ED5880: Educational Leadership Challenges and Solutions Report

This report delves into the multifaceted challenges confronting educational leadership in the 21st century, focusing on the assessment gap, teaching gap, and leadership gap. It explores a rationale for addressing these challenges through a theorized approach, emphasizing the importance of conveying life values, continuous learning, and institutional stewardship. The report critically reviews relevant literature, including activist, development, transition, and creative challenges, offering practical strategies to overcome these obstacles. It highlights the significance of promoting a compelling vision, building belief, and defining critical roles within the educational framework. Furthermore, the report provides recommendations and conclusions, supported by references and appendices, offering a comprehensive analysis of effective educational leadership practices and strategies for improvement. The study explores the difference between transformational and transactional leadership and the value of leadership in various educational organizations.

Running Head: EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
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EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Nature of the leadership and their challenges........................................................................4
2.1. Challenge 1: The Assessment Gap..................................................................................4
2.2 Challenge 2: The Teaching Gap.......................................................................................4
2.3 Challenge 3: The Leadership Gap....................................................................................4
3. A rationale and theorised approach to the leadership challenges..........................................5
3.1 Conveying the Values of the Life....................................................................................5
3.2 Continuous learning, improvement and inquiry...............................................................5
3.3 Institutional Stewardship..................................................................................................6
4. A critical synopsis of relevant literature pertaining to the challenge.....................................6
4.1 The Activist Challenge.....................................................................................................6
4.2 The development Challenge.............................................................................................7
4.3 The transition challenge...................................................................................................7
4.4 The Creative challenge.....................................................................................................7
5. Overcoming the challenges in educational leadership...........................................................7
5.1 Promoting a compelling ‘why’.........................................................................................8
5.2 Building belief..................................................................................................................8
5.3 Defining critical roles.......................................................................................................9
6. Recommendation....................................................................................................................9
7. Conclusions..........................................................................................................................10
8. References............................................................................................................................11
Appendices:..............................................................................................................................12
Appendix 1: Challenges of Educational Leaderships..........................................................12
Appendix 2: Institutional Stewardship.................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
Educational leadership is a broad area of professional preparation which is open to
teachers, administrator and other workers in the educational industry. The primary goal of
this leadership to build up a relationship between the student and the teacher. Hence, it
ensures a successful education for any given community of the students. The superintendents
and principles of the educational centre in Australia are under pressure to increase the level
for academic achievement of the student. The constitutional act of Australian parliament
mandates the reporting of the students with the disaggregated by the proficiency of the
English language, socio-economic status and participation in special education. The
legislation of the Australian act 2001, The No Child Left Behind was eliminated the gap
between underrepresented minorities and white middle-class student.
The study will discuss the developments in several elements of the standard of
educational leadership. The challenges and issues help to enhance the prospect of the success
of a student. At the same time, it also impacts upon the environmental functions of an
educational place. There is three crucial areas of the educational leadership to draw the
management system of education. Furthermore, the study will reflect the difference between
transformational leadership and transactional leadership of education. The value of this
leadership and various approached that have taken by an educational organisation will be
discussed briefly.

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2. Nature of the leadership and their challenges
The development of the technology and embracement of public skills is a genuine
commitment in the era of 21st-century learning. The educational system has been changing
day by day, and the requirement of the moral values with the proper teaching methods is an
important objective for an educational organisation. There is three consideration of the
challenges for the educational leader to fostering 21st-century skills. The challenges are as
following:
2.1. Challenge 1: The Assessment Gap
The peoples differentiate the educational skill base on several common themes which
include teamwork, creativity, communication, problem-solving and critical thinking. An
education leader with lower commutation skill is creating an enormous gap between reality
and rhetoric (Livingstone, 2019). Effective communication skill includes oral and written
skill and technology to convey images, ideas, evidence. Moreover, there is a measurement
tool of the educational leader to collaborate the teamwork it tends to team or collaborative
environment on the basic of knowledge and literacy skill. The academic skills and content are
important but in insufficient condition to meet the academic criteria is a major issue of 21st
centuries educational system.
2.2 Challenge 2: The Teaching Gap
The conventional educational system is a wisdom for a teacher to face a challenging
academic stance. It is considered as a contrast between the administration and the students
with educational leaders. In the ethics of contemporary education, a student is recognised as a
customer who demanded immediate gratification from the educational organisation
(Alonderiene & Majauskaite, 2016). The gap between the parents and the teacher lead to
significant challenges for the organisation. The management of the educational firm performs
some remediation, confrontation and inconvenience that applies to an educational leader to
fill the teaching gap.
2.3 Challenge 3: The Leadership Gap
The educational leader is inadequate about the teaching practices and methods that are
used in the 21st century's learning system. The inconsistence curriculum, toxic gradation
system, infrequent feedback from the learners is the most significant problem faced by a
leader. The thinking capability as per the students and their parents collaborate with other

