TRENDS, ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES IN EDCATIONAL
MANAGEMENT,ADMINISTRATIO
N AND LEADERSHIP
Faculty of Education
University of Malaya
Issue need to solve first
Issue need to solve first
• It is undeniably difficult, confusing and frustrating when some researchers
use several terms (for example educational administration, leadership and
management) to focus on one terminology while others use terms such as
educational leadership with educational management or educational
leadership with educational administration interchangeably. (Masitah
Shahrill,2014)
• System thinking helps school leaders cope with the various kinds of
administrative tasks, large and small, essential and marginal and to address
short-term as well as long term management issues across local and global
aspects (Shaked & Schechter, 2017, Springer book foreword by M. Fullan)
• Educational management and educational leadership are central concepts
in understanding organizing in educational institutions but their meaning,
the difference between them and their value in educational organising
remain the subject of debate. (Connolly, James & Fartig, 2017)
Issue need to solve first
• Bolam (1999) has deliberately adopted a limited and restricted definition of
educational leadership and management, furthermore locating it firmly as
a sub-set of educational administration.
• In contrast to Stein and Spillane’s (2003) research paper on teaching and
educational administration, they have used the terms educational
administration and educational leadership interchangeably. There were no
explanation or reasoning as to why they did this.
• Few other researchers such as Cunningham and Cordeiro (2006),
Farahbakhsh (2006) and, Giancola and Hutchison (2005) acknowledged the
fact that educational leadership has been by far the most studied aspect of
administrative behaviour, as well as it being closely related to school
management.
Issue need to solve first
• Davies (2005)- The authors all have a common usage of the term
‘leadership’ but those from the USA and Canada tend to use
‘administration’ whereas those from the UK and Australia use
‘management’ for the more functional tasks.
• The concept of management overlaps with other similar terms,
leadership and administration. Management is famous and used for
instance in Great Britain, Europe as well as Africa, on the other hand,
the term administration is preferred in the United States, Canada, and
Australia. (Ibrahim A Ali & Mazin S. Abdalla, 2017)
Administration, Management and Leadership
• Following the statements of earlier slide, do you think, all these three
terms mean the same thing? Empirically justify your stand.
Definitions of management
• Kotter defined the management as a job which takes care of planning,
organizing, budgeting, coordinating and monitoring activities for group or
organization (Kotter, 2001).
• Northouse defined the management as a process by which definite set
objectives are achieved through the efficient use of resources (Northouse,
2007).
• Mullins with Christie (2016), view management as co-ordinating, directing
and guiding others to achieve organisational goals.
• The process of educational management consists of five basic functions; a
manager uses these functions to achieve educational organization goals
and objectives. Most of the authors agreed on the following five functions
of the educational management: Planning organization directing
coordination controlling (Ibrahim A Ali & Mazin S. Abdalla, 2017).
Definitions of Leadership
• Leadership is the influence over the followers to achieve the goals
(Bush, 2008; Cuban, 1988; Yukl, 2002, Mullins with Christie, 2016,
Hawkins and James, 2017).
• Although there are a variety of leadership definitions, the majority of
definitions focused on two components which are: the process of
influencing a group of individuals to obtain a common goal; and to
develop a vision (Ali Algahtani, 2014)
Definitions of Administration
• Educational management is an applied field of management. One can
therefore deduce that educational management refers to the
application of theory and practice of management to the field of
education or educational Institutions. Educational administration is a
process of acquiring and allocating resources for the achievement of
predetermined educational goals (Ibrahim A Ali & Mazin S. Abdalla,
2017).
Differences between Mgt and Adm (Ibrahim A
Ali & Mazin S. Abdalla, 2017)
Management
Administration
An organized way of managing people and things of The process of administering an organization by a group of
a business organization is called the Management.
people is known as the Administration
Middle and Lower Level
Top level
Executive
vital/conclusive
It works under administration
It has full control over the activities of the organization
Who will do the work? And How will it be done?
What should be done? And When it should be done?
Putting plans and policies into actions.
Formulation of plans, framing policies and setting objectives
Managing work
Making best possible allocation of limited resources.
Manager
Administrator
Employees, who work for remuneration
Owners, who get a return on the capital invested by them.
Brain Storming
• Do you think that a school principal is a leader? a manager? or an
administrator? Justify your stand.
Are all managers and administrators leaders?
