Moral Leadership
By: Hazel Mason and Heather Marlborough
Educational leaders are working in an increasingly diverse society with a number of
competing values. It is difficult to be effective in this environment and it requires leaders to rely
on a number of different styles and to take context into account. Moral leadership is a style that
recognizes the importance of values and attitudes in decision-making. This style of leadership
requires administrators to become reflective practitioners using their values and attitudes to
govern their decision-making. According to Sergiovanni (1992) when administrators are acting
as moral leaders they are compelled to do the right thing not just what is right.
This style of leadership is particularly challenging for principals in the current
educational context. Governments, Ministries of Education and School Districts have become
dictatorial about how educational policies and practices will be implemented. In spite of these
changes, administrators coming from a moral leadership perspective will keep the big picture in
mind while relying on their values and ethics to modify decisions to do what is best for children
and schools.
Begley states (1999) “it is not enough for school leaders to merely emulate the values of
other principals currently viewed as experts. Leaders of future schools must become reflective
practitioners.” School Leaders must be aware of the personal values that they bring to a decision
and the competing values of those around them. Principals who are moral leaders must take into
account the relational norms operating within their building. For example, a teacher who
disagrees with standardized testing at all grade levels and appears to be undermining the decision
confronts a Principal. The Principal respects the position of the teacher and recognizes that the
teacher is feeling undervalued and unappreciated. Instead of becoming confrontational with the
teacher, the Principal looks for ways to make him a part of the decision making process. The
Principal and teacher are then in a position to openly discuss their points of view and arrive at a
compromise. “In essence, the compromise was more important to maintaining good adult
relationships than to deciding the educational soundness of the principal’s proposal.” (Bogotch &
Miron, 1998) This example demonstrates the importance of relational norms and is one of the
strengths of moral leadership.
Sergiovanni (1992) talks about moral leadership as being the process of having the head,
heart and mind working together to make good decisions. The head is the systems piece made up
of the rules, the regulations and the theories of practice. The heart is what the leader believes,
values and is committed to. “If the head and the heart are separated from the hand, then the
leader’s actions, decisions, and behaviours cannot be understood.” (Sergiovanni 1992)
In contrast, “greater knowledge of the values of others and their central role in decisions
may be used in manipulative ways. There is a literature which addresses the darker side of
charismatic leadership, for example, a form of leadership directed to the values of followers.”
(Begley, 1999) An example of this is the Ontario “Common Sense Revolution”. The current
government presented the “Common Sense Revolution” as morally the right thing to do. They
pointed to government overspending and the increasing debt as morally indefensible. They talked
about borrowing against the future of the province’s youth and maintained that the only morally
responsible decision was to make cuts to government programs like education and health care.
Many members of the public bought their arguments without giving consideration to the
consequences.
Moral leadership, if used improperly can be manipulative and destructive within a school
setting. However, there are many components of moral leadership that are important to effective
school management. School leaders need to be reflective practitioners in touch with the values
and attitudes that they bring to the role. Through moral leadership they can create a “climate for
risk taking, student centered learning, open communications, new relational norms, and
aesthetics.” (Bogotch & Miron, 1998)
References
Begley, P. (1999). Guiding values for future school leaders. Orbit, 30, (1), 19-23.
Bogotch, I., & Miron, L. (1998). Moral leadership: Discourses in Urban School Settings.
Urban Education, 33, (3), 303-328.
Sergiovanni, T. (1992). Moral Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Links to the Internet
www.ascd.org/frameedlead.html
http://elnet.org/
http://www.aasa.org/
http://www.naesp.org/
http://www.naesp.org/naesp.htm