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workers in an organisation and to establish the communication process is crucial for an
educational leader to play their role (McCaffery, 2018). Over past decades leadership within
the field of education plays a prominent role in skills management and leadership.
3. A rationale and theorised approach to the leadership challenges
Past 20 years, the educational leadership has grown in a more understanding way and
less operative processes, and in this way, the standards can be developed, employed and
communicated. There have some reasonably clear and understandings of problems,
challenges and success which if taken in a serious way, it can be able to inform and develop
the future work. There is three major rationalised approach for educational leadership such as
conveying the values of the life, institutional stewardship, continuous learning, inquiry and
improvement (Grogan, 2017).
3.1 Conveying the Values of the Life
A major challenge referring to adoption and development of PSEL 2015 is the real-
life application of it. In the past few years this the adoption of PSEL has begun in various
way. Two different versions of ISLLC standards has been used for voluntary work such as a
framework for education leadership policy within various states and districts of Australia.
Application of PSEL in real-life also encouraged by the efforts to allocate it with the other
standard regarding school leadership and development of it. The Educational Leadership
Constitution Council Standards regarding preparation program of school leadership was
anchored on ISLLC standards. Also, the new National Educational Leadership Preparation
(NELP) standards are connected to PSEL 2015. There are few other kinds of tools for
educational leadership which can be developed, such as practice assessment system,
professional development curriculum and model competency.
3.2 Continuous learning, improvement and inquiry
Another part of the work ahead of educational leadership is continuous improvement,
inquiry and learning about the standards. The standard substantive evolution has been steered
by knowledge growth from the practice and research of school leadership. These kinds of
enquiry need to endure in the future if leader standards of the school are reflecting the most
efficacious and current knowledge of effective school leadership. There are also a few major
works which needed to be done regarding draw new learnings by inquiry process of updating
and using new standards. PSEL 2015 strains the major requirements of school leaders in
order to custom data and inquiry for future school development and other purposes. Standard

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development has been determined by episodic acknowledgement in presence knowledge
about new challenges, changing conditions and school leadership that needed to be
developed.
3.3 Institutional Stewardship
The third part of the concern is the institutional stewardship cultivation for standards.
The development of PSEL 2015, the standard's "ownership" as "returned" to NPBEA. One of
the most major things that NPBEA can do is engaging its organisation member with the
standards. According to national alliance, any umbrella organisation, of an important
organisation committed towards the development of the school and leadership of the school
system. The NPBEA can perform coordinating, accountability functions and convening for
encouraging the members of the organisations towards own standards. NPBEA also engages
in works where the board lacks the financial, organisational and capacity of the human to
perform. The NPBEA is a major body which can promote institutional stewardship (Smylie
& Murphy, 2019).
4. A critical synopsis of relevant literature pertaining to the challenge
There are several challenges or issues of the educational leadership in Australia.
Educational leadership develops the overall educational process while collaborating the
various talents and forces of teachers, parents and students. Educational leadership upgrades
the level of quality of education and the overall education system. The education leadership
aims to improve the educational structure and the architecture of the country. In most of the
educational development factor, there are some of the areas where the people may face
various or challenges. Those challenges will be discussed below.
4.1 The Activist Challenge
In an activist challenge, the principles and the values of a group may not reflect the
choices of the systems. It can be observed that different student is having various styles of
learning. So in this condition, if any student is falling behind in educational learnings, there is
no extra support has been given to that student. The scenario elaborates, that the leader has to
take control in this area, to ensure that, all the students are receiving an equal amount of
support from the teachers. The system also requires special support to provide stuff to
enhance the learning of the students who are lacking behind (MacBeath et al., 2018).

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4.2 The development Challenge
In a development challenge, it can be observed that various kind challenges are
related to the development of the educational level based on potential capabilities. In most of
the cases, the teachers or the leaders do not have any idea about the different abilities of the
students. In this condition, the leaders have to take the decision and the responsibilities to
develop the educational system. So that, the students can be sorted on the basis of their
potential and provide them with appropriate education based on that (Treagust et al., 2015).
4.3 The transition challenge
In the transition challenge, it can be noticed that the educations system is becoming
monotonous by following the same system educations which have been developed in many
years ago. So, it is creating boredom among the student and lacking the overall idea to learn
new things by the students. In this scenario, the implementation of technology in the
education industry it will allow the students to learn unboundedly. The leadership helps the
students to expand the education level, current principles and beliefs, in order to create a new
set of ideas, which can improve the overall performance of the education industry.
4.4 The Creative challenge
Creativity is one of a key form of developing the educational system, as the creativity
will allow every student to explore more options of learnings. Creativity will bring innovation
to the country, so it is important for the leadership that to identify the and the enhances the
creativity of the creative students, which will profitable for the system and the nation.
The learners face all of these challenges; on the other hand, the leaders are not taking
the appropriate measures to develop the overall structure of the educational systems in
Australia. In most of the scenarios, the responsibility of the leadership has not given to the
capable people. So, to improve the overall educational system, it is important to improve the
system, which is only possible when the leadership is given to the capable person (Shields,
2017).
5. Overcoming the challenges in educational leadership
Educational leadership refers to the cooperative process which aims to find forces and
talents among the teachers and students along with their parents in a collaborative manner.
The ultimate focus of an educational leader is to bring a change in the educational quality so
to revolutionise the system of education itself. There are several qualities that an educational

