Importance of Women in Leadership in Educational Settings
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This report discusses the impact and importance of women in leadership in educational settings, along with the reasons why few women are present in the education industry as leaders. It also includes data analysis, findings, and a review of literature on the topic.
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Running Head: Bachelor in Early Years Bachelor in Early Years [Type the document subtitle] Laptop04011 [Pick the date]
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Bachelor in Early Years1 Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Review of Literature........................................................................................................................1 Data Analysis and Findings.............................................................................................................4 Discussion........................................................................................................................................5
Bachelor in Early Years2 Introduction The purpose of the report is to enlighten the reader about the importance of women in leadership in the educational settings. Education is a field where leadership plays the biggest role in convincing people for education. Without having leadership power in their hand, no person can completely educate the people near them. Especially in the case of a women leader, it is important for them to make use of leadership so as to create an impact in the environment. The below-mentioned report will guide the readers about the impact and importance of women in leadership in educational settings. It also explains the reason that why few women are present in the education industry as leaders. Further, data analysis and finding are also mentioned in the paper along with discussion (Johnston, et. al., 2018). Leadership refers to the act or state of leading a group of people according to their ability to perform a task. Leadership is important in each and every field as it helps the subordinates to work accordingly and deliver the right type of result to the people. Further, talking about women leaders in education, it is believed that women as leaders are more expressive that helps the students in learning and understanding things in a better way. More details about women in leadership in education are discussed below: Review of Literature It is the male gender of the society who continues to dominate the female gender in every field worldwide, however, the importance of women in the industry is mostly not known to people due to which they do not try to maintain equality between men and women. Leadership is an important duty that needs to be significantly played by the leader in society. Every organization present in the current environment needs a leader who will help them to sort out the issues and place men and machine in the right position. A leader is a person who influences and encourages the people to work and attain goals in the environment (AITSL 2018). Leadership is the ability of the superior to influence others towards accomplishing their goals and towards the betterment. Chester Barnard summed up leadership by stating that it is the ability of the superior to influence the behaviour of subordinates and motivate them to follow the particular course of action. The education industry is an important field where it is important to have a leader who is influential and active. Leadership can never be gender specific as it is a set of qualities that are cultivated or
Bachelor in Early Years3 inherent among people (National Quality Framework 2018). The qualities of a leader can be present in both male and females. Any organization where there is inadequate leadership, the people cannot learn and develop, as a leader is the one who combines all the functions of the company and then initiates actions that help people to attain knowledge in the environment. Women in the educational settings create a perspective that brings the facility of competition along with collaboration in the society. Many surveys show that organizations and associations led by women have better financial growth (McCaffery 2018). However, women leaders still face barriers to initiating their leadership skills in the environment. According to Renz 2016, there are very few women present in the society who successfully manage to attain the topmost position in the society. Higher management believes that men will handle the situations of educational settings in a better way. The selection process of the associations is also designed in such a way that they give men more preference than women do. There are various barriers and challenges that women leaders face while working in educational settings like lifestyle conflicts. Many women in the social work in the educational environment while remaining primary caretaker of the families. Time boundations and requirements of the job force women to choose one thing between family and career. In the viewpoint of Răducan, and Răducan 2014, this option confuses them to the maximum extent due to which women have to voluntarily leave their job and live with family. However, this is not the best case scenario for all the women as now times have changed and women have developed the sense of ability to handle both the aspects properly. Resulting in which, companies have also stopped looking for women leaders in the society, as they fear of their unavailability in the required time. Women in the current environment, make use of transformational style leadership that helps them to successfully develop the minds of the children using innovative and differential activities (Davis, and Maldonado 2015). However, this also acts as a barrier to the growth of women as a leader because the society demands the traditional style of leadership. A particular type of stereotype has been formed that people who associate masculine characteristics within them are able to dominate the children and make them study. This type of leadership style includes task- oriented leadership abilities, assertiveness and aggressiveness. Such capabilities are considered as masculine whereas capabilities of the female are modest, quiet, selfless etc. Ideally, with the changing environment, both men and women have changed their way of thinking. So, women