• One may assume that all managers are leaders, but that is not correct
since some of the managers do not exercise leadership, and some
people lead without having any management positions. Therefore,
there is a continuing controversy about the difference between
leaders and managers. Some scholars argue that although
management and leadership overlap, the two activities are not
synonymous (Bass, 2010). Furthermore, the degree of overlap is a
point of disagreement (Yukl, 1989). In fact, some individual see them
as extreme opposites, and they believe that good leader cannot be a
good manager and the opposite is true (Ricketts, 2009).
Educational system facing challenges
As the world moves further into the twenty-first century, there is a
seemingly universal perception that educational systems, at least in
many developed countries, face serious, inextricable/complicated
problems. Today’s educational systems are largely incapable of
helping most students develop the skills, knowledge, and
competencies needed to successfully confront the social and
economic realities of our global times. (Ferran Ruiz Tarrago, Ann
Elizabeth Wilson-2010 Educational Management Challenges for the
21st Century)
Who is responsible for that?
• TRENDS, ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EDCATIONAL MANAGEMENT
AND LEADERSHIP
Expenditure, lofty aims of societal leaders, Principals and teachers’
commitment
• WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Who is responsible for that?
• As Victor Ordonez, former director of Unesco’s Basic Education
division asserts, “there is growing evidence that education structures,
as they currently exist, have largely outlived the environments for
which they were originally developed”. Confronting this issue with the
required depth and scale is not the sole responsibility of teachers, as
it falls well beyond the realm and reach of their duties. Rather, these
issues are primarily the responsibility of those who manage education
at all levels.
Trends
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP (CREATING JOBS RATHER THAN WORKING FOR OTHERS/BE YOUR OWN BOSS)
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
GENERATING FUND
BUSINESS TENDENCY
INDUSTRIAL LINK
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
PRACTICAL MORE THAN THEORITICAL
GLOBAL FIT GRADUATES (CONTENTS IN LINE WITH GLOBAL NEEDS)
MORE SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT/SCR/COMMUNITY SERVICE
CAPABILITY OF USING MORE ADVANCED AND LATEST VERSION OF TECNOLOGY (RAPID INSTALLMENT OF
ADVANCED TECNOLOGY)
• MULTIDISCIPLINERY EDUCATION/MAJOR AND MINOR
• INTERNSHIP
• DATA DRIVEN INFORMATION
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
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FUND CONSTRAINTS
COST OF EDUCATION
LESS SCHOLARSIP CAUSES LESS TALENT HUNT/FLOW
DIFFERENT HUMAN CAPABILTY
AUTONOMUS/FACULTY EXCESSIVE FREEDOM
LESS CONCERN STAKEHOLDERS
POLITICAL DECISIONS
GLOBALIZATION
TECNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT (QUICK INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION)
DATA INAVAILABILITY
LACKING OF SKILLED MANAGER/ADMINISTRATOR/LEADERS
LESS MARKETABLE GRADUATES DUE TO MISSMATCH CONTENT FOCUS
Management and Leadership in Disruptive
Times
• Now let’s talk about our roles during disruptive time like covid’19
pandemic.
‘supernova’ (Azorín 2020)
‘undeniable chaos’ (Hargreaves and Fullan 2020)
1.6 billion young people have been out of school(UNESCO 2021)
‘virtually all schools have been paused’- Zhao (2020)
COVID’19 USA
• Yet in many respects, COVID 19 has exacerbated well-being issues and
highlighted how education inequity profoundly affects those in
society who have the least. For example, in the USA it has been noted
that –The pandemic has highlighted disparities in access to digital
devices and the internet. When schools were closed, 15 percent of
U.S. households and 35 percent of low-income households with
school-age children did not have a high-speed internet connection at
home. In early April, nearly 2/3 of leaders in high-poverty districts
reported that a lack of basic technology was a ‘major’ problem.
(Darling Hammond 2020)
Leadership to do
• Research underlines that the principles of good leadership are a constant
• require a radical re-think and significant modification to remain relevant for aspiring and
practising school leaders.
• Self-care and consideration must be the main priority and prime concern for all school leaders.
• emotional responses of others to this crisis including anxiety, frustration loss, and anger.
• The phrase ‘connect to learn, learn to connect
• Crisis and change management are now essential skills of a school leader
• a high degree of trust will be needed, as the collective glue, to ensure that issues are addressed
collectively as they arise.
