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Teacher Professionalism and School Leadership: An Antithesis?

1996; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 116; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0013-1172

Doreen Shantz, Peter David Prieur,

Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Introduction It is becoming increasingly evident that traditional leadership definitions are inadequate. There appears to be an on-going straggle to continually define and re-define the meaning of leadership. Two articles by Sergiovanni in Educational Leadership (Feb/92) outlined his reflections on this very topic. He suggested that improving schools is difficult because we focus on leadership as something forceful, direct and interpersonal rather than examining alternatives to/or substitutes for it. The purpose of a study conducted by Peter David Prieur (one of the writers) was to test the emerging hypothesis by Thomas J. Sergiovanni that leadership and professionalism are probably antithetical concepts. Before outlining the study a brief review of literature relating to teacher professionalism and. school leadership are provided. Teacher Professionalism Professionalism can be broadly defined as accepting responsibility for one's own professional development and growth. Specifically, it refers to exemplary practice, and being aware of and experimenting with new developments in the field. Darling-Hammond defines professional practice as the incorporation of specialized knowledge, self regulation, special attention to the unique needs of clients, autonomous performance and responsibility for client welfare (p. 20). She suggests that the concept of professionalism is associated with a common set of beliefs, values and behaviors that include: * professionals relying on a codified body of knowledge, not applied routinely but according to individual needs, * entry into the profession being strictly controlled by members of the profession through internally structured mechanisms, and * professionals owing their primary responsibility to the client (student). In addition, Sergiovanni (1992) suggests that teacher professionalism implies a sense of stewardship, of caring and doing everything possible to meet the needs of the students. This perspective of professionalism involves values such as honesty, fairness and integrity. By stressing professionalism and thus empowering teachers, a new reciprocity is required in schools. Teachers must assume the responsibility to carry out their mandate without direct supervision. Historically, teachers have always been occupationally bound and morally accountable to a higher authority (Lortie, 1975). This supervisor-subordinate relationship has survived, almost intact, to the present day. Respondents in this study clearly indicated the desire to embrace more professionalism and thus responsibility. However, can teachers act as true professionals in a situation where they have not been empowered and still remain under bureaucratic control? Before answering this question, the area of leadership in schools needs to be addressed. Leadership In Schools School principals have been traditionally viewed as leaders because of the formal authority vested in their position. Early leadership research attempted to identify: which personality traits made a person a leader (Vokes, 1992); the value of using different leadership strategies with people at differing levels of willingness and readiness (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969); the leader's emphasis on tasks versus relationships (Fiedler as cited in Vokes 1992); and the extent to which subordinates should be utilized in the decision-making process (Vroom & Yetton as cited in Vokes 1992). The majority of these theories were based on the traditional view of a leader in relation to his/her followers. Little if any attention was devoted to reviewing the leader/follower format and exploring a more equitable relationship. Top down power or the power to control subordinates seemed to be the focus. This focus seems to reflect a particularly Western mode of thought. Leadership is not so much an epistemological framework but rather a dynamic social process that involves key cognitive, interpersonal and cultural dynamics. …