Leadership in a Global Society

¶ … educational change in regard to the need for curriculum change aimed at addressing curriculum inadequacy that affects our elementary schools. In this paper, the concept of transformational, situational and distributive leadership are discussed in line with instilling positive change to the curriculum development process.

The concept of educational change is one which is often misunderstood by many people (Fullan,2007,p.29).Educational change is either imposed involuntarily or voluntarily accepted by the relevant person or authority. Its meaning too is accepted with a lot of ambivalence as indicated by Fullan.In this paper, we discuss how the concept of educational change is enacted in order to improve student learning through the development of an updated curriculum that is aligned with the state standards for an elementary school. Students often state assessment outcomes as (not met) on the school report card for years. It would therefore require good leadership to instill the necessary change to the curriculum in order to align it to the student needs as well as that of the industry. The process of undertaking such a major change to the educational system may greatly challenge educators at various levels of their lives, both personal and professional. Hargreaves (1998) noted that most of the educational change that is associated with the implementation of educational change has a deep focus on the organizational rational- structural elements and therefore conspicuously ignores the human side or rather the cultural element of the change process as pointed out by Evans (1996).

The role of good leadership in curriculum change

A large number of literatures have been dedicated to the theory of leadership but no consensus has been reached on the true definition of effective leadership in schools. Most of the literatures have failed to accurately present the leadership practices in schools since they have heavily relied on principals' accounts in the definition of effective school leadership in practice (Morrison, 2002).The concept of 'transformational leadership' has been the dominant model in most cases. The model of transformational leadership originated from settings that are evidently non-educational (Burns,1978). The concept of transformational leadership found its way to the educational leadership theory through the work of Sergiovanni (2000), Leithwood et al. (1999) and others.

The work of Leithwood et al. (1999) identified a total of 6 dimensions to the concept of transformational leadership. These include; building of vision and goals for the school, intellectual stimulation, symbolizing the professional; values and practices, individualized support, demonstration of a high level of performance expectation as well as the development of structures necessary for fostering participation in the school decisions. The work of Leithwood and Jantzi (2000) on the other hand proceeded to add an additional four dimensions to the concept of transformational leadership. These included; establishing of an effective staffing practices, provision of instructional support, monitoring of all school activities as well as provision of community focus.

Charisma is noted to be central to the concept of transformational leadership. This notion is what has seen several principles engage in a careful articulation of their school's vision in a manner that is inspiring to their followers and thereby creating a high level of performance and commitment (Bryman, 1992). Since transformational leadership has come under a lot of criticism with the notion that it is a partial leadership theory gaining much ground, other leadership theories like situational leadership and distributive leadership must be engaged in the educational setting.

Successful management of curriculum change for better results in elementary schools

Curriculum change and leadership

The work of Bondi and Wiles (1998) indicated that education managers posses a degree of control in regard to the change process should they have a true understanding of the change process. Curriculum change is can be defined generally as the process of transforming the curriculum scheme, for instance its design, content as well as goals. Educators must therefore be careful in the adoption of definitions of curriculum change that makes a description of curriculum change as a process which involves an entire transformation of the existing curriculum as noted by Hooper (1971). Curriculum change is noted by Levine (1978) to mostly occur whenever a school administrator decides to adopt the most suitable form of leadership style. Levine further recommends the creation of an antagonistic environment. The existing educational literature seems to suggest that curriculum change or innovation is of great importance in the process of implementing change (Kearsley and Lynch, 1992, Yuen et al.,

2004).

Transformational leadership has therefore been indicated by Peretomode and Ikoya (2010) to be very crucial for institutional success as well as the implementation of an effective curriculum change. They argue that the success of failure of curriculum innovation is dependent on the school administrator's effectiveness in implementing curriculum reforms. Yulk (2002) argued that leaders can do several things in order to facilitate a successful curriculum change implementation. Yuen (2004) on a similar note believed that a visionary leader is what is needed for a successful curriculum change. Such a leader is what is referred as a transformational leader. A principal with the skills of a transformational leader is one with a leadership skill that effectively inspires a wonderful performance among the entire staff body as well as among the students.