An Educational Leadership
Framework Based on Traditional and
Contemporary Leadership Theories
TNG Cheong Sing
Monash University
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Traditional leadership theories
• Trait approach
– Personalities, motives, values & skills of natural leaders, but none of
these traits was superior (Stogdill 1948)
• Behavioural approach
– Task-relationship dichotomy for leadership behaviour such as
consideration & initiating structure (Stogdill & Coons 1957), concern
for people & production (Blake & Mouton 1964), employee & job
centric behaviours (Bowers & Seashore 1966)
• Contingency approach
• Contextual factors influencing leadership processes, such as
characteristics of environment, subordinates & tasks (House 1971),
task structure, leader-member relations & leader’s position power to
evaluate subordinates’ performance (Fiedler 1964), amt of relevant
information possessed, importance of decision, subordinates’
acceptability of decision (Vroom & Yetton 1973), subordinate maturity
(Hersey & Blanchard 1977)
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Contemporary educational
leadership theories
• Transformational leadership
– Shared decision-making, teacher empowerment,
understanding & encouraging change, team work,
see complete picture, continuous school
improvement, foster school community’s sense of
ownership (Leithwood 1992)
• Strategic leadership
– Relationships between external environment &
organization’s mission as well as implementation
(Maghroori & Rolland 1997)
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Other contemporary educational
leadership theories
• Educative leadership
– Cultural proficiency (Lindsey, Robins & Terrell
2003)
• Organizational leadership
– Enhancement of capability to accomplish effective
work collectively (Heifetz 1994)
– Leadership from school principals, teachers,
administrators & parents have +ve effects on
school performance (Pounder, Ogawa & Adams
1995, p. 567)
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Generic organizational leadership
functions
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Align tasks with objectives & strategies
Build commitment, optimism, trust & cooperation
Develop & empower subordinates
Encourage & facilitate collective learning
Interpret complex events
Organize & coordinate activities
Promote social justice & morality
Secure resources & support
Strengthen collective identity (Yukl 2006)
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Teachers as Leaders framework
1. Prepare students for better future
2. Achieve authenticity in teaching, learning
and assessment practices
3. Facilitate communities of learning
4. Confront barriers in cultures & structures of
schools
5. Translate ideas into sustainable actions
6. Nurture success culture (Crowther et al.
2002)
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Themes for literature on teacher
leadership
1. Individual teacher leader roles
2. Teacher leader’s on-the-job learning
3. Conceptualization of teacher leadership
being central to building professional
communities & renewing school cultures
(Lieberman & Miller 2004)
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Derivation of personal leadership
framework
• Shared leadership counters possibly Western
cultural bias attributing organizational
performance to individual heroic leadership
(Yukl 2006)
• Diversity leading standardization parallels
replacement of universal personal leadership
theories with contingency organizational
leadership theories , superiority of shared
over heroic leadership
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Derivation of personal leadership
framework (cont)
• Flawed processes more responsible than individual
failures for not satisfying expectation when nurturing
success culture in schools (Crowther et al. 2002)
• Without unrealistic expectation for individual to take
responsibility for organizational failure, shared leadership
with subordinate empowerment is more effective than
heroic leadership (Bradford & Cohen 1984)
• Conduct leadership research in specific organizational
context (Dachler 1984; Drath 2001; Gronn 2002)
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Personal leadership framework for
university academics
University academic leadership
Teaching
Research
Administration
Convey convictions for better
world
Preparation of students for better Industry-relevant research
job prospects
outcomes feeding into teaching
Maintenance of industrial linkages
to understand their skill &
knowledge requirements
Achieve authenticity
Coverage of industry-relevant
knowledge
Conducting of educational
research to gain deeper
understanding of teaching &
learning processes
Support from Education Office in
conducting peer teaching reviews,
student transitions & unit
evaluations
Facilitate communities of learning Dissemination of good teaching
practices at education seminars
Dissemination of new ideas at
conferences & seminars
Engagement of industries with
internship
Confront barriers
Discussion with fellow academics
on teaching practices
Engagement of departmental
professors for advice
Engagement of school manager
for administrative support
Translate ideas into action
Adoption of various teaching
approaches
Intra/inter-departmental & interuniversity collaboration
Quality committee implementing
ideas from academics to improve
school’s operation
Nurture success culture
Award for teaching excellence
Award for research excellence;
celebrating success in winning
research grants & publication of
top-tier journal articles
Award for administration
excellence
Source: derived from Crowther et al. (2002, pp. 4-5)
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