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Bachelor in Early Years4 have developed a collaborative approach to strictness and with innovation in the ways of teaching. But such perceptions hinders the approach of the women to become a successful leader and initiate the functions successfully (Michel, Hays, and Runyan 2015). Also, the fact should be noted that the biggest barriers in the process of women leadership in an educational setting is a glass ceiling. Glass ceiling refers to an unacknowledged barrier in the professional industry that affects the interest of women and members of the minority in the society. Under this type of system, the women are being hired in an organization but they are never promoted as a leader because the higher authority believes that the male employee is more deserving than the female employee is. In addition, the top management believes that women cannot become a good leader in the society (Murakami, and Törnsen 2017). It would be wrong to say that women are incapable of leading an organization in an educational setting. It is always believed that women have a strong memory and understanding power as compared to them. So, according to this aspect, they should be given more power to become a leader as well (Shapiro, and Stefkovich 2016). According to the National Quality Standards (NQS), there are some quality areas defined for the teacher that will help them to initiate effective leadership practice in the country. These seven quality areas are educational program and practice, children's health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangement, relationship and children, collaborative partnership with families and communities and lastly governance and leadership (Lindsey, et. al., 2018). These standards define the ways in which leadership practice should be initiated by the teachers so as to create an impact among the student. The fact should be noted that in no way the female teachers practice wrong or ineffective leadership approach but still they are not promoted to the higher level. Women in the education industry are considered good for the lower level jobs because they are hardworking and flexible as well, but when it comes to promoting them at a higher level, the organizations do not consider them as an option (Liang, Sottile, and Peters 2018). This is the glass ceiling present in the industry. It is important for the women leaders to show up and raise their voice against such practices so that they can break the glass ceiling and grow. The education industry is an organization where people do not work just to earn money; they work to help people grow for the better. In order to make someone learn things, it is important for the teachers to have good
Bachelor in Early Years5 leadership skills and women leaders in no way initiate leadership skills that put them down in front of the male leaders present in the industry (Liang, and Peters-Hawkins 2017). There are various standards defined by AITSL (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers) that define professional norms for the teachers present in the Australian industry. Every teacher should follow these professional norms in order to grow in the education industry. According to the NQS standards, it is the responsibility of teachers to educate the children outside the school hour care services. These standards define 7 benchmark outcomes for children in society. Services of teachers are rated on the basis of these seven quality areas and its results (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2014). The capability of a teacher to grow can be looked using these quality standards present in the society, these standards govern and measure the quality of services given by teachers in the society. Gender of the teacher does not play any role in the growth of their teaching career. According to this framework, teachers are registered and promoted on the basis of their skill set and not their gender. So, it can be said that women leaders present in the education industry grow on the basis of work that they deliver. The services delivered by the teachers should be adequate according to the NQS and AITSL standards present in the society. This fact is irrational that women leaders are being oppressed due to their gender as the quality of work that should be looked in the educational setting (Stage 2015). So, the fact should be noted that women leaders in an educational setting are considered good only on behalf of the services that they provide to the children. There are various standards like NQS and AITSL that govern the service delivered by teachers. However, still, there are some practices present in the educational settings those suppress women from growing in the educational setting (Perry, Dockett, and Harley 2012). Data Analysis and Findings Various articles have been analysed in the case that evaluated the information about the practices of women leaders in the educational settings. Various reading about leadership styles and leadership in educations settings have been analysed to prepare the above-mentioned review. The key elements that emerged in the readings is that leadership in an educational setting is the most important things that help in delivering adequate educational services to the children. The basic motive of the educational industry and various standards is to make the teachers implement
