COMPARATIVE CRITIQUE

Comparative Critique of Seven Articles

Abstract

There is a need for a new crop of leadership and leadership educators with demographic shift internationally. The globalization of the economy and the technological demands of the information age are converging to create unique and unprecedented challenges and opportunities for school systems. The challenges in marginal areas include increased local student transiency, homelessness, and the influx of newcomers; including English language learners. Student leaders respond to transient outsider needs through a discourse of compliance and engage in contextually responsive, collaborative responses to meet the needs of community insiders. However, these are only momentous solutions necessitating a policy-based approach to solve such challenges. The role of morals in the construct of leadership as representation of a community cannot be overemphasized

Comparative Critique of Seven Articles

A response to poverty and the accompanying complexity of challenges: , Pavlakis, Lac & Hoffman (2014) in their article titled The Importance of Fluency for Educational Leaders argue that the leaders have a responsibility to be cognizant of the social, economic and political issues that communities grapple with, and the subsequent devising of policy solutions for such issues. According to Miller et al, (2014), educational leadership overlaps organizations and specific roles. They point out that it surfaces most at the social front; where there is people-diversity, interests, issues and institutions. Other scholars and authors including Grogan and Crow (2004) also emphasize that educational leadership is about community. They say that the success of educational leaders including principals is determined by how much they have merged into and understood the community they serve. According to the latter authors, there is a need to reorient leadership so that it spans across diverse community settings and organizational structures.

While it is a fact that effective ecological and school reform movements are based on two structural continuum tiers, i.e. the outcomes that are specific to the school and more comprehensive methods and aims, there is a third response that takes more interest in educational leadership emerging in the latest reframing of educational leadership practice (Miller et al., 2014). Nevertheless, it is notable that there is inherent failure in the articles in addressing the role of curriculum in defining the moral direction of a given community outside the school bounds, and the moral school leadership artifact within. However, principals and other educators have no need to work in an extensive ecological structure in order to internalize and adapt to how the major public, social and education practices direct opportunities for learners. Instead, a range of complicated challenges and experiences including poverty, beyond matters connected to school can be solved through fluent of policy.

The paradox of socialization: a demographic shift among learners, economic globalization, demands of technology and the emergence of the information age evolve both opportunities and challenges for unprecedented and unique school establishments (Cline and Necochea, 2010). The authors of A Challenge for Educational Leaders (Cline and Necochea, 2010) examine the responsibility bestowed on leaders to develop creative solutions to the ever changing 21st C challenging scenarios. They note that, ironically, administrators of schools tend to sustain the status quo through encouraging conformity, complacency and stability at the expense of transformational leadership. There is an ongoing call for leaders who are dynamic and who have the knack to change and restructure the systems already in existence. Many serious dilemmas emerge from the need to balance reform that focuses on equity and social justice inherent in democratic setups with a need to maintain stability in schools. These dilemmas are not sufficient ground to avoid doing what should be done, though.

The need to educate a student population in all its diversity on the need to adjust to the 21st C demands is overtly expressed by the authors: Cline and Necochea, (2010). They point out that there is a need for innovation, boldness and audacity in leadership. Such leadership will see learners sail through the...…Necochea (2010) articulate the need to prepare leaders, and discuss the 21st C complexities. According to Patrizio and Stone-Johnson (2015), they agree with the postulation of the latter that self study is a useful method in research for educators seeking to remodel the curriculum leadership, amid the ambiguities surrounding the same in this new century.

Nkhatas (2013) Global Perspectives on Educational Leadership Reform: The Development and Preparation of Leaders of Learning and Learners of Leadership points at the modern knowledge in educational administrtion. It picks out the issues, and presents policy makers, educators and government authorities with researched methods to help make better decisions. The article aids this essay because it explores most of the themes by all other articles.

According to Miller et al, (2014), educational leadership goes beyond particular roles and institutions. It occurs widely on social frontiers and areas with diverse institutions, interests and people. The position is also supported by Grogan and Crow (2014), although they recommend mentorship for shaping leaders. Kutsyuruba and Walker (2015) suggest that the morality of leaders should be conformed so as to improve their leadership quality, through teaching them how to keep trust, always. On their part Patrizio and Stone-Johnson (2015), point out that self study is an important approach in research for educators to influence curriculum leadership in the confusion that is the 21st C scenario. Complex and interacting challenges going beyond matters of school can be solved better by fluency of policy, compared to responding according to context (McHenry-Sorbera, Provinzano 2017). Many dilemmas arise from an effort to balance progressive reform needs and issues of equity that are inherent in a society that is democratic, and the need for stability in schools. However, such dilemmas should not slow the momentum for reform (Cline and Necochea, 2009). The importance of understanding current issues in the educational administration, presenting policy makers, government officers and educators with researched strategies in their search for solutions, and the importance of morality in…