My Leadership Philosophy as of August 2000
Allen
Mooneyhan
Doctoral
Seminar: Educational Leadership
Practices I
My
Leadership Philosophy as of August 2000
Dr.
David W. Cox
Arkansas
State University
August
27, 2000
My leadership philosophy is rooted in my over
educational philosophy. My
educational philosophy is somewhat eclectic in that it includes elements of at
least two separate philosophies. I
am what I call a "progressive essentialists" because I maintain that
we should be teaching our students a core body of essential knowledge while
using the ever-changing technological advances of today's society to greater
facilitate student learning. I
believe the essentials are vastly important and that our educational systems
should be based on a core body of knowledge.
This knowledge should include such traditional skills as communicatin,
science, math, and history. These
skills are essential for the truly well educated citizen who, in all liklihood,
has plans to enter the workforce. Additionally,
I believe that technology is a tool that can be used in the education of our
students. As the student population
continues to evolve with many courses serving more "non-traditional"
students than "traditional" students our learning society comes closer
to the idea of lifelong learning. With
this philosophy of lifelong learning, students will need a diversity of services
not offered in the traditional classroom. Technology
has grown at an astounding rate and I believe can easily be adapted to promote
higher education through the use of mediums such as the Internet, compressed
video, computer software and compact disks, and other multimedia components.
I believe students learn best when put into a
structured environment with clear criteria for successful performance.
Many of these students currently lack the intrinsic motivation neccessry
for successful cognitive change in a self-driven program.
While some students may be able to learn simply by being put into an
environment that is conducive to learning, many will falter without specific
guidelines and objectives.
I believe leadership functions can be preformed in a
way that complements the use of these guidelines and objectives.
I feel that the leadership role of the administrator in the educational
process is to foster professionalism in the faculty and staff responsible to
that administrator. This professionalism should result in the establishment by
faculty and staff of a learning environment that promotes cognitive change.
This change will be realized through providing outlines that, when
followed, will result in a change in the thinking of students.
I believe the best governance policy to be used by an appropriate leader
is one which is influenced by a collegial atmosphere.
The administration should ensure that competent educators are hired and
"step away" from the process and allow the faculty to perform the
tasks they were hired and trained to do.
I have now had the opportunity to serve in the
capacity of faculty under administrators who have vastly different leadership
styles in their relationship to the faculty as well as procedural policies.
One exhibited a collegial, cooperative philosophy when dealing with
faculty and students. In this case
students, faculty, and staff always felt encouraged to come to the administrator
for any need. This rapport seemed
to caused the faculty and staff to be more intrinsically motivated to help
students. Another portrayed
leadership characteristics which were very authoritative.
While it is important to ensure that employees are functioning adequately
in their perspective roles, I believe the best way to ensure success of the
faculty, staff, and students is to support "ownership" of the
institution by the faculty, staff, and students as well as the administration.
This "ownership" will result in an atmosphere that is
motivational, cooperative, and professional.
Therefore my role as a leader in education is to lead those who will
follow down a path toward discovery rather than authoritatively mandating
change.