Educational leadership: different roles that the school director must face
I have seen a meme that says that a school depends on who manages it. Well, I think that not only the one who has the last word in everything related to the fate of the school should be blamed or rewarded, but the entire community inside or outside the school. Collaborative efforts, conscientious performance of each assigned task as reflected in job descriptions, and work delegations so as not to bombard the boss with tasks beyond his or her ability as a normal human being, are necessary ingredients in make a school successful or, without them, it happens the other way around. Highlighting the positive is the norm, of course, because no one wants to be the bearer of bad news. Well, let’s address the roles that a school director must assume to guarantee that within his possibilities; everything is fine for students to achieve human excellence inside and outside of school.
THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Role as school leader
Daunting defines the job of a school principal when it comes to all facets of the job under their belt. However, with all the necessary preparations ranging from the physical to the mental to the psychological to the emotional to the spiritual, one needs to have a reserve of patience, lots of energy and a lot of confidence to deliver what is expected of him/her. . Since a school community is made up of different people with different attitudes, personalities, backgrounds or cultures, etc., the necessary skills are needed to deal with them; therefore ensuring a smooth relationship, which means going above and beyond the call of duty, even to the point of sacrificing personal comfort, happiness, etc. Leaders like this could make the impossible possible; a humble school could be transformed into a great performer and so on.
Role in student discipline
Without discipline instituted among the students, the school would be chaotic. An environment like this would never succeed in achieving desired goals, whether local or national standards are a burden, especially among teachers who are on the front lines where they have to bend over backwards to reach troublesome students due to to a large number of factors. Conferences with parents and significant others in the community could change the mindset of those who are supposed to be partners in maintaining a harmonious relationship between students, teachers, staff, and parents, but who are sometimes uninformed about their responsibilities to help. Yes, learning takes place in a conductive school environment where everyone knew what the people around them expected them to be.
Role as teacher evaluator
Gauge the teacher’s ability to teach, manage a class, deal with troublesome kids and cranky parents, perform assigned tasks, etc. a school principal must have all the tact, experience, and compassion to make the teacher’s journey seamless and meaningful within her leadership style. Mentoring or training teachers, especially newly hired ones, takes time and experience to hone them from beginner to proficient or highly proficient as time goes on. No one should be frustrated by their inept attitude towards one who is burdened with improperly assigned tasks. No one should have a quick exit out of desperation. No one should take their own life because of bullying or inhumane treatment due to the prejudices of some senior teachers or the school principal himself. No one should be labeled as “spend” or hard head, whatever.
Role in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs
Since the school must meet the needs of its clientele, the programs that serve those needs must be developed, implemented, and evaluated properly, or should I say, expertly. And here, a knowledgeable leader can initiate brainstorming activities with all teachers and stakeholders where the research data serves as a springboard for such a program, say in reading recovery, the PHIL-IRI results could be dismal; therefore, appropriate reading programs are implemented for each child with all the necessary support or resources to make them effective, efficient and impactful. All programs must be sane enough to achieve the desired goals and the person responsible for achieving this is the head of the school.
Role in review of policies and procedures
The student handbook serves as a guide for good behavior. The school principal should have the final say on everything written on it and be well informed about additions, revisions, etc. to avoid committing lapses in the processing of the expulsion procedure, to name a few. The responsibility of all involved to limit cases of misunderstandings, media harassment, etc. will be emphasized.
Role in setting the schedule
Scheduling tasks requires enormous energy, especially before the opening of the year. Bell hours, work hours, computer lab hours, library hours, among others, are daunting tasks. Cross checking each one to ensure a fair distribution of tasks between teachers and staff would make a difference. Too many tasks assigned to a particular teacher could be a source of depression, jealousy between them and a myriad of problems.
Role in recruiting new teachers
Hiring the right people to do the job is vital to avoiding headaches later. A school principal not only has the wisdom to hire the best among the applicants, but also the faith in his choice for the role when validated by other stakeholders in the hiring process. With the help of a superior, he/she would be able to get the right line of applicants and make sure that mentoring or coaching is the next step to ensure competent partners in delivering quality education among students.
Role in relations with parents and the community
Making friends with parents and important people in the community means a lot. A parent with a troublesome child can be more cooperative with the school when he has the opportunity to be heard and become a partner in helping the child overcome her problem. Also, community businessmen could provide help to the needs of the school, such as sponsoring an event, donating money in cash or in kind during the activities of “Eskwela Brigade”, Scout Investiture, to name a few.
Role in task delegation
Nobody has a monopoly on time, energy and everything. Therefore, building a good relationship with co-workers means giving them the opportunity to participate in the provision of services to the clientele, within their level of ability and talent. In addition to giving them security and confidence, teachers realize that they can also act as someone who likes to lead people toward an end in mind.
Complex, overwhelming, multidimensional and multilayered are the tasks facing a school principal. In fact, it takes a village to make a school successful. With the support of the people around us, it is always possible to transform a humble school into a progressive one; as long as qualified people are installed in power, not because of political influence and other considerations detrimental to the human psyche. Because you can’t give what you don’t have.