Bachelor in Early Years6 leadership in such a way that positively affects the interest of children. Gender of the teachers does not play any role in promoting them in the educational setting (Perry, Dockett, and Harley 2012). Women as leaders in the education industry successfully deliver the right piece of information to the children. Talking about the opportunities received while preparing for this review, it should be noted that the topic is diversified and there is immense information present about women leadership in educational settings. Due to which, it was easy to find the right piece of information for the literature review. Further, talking about challenges it should be noted that it was difficult to relate the activities of women leader with NQS and AITSL standards. The piece of information helped in knowing the standards of education that should be provided in the society but it was difficult to find the type of services that are actually provided in the society. Transformational leadership style or situational leadership style etc. theoretical frameworks have been defined in the above- mentioned review that successfully evaluate details about the women leaders present in the educational setting (Brown 2004). The areas of leadership successfully relate to the NQS and AITSL standards defined in the society. It is difficult for teachers to initiate services in society without using adequate leadership skills. Similarly, the standards also explain that it is important for the teachers to make use of leadership while practising their teaching skills in front of children. The ethical consideration on which this review focuses on is that gender does on define the quality of services that teachers offer in the educational setting. Leadership is an act that can be initiated by the person possessing it, it does not depend on the gender of the person that they will perform leadership activities in the right manner (INEQUITY 2011). Discussion Fromtheabove-mentioneddiscussion,ithasbeenevaluatedthatwomenleadersthat successfully follow the guidelines present under NQS and AITSL successfully grow in the education industry. Through the analysis of the pieces of literature, it has been found out that firstly leadership activity in an educational setting does not depend upon the gender of the person. Leadership is an individual act that can be performed by anyone irrespective of his or her gender. Secondly, it is very important for teachers to initiate leadership skills in their practice in order to successfully educate the children. Leadership in education industry helps the teachers in
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Bachelor in Early Years7 providing their services in a better way. If women leaders present in the society are oppressed due to their gender then the education industry on a whole will face difficulty in providing resourceful services to the students. Barring the female teachers to grow in the education industry will give a wrong impact on the children as well. This research has successfully helped me to diversify my understanding of leadership. Through this review, I acknowledged the fact that leadership is an act that is either inherent or adopted in society and practised by people irrespective of the fact that they are male or female. However, female in the society face difficulty in initiating their leadership skills in the environment. Further, talking about the educational industry, I came to know that people under this industry are not segregated on the basis of their gender but they are differentiated on the basis of the services that they provide in the society.
Bachelor in Early Years8 References AITSL., (2018) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers [online]. Available from < https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards> [Accessed on 5 Dec 2018]. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2014. Australian professional standards for teachers. Brown, L.E.H., 2004.Barriers to women in educational leadership roles in Montana(Doctoral dissertation,Montana StateUniversity-Bozeman,Collegeof Education,Health& Human Development). Davis, D.R. and Maldonado, C., 2015. Shattering the glass ceiling: The leadership development of African American women in higher education.Advancing Women in Leadership,35, pp.48- 64. INEQUITY, S.D., 2011. Women as Leaders in Education. Johnston, C., Johnston, J., House, A. and Fenton, C., 2018. Leadership and management of early years settings. UK: Routledge. Liang, J.G. and Peters-Hawkins, A.L., 2017. “I Am More Than What I Look Alike” Asian AmericanWomeninPublicSchoolAdministration.EducationalAdministration Quarterly,53(1), pp.40-69. Liang, J.G., Sottile, J. and Peters, A.L., 2018. Understanding Asian American women's pathways to school leadership.Gender and Education,30(5), pp.623-641. Lindsey, R.B., Nuri-Robins, K., Terrell, R.D. and Lindsey, D.B., 2018.Cultural proficiency: A manual for school leaders. Corwin Press. McCaffery, P., 2018.The higher education manager's handbook: effective leadership and management in universities and colleges. Routledge.
Bachelor in Early Years9 Michel, R.E., Hays, D.G. and Runyan, H.I., 2015. Faculty member attitudes and behaviors towardmalecounselorsintraining:Asocialcognitivecareertheoryperspective.Sex Roles,72(7-8), pp.308-320. Murakami, E.T. and Törnsen, M., 2017. Female secondary school principals: Equity in the developmentofprofessionalidentities.EducationalManagementAdministration& Leadership,45(5), pp.806-824. National Quality Framework., (2018) National Quality Standards [online]. Available from < https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-quality-standard> [Accessed on 5 Dec 2018]. Perry, B., Dockett, S. and Harley, E., 2012. The early years learning framework for Australia and theAustraliancurriculum—mathematics:linkingeducators’practicethroughpedagogical inquiry questions.Engaging the Australian curriculum mathematics: perspectives from the field, pp.153-174. Răducan,R.andRăducan,R.,2014.Leadershipandmanagement.Procedia-Socialand Behavioral Sciences,149, pp.808-812. Renz, D.O., 2016.The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. US: John Wiley & Sons. Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016.Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. UK: Routledge. Stage, T.G., 2015.Australian Professional Standards for Teachers(Doctoral dissertation, School of Education; University of Adelaide).