How Educational Leaders Make Good Citizens Essay

A Personal Philosophy of Education

Abstract

In sum, I believe the long-range impact that educational leadership should have on stakeholders and on the community includes providing young learners with the critical thinking skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century workplace as well as developing good citizens that actively participate in the political process. Today, the United States invests enormous sums in its public educational system, but these scarce taxpayer resources are being wasted without the positive long-range impact that effective leadership should have on stakeholders and on the community. Because effective leadership has been shown time and again to be inextricably associated with organizational performance, it is not surprising that there has been a growing body of scholarship devoted to this topic over the years. Drawing on this body of knowledge, it is possible to improve the effectiveness of educational leadership in a number of ways, including encouraging the involvement of parents in their children’s education and lobbying policymakers for additional classroom educators. The purpose of this paper is to explicate my personal leadership philosophy as it applies to education as well as a discussion concerning the rationale in support of this philosophy.

A PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

My personal philosophy of leadership is that educational leaders can play a vitally important role in providing students with the critical thinking skills required in the 21st century workplace and to help them develop into good citizens that are actively engaged in the American political process. While many people view education as a lifelong enterprise, educational leaders today are confronted with a situation in which the timeframe for evaluating the adequacy of learning is clearly demarcated and the success of students is measured by metrics such as grade points averages and the percentage that graduate. Such metrics, though, fail to take into account the enormous differences that students bring to the classroom in terms of learning potential, language fluency, motivation and the infinite range of other factors that combine to determine how well young learners acquire skills and knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of my personal philosophy of educational leadership with respect to the need to help all students achieve the full potential, including developing the critical thinking skills that are needed to navigate the flood of information that is increasingly available to them, as well as the ability to effectively use information technology tools in this process. A description of this personal philosophy is provided below, followed by a summary of the research and key points in the conclusion.

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

In an era when simply memorizing multiplication tables or all of the state capitals is just so much rote learning given the ready availability of this type of information online, the question arises concerning what role educational leaders should play in shaping the curricular offerings and teaching strategies used in their schools. Certainly, educational leaders must conform to local, state and federal standards when making these types of decisions, but there are some legitimate and viable alternatives that are available that require careful decision making to identify optimal teaching strategies.

One of the overarching needs for students today is the ability to…

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…people think about knowledge, learning, and education” (p. 5). This observation also means that the degree of parental involvement may vary significantly in diverse communities, so educational leaders must ensure that this need is clearly communicated to all stakeholders.

The Future of Educational Leadership

As if educational leaders’ plates were not full enough already, there is also a growing need for them to become expert in the technologies that are used in the schools today in order to serve as a source of guidance for educators and students alike. For example, Chan (2014) emphasizes that, “In response to the demand for technology integration into curriculum and instruction, K-12 school leaders need to be well prepared to serve as technologically savvy leaders for both teachers and students” (p. 82). While many if not most educational leaders today possess the requisite knowledge and skills for this purpose, innovations in technology continue to redefine the educational landscape, making the need for vigilance in identifying new opportunities for improvement paramount.

Conclusion

Although there is still a need to teach young people the three Rs, there is also a concomitant need to help them learn how to think about the issues that affect their lives in a critical fashion. In addition, my philosophy of education includes the need to encourage young people to become good citizens who are informed and politically active. In the final analysis, educational leadership is dynamic and what worked in the past may not work today or in the future. Therefore, educational leaders must “take the bull by the horns” and model the way for others seeking to help…