School Leadership and School Culture and Teachers’ Professional Learning

Running Head: LEADERSHIP, CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 1
School Leadership and School Culture and Teachers’ Professional Learning
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LEADERSHIP, CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 2
Introduction
Leadership can be defined as a process of influence, which leads to achievement of some
common goals. Thus, all school activities are aimed at achieving shared vision (Bush & Glover,
2014). School leadership plays some vital roles in school improvement as well as school culture.
It has changed drastically over some time. For instance, it was referred to as educational
administration. However, it changed to educational management, and now it is referred to as
educational leadership. Apart from changes on terms used to refer to school leadership, types of
leadership has also undergone some changes (Bert, Kyriakides & Antoniou, 2013). For instance,
instructional leadership changed to distributed leadership. Apart from instructional and
distributed leadership, other leadership models includes managerial, teacher and transformational
leadership (Bush & Glover, 2014).
Effective leadership consists of a number of components. For example, vision is regarded
as one of its most significant components (Bush & Glover, 2014). However, building vision is
not static rather a dynamic process, thus very complicated. Consequently, few organizations
worldwide have managed to sustain it. The process of vision building can cause ‘adverse effects’
especially when other staff are not been consulted. Regarding leadership as an influence, one
person can lead others to carry out particular activities, which is usually referred to as intentional
influence. It is geared towards accomplishing some goals. Bush & Glover (2014) supported the
fact of leadership being an influence. He continued to argue that although influence and authority
are related to power, but they are quite different. For instance, influence can be exerted by any
person in an organization, while authority is related to formal positions. Influence is not only
exercised by an individual, but also by groups (Bush & Glover, 2014). This idea supports some
of the concepts related to distributed leadership. Other than influence, leaders are expected to

LEADERSHIP, CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 3
exhibit some professional values. The main aim of this paper is to discuss concepts related to
school leadership, different types of school leadership, school culture and teachers’ professional
learning.
Leadership for Learning
Leadership goes hand in hand with learning, thus indispensable. Although the term
leadership is commonly used worldwide, but it is understood differently. It has both negative and
positive impacts (MacBeath, 2012). For instance, inherent danger happens when leaders becomes
individualistic in nature, thus focusing on achieving their own personal goals rather than serving
people diligently. According to MacBeath (2012), leaders need to take time and afterwards,
gather necessary information concerning a particular situation prior to making decisions.
Besides, decisions made ought to be based on interests of followers. Similarly, learning is also
used frequently. For instance, children are expected to follow strictly what they are taught by
their teachers in school. Apart from teachers, they need also to follow their parents’ advice, thus
enhancing learning process. The following ideas should be put into consideration for enhanced
leadership; connect, extent and challenge (MacBeath, 2012). Connect is concerned with an act of
establishing a connection between conceptual and practical. Conceptual can be referred to as a
theory that expresses willingness of inquiring into learning process especially through infancy
stages ranging from childhood to old age, while practical includes protocols that have been put
into consideration for effective teaching of children. Connect is associated with existing
knowledge on learning (MacBeath, 2012). On the contrary, extend is concerned with
establishment of new connections. It is not only limited to knowledge, but also enhancing
strategies as well as skills. On the other hand, challenge has integrated concepts related to

LEADERSHIP, CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 4
connect and extend, thus revolves around the following three aspects; doing, feeling and
knowing (MacBeath, 2012).
Teachers’ Professional Learning
Most people including parents and students focus on head teacher’s roles in a school. The
head teacher is perceived as a gatekeeper, thus expected to manage and control all activities. A
head teacher is also required to enhance accountability of the highest level (Hallinger & Heck,
2010). Accountability requires head teacher to revisit his/her previous actions as well as future
actions. On the other hand, teachers need to utilize the following three aspects; connect, extend
as well as challenge. Regarding connect, they should integrate knowing and feeling while in
classroom. Knowing and feeling are dynamic rather than static, thus keeps on evolving. Hence,
teachers are expected to put the following into consideration; prior knowledge and feelings
(MacBeath, 2012). Besides, they also need to improve their skills basing on extend. Professional
learning is not only limited to teachers’ prior knowledge, but also focuses on understanding
children’s’ prior knowledge for effective learning. Having improved their skills, they should be
ready for challenge, thus learning new strategies. Accountability is not only limited to head
teachers, but also teachers, thus expected to give an explicit explanation concerning teaching
progress. Accountability can be external as well as internal. External involves ministry and
region, while internal involves head teacher, children and other teachers (MacBeath, 2012).
Principles of Professional Learning
i. A Focus on Learning