, Wahlstrom
2004). While the impact of principal leadership remains as an
indirect link to student achievement and success, the discourse
that discusses the impact that principal leadership has on the
teacher and the general school environment, which ultimately
leads to the success or failure of the student, is unparalleled.
The first major purpose of a school is to create and provide a
culture that is hospitable to learning. (Barth 2001) The creation
of a healthy culture and climate comes from the principal who is
and instructional and transformational leader, encouraging a high
sense of teacher efficacy. The principal’s leadership style also
engenders a clear vision that defines student success and
achievement, establishes high expectations from teachers and
students and conditions the school to support rather than inhibit
learning, in order to achieve this. .(Leithwood, Louis, Anderson,
Wahlstrom 2004) The support afforded by the principal, in the
areas of health, social well being and preparation to meet the
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needs of society clearly establish the importance of principal
leadership on student success.
References
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social cognitive theory.
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Bass, B. (1997) A New Paradigm of Leadership: An Inquiry into
Transformational Leadership. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Barth, R. S. (2001). Learning by Heart San Francisco, CA: Jossey
Bass.
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Cotton, K. (2003) Eric. What is Instructional Leadership and why
is it so important. Retrieved from the newsletter for the Reading
First Program. http://eric.ed.gov.?id=ED483357
E-Lead, Leadership for Student Success. A partnership of the
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Hipp, K. (1995, April). Exploring the relationship between
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Marxism
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