School leadership is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, pupils, and parents toward attaining common educational aims.
This term is frequently used synonymously with educational leadership in the United States and has displaced educational management in the United Kingdom. Several universities in the United States offer graduate degrees in educational leadership.
History
The term school leadership came into currency in the late 20th century for numerous reasons. Demands were made on schools for higher levels of pupil achievement, and schools were expected to develop and reform. These expectations were accompanied by calls for accountability at the school level. Keeping the status quo was no longer considered acceptable. Administration and management are terms that connote stability through the exercise of control and supervision. The concept of leadership was favored because it conveys dynamism and pro-activity. The principal or school head is usually thought to be the school leader; however, school leadership may involve other persons, such as members of a formal leadership team and other persons who contribute toward the aims of the school.
While school leadership or educational leadership have become famous as replacements for educational administration in recent years, leadership arguably shows only a partial picture of the work of school, division or district, and ministerial or state education agency personnel, not to mention the areas of research explored by university faculty in departments related with the operations of schools and educational institutions. For this reason, there may be grounds to doubt the merits of the term as a catch-all for the field. Rather, the etiology of its use may be found in more generally and con-temporarily experienced neo-liberal social and economic governance models, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. On this view, the term is understood as having been borrowed from business.
In the United States, the superintendency, or role of the chief school administrator, has undergone many changes since the making of the position which is often attributed to the Buffalo Common Council that approved a superintendent on June 9, 1837. If history serves us correctly, the superintendency is about 170 years old with four main role changes from the early 19th century through the first half of the 20th century and into the early years of the 21st century. Initially, the superintendent’s main role was clerical in nature and focused on assisting the board of education with day-to-day details of running the school. At the turn of the 20th century, states began to develop common curriculum for public schools with superintendents fulfilling the role of teacher-scholar or master educator who had added an importance on curricular and instructional matters to school operations. In the early 20th century, the Industrial Revolution affected the superintendent’s role by shifting the emphasis to expert manager with efficiency in handling non-instructional tasks such as budget, facility,and transportation. The release of A Nation at Risk in 1983 directly impacted public school accountability and, ultimately, the superintendency. The early 1980s introduced the change that has continued through today with the superintendent viewed as chief executive officer, including the roles of professional adviser to the board, leader of reforms, manager of resources and communicator to the public.
Graduate studies
The term “educational leadership” is also used to describe programs beyond schools. Leaders in community colleges, proprietary colleges, community-based programs, and universities are also educational leaders.
Some United States university graduate masters and doctoral programs are organized with higher education and adult education programs as a part of an educational leadership department. In these cases, the entire department is charged with educating educational leaders with specific specialization areas such as university leadership, community college leadership, and community-based leadership (as well as school leadership). Some United States graduate programs with a tradition of graduate education in these areas of specialization have separate departments for them. The area of higher education may include areas such as student affairs leadership, academic affairs leadership, community college leadership, community college and university teaching, vocational and adult education and university administration.
Literature, Research and Policy
Educational leadership draws upon interdisciplinary literature, generally, but ideally distinguishes itself through its focus on pedagogy, epistemology and human development. In contemporary practice it borrows from political science and business. Debate within the field relates to this tension.
A number of publications and foundations are dedicated to studying the particular requirements of leadership in these settings, and educational leadership is taught as an academic discipline at a number of universities.
Many countries now have explicit policies on school leadership, including policies and budgets for the training and development of school leaders.
In the USA, formal “Curriculum Audits” are becoming common, which allow acknowledged educational leaders and trained auditors to assess school leadership and the alignment of the curriculum with the goals and objectives of the school district. Curriculum audits and curriculum mapping were developed by Fenwick W. English in the late 1970s. The educational leaders and auditors who conduct the audits are certified by Phi Delta Kappa.