• Communities are a key resource for school leaders, as they host a wealth of additional expertise,
knowledge, and local capacity.
• Distributed leadership has become the default leadership response in this current crisis requiring
more school leaders, at all levels, to connect, share, learn and network their way through issues
(Azorín, Harris, and Jones 2020).
Leadership to do
• (1)School leadership practices have changed considerably and maybe,
irreversibly because of COVID’19. As a result of the pandemic, school
leadership has shifted on its axis and is unlikely return to ‘normal’
anytime soon, if ever at all. Research underlines that the principles of
good leadership are a constant i.e. having a clear vision, developing
others, managing people, building capacity etc. (Leithwood, Harris,
and Hopkins 2020). The evidence also points towards the importance
of context responsive leadership implying a shift in school leadership
practices because of COVID19 (Harris 2020).
Leadership to do
• (2)Most school leadership preparation and training programmes prior
to COVID’19 are likely to be out of step with the challenges facing
school leaders today. In many cases, the existing preparation and
training programmes, along with the models of leadership they
espouse, will require a radical re-think and significant modification to
remain relevant for aspiring and practising school leaders. It would be
a mistake to simply re-configure or re-badge what was relevant before
COVID19, as much of this training and development may no longer fit
for purpose. New programmes will be required that fully and
adequately encompass the leadership skills, practices and actions
suited to the current, and potentially ongoing, COVID19 situation.
Leadership to do
• (3) Self-care and consideration must be the main priority and prime concern for all
school leaders. Leading a school through the changes and challenges that accompany
COVID19 and post COVID19 will require school leaders who put their own health and
wellbeing first, so that they will be able to help others. Increasingly, school leaders are
managing the emotional responses of others to this crisis including anxiety, frustration
loss, and anger. Consequently, selfcare must be a priority for those leading schools at all
levels.
• (4) The phrase ‘connect to learn, learn to connect’ (Harris and Jones 2012) describes the
daily reality of students and teachers trying to work together in this pandemic. Hence,
moving forward, school leaders will increasingly need to be technologically savvy and
well informed. COVID19 has generated huge commercial opportunism with a pressure to
buy technological solutions to contemporary problems. School leaders will need to be
discerning therefore, about the digital products they choose and to be careful about
striking a balance between technology and pedagogy in their school (Hargreaves 2020).
Ultimately, pedagogy is the key to effective learning and while technology has a part to
play, it is the human dimension of effective teaching that makes the difference.
Leadership to do
• (5) Crisis and change management are now essential skills of a school leader. Running an effective
school in disruptive times will require more than routine problem solving or occasional
firefighting. Instead all school leaders will need to be engaged in constant crisis and change
managemen which will require support and collaboration from all staff. The speed of change in
this pandemic is unprecedented, hence a high degree of trust will be needed, as the collective
glue, to ensure that issues are addressed collectively as they arise.
• (6) Communities are a key resource for school leaders, as they host a wealth of additional
expertise, knowledge, and local capacity. Forging stronger links with parent/community groups to
support families, young people and children is now a necessity to deal with the many issues that
COVID19 has generated particularly for vulnerable, marginalised, or isolated young people.
• (7) Distributed leadership has become the default leadership response in this current crisis
requiring more school leaders, at all levels, to connect, share, learn and network their way
through issues (Azorín, Harris, and Jones 2020). Through absolute necessity, rather than by
design, effective school leadership is now connected, collaborative, creative and responsive. Most
school leaders will be running on empty given the myriad of challenges that COVID19 has created
for them, so distributed leadership is a necessity to survive.
Class Task
• Following the statements of earlier slide, do you think, all these three terms
(Leadership, Management and Administration) mean the same thing? Empirically
justify your stand.
• Do you think that a school principal is a leader? a manager? or an administrator?
Justify your stand.
• As Victor Ordonez, former director of Unesco’s Basic Education division asserts,
“there is growing evidence that education structures, as they currently exist, have
largely outlived the environments for which they were originally developed”.
Confronting this issue with the required depth and scale is not the sole
responsibility of teachers, as it falls well beyond the realm and reach of their
duties. Rather, these issues are primarily the responsibility of those who manage
education at all levels. Who manage education at all levels? How are they
responsible for all the challenges our education system facing?
• Please add another 5 roles of a school principal that should be done during
pandemic.