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leader must have to establish an effective system. One of the key quality features that an
educational leader must possess is the leader must have the ability to produce a vision
towards an academic vision for all learner students. It is an important factor because this can
create a huge gap between the students corresponding to various socio-economical level and
high, low achieving students. The other objectives of the educational leaders are to sustain a
safe and effective learning environment. However, delegating the responsibilities to the
others to empower the teachers, students and their parents by taking responsibility and help
them to accept accountability. By maintaining an educational environment, comfort and
ordered structure of classrooms can be provided to the students for better learning. Along
with that, instructional curriculums and methods can be significantly improved with the help
of educational leader shipment. Another importance of educational leadership in which it
excels at is to engage the educational institutes to adapt and borrow modern management
apparatuses, processes and techniques. All of these essential vital qualities must be possessed
by an educational leader to take the system of education towards the next level by bringing a
revolution in itself. The teachers are considered to be the essentials of educational leadership
(Day, Gu and Sammons, 2016). Therefore, the prime objective of the teachers is not only to
distribute the precious knowledge among the students but also to bring a change in the
educational system for them. In which they will be eager to know more, by acting as a
supreme educational leader. However, many challenges are faced by educational leaders, but
they adopt a way to overcome those challenges.
5.1 Promoting a compelling ‘why’
The outcome of education from the learners will not be significant if any
improvement cannot be done on the culture, instructions and curriculum of the schools. In
order to overcome the stated problem, the educational leaders who refer to the teachers must
engage their faculty, students and their parent's desires. It will serve the purpose of improving
culture, instruction along with curriculums of all educational institutes in a significant
manner.
5.2 Building belief
If people have any misconceptions or any disbelief regarding the educational
behaviours. If they share any compelling reason about it, then they will not be engaged in the
progress of the educational system. So, the educational leader must invoke the staff, faculty,
students and their parents along with them to believe that a significant change in the culture,
instruction and curriculum of the educational institutes is possible in a positive way.

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5.3 Defining critical roles
In addition to the features mentioned above of educational leadership, they must
establish a crystal-clear understanding among the faculty, staff, students and their parents,
about their responsibilities and roles towards the change in curriculum, culture and
instruction of education. Those individuals who believe that success can be attained by any
means, eventually become discouraged. If they realise that a lot of things have to be done in
an excellent manner to contribute to gaining success (Scherer, 2016).
6. Recommendation
According to the above analysis, educational leadership programs must be evaluated
rigorously, and weak systems should be developed further or closed. All kind of leadership
program needed to be evaluated for determining the fact of whether it is worthwhile. The nine
criteria which should be used throughout the development process of educational leadership,
covering the purpose of program, curriculum balance and content, standards of graduation
and admissions, resources, research, faculty and degrees. Higher education should and can
involve the scholarships of teaching, integration, discovery and application. In the field like
educational leadership, can and should focus on these scholarships in expressive ways
regarding the work of the standards and its role within developing school leadership. Also,
considering the toxic environments of the schools that many students have to face daily. It is
imperious that primary preparation programs for train and educate the future school leaders
for the importance of their job to create school cultures of support and acceptance.

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7. Conclusions
On the basis of the above discussions upon the dependents of educational leadership
on the educational system, it can be concluded that educational leadership plays an essential
key ingredient in the development of the educational system. The analysation critiques
concerning the process, performance and the effectiveness of the educational leadership are
given in the discussions of the paper. The strategies that are adopted by the educational
leaders that help the education for expanding the knowledge through the globe to bring a
revolution in it is also disclosed in the paper. The challenges that are faced by the leaders that
are creating obstacles in the way of knowledge expansion. The key essential strategies to
encounter those obstacles are also included in the paper. A further recommendation is also
provided in the paper to increase the capabilities of educational leadership. As educational
leaders hold the light of knowledge to guide the students. At the same time, the education
system in finding a better way to expand the knowledge around the world.

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8. References
Alonderiene, R., & Majauskaite, M. (2016). Leadership style and job satisfaction in higher
education institutions. International Journal Of Educational Management, 30(1), 140-
164. doi: 10.1108/ijem-08-2014-0106
Day, C., Gu, Q., & Sammons, P. (2016). The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), 221-258. doi:
10.1177/0013161x15616863
Grogan, M. (2017). Educational Leadership and Social Justice in the United States. Bildung
Und Erziehung, 67(3), 299-312. doi: 10.7788/bue-2014-0305
Livingstone, R. (2019). Educational leadership – We Hear You. Retrieved 23 September
2019, from https://wehearyou.acecqa.gov.au/tag/educational-leadership/
MacBeath, J., Dempster, N., Frost, D., Johnson, G., & Swaffield, S. (2018). Strengthening the
Connections between Leadership and Learning (1st ed., p. 176). Routledge.
McCaffery, P. (2018). The higher education manager's handbook. New York: Routledge.
Scherer, M. (2016). On poverty and learning (p. 160). Educational Leadership.
Shields, C. (2017). Transformative leadership in education (2nd ed., p. 150). Routledge.
Smylie, M., & Murphy, J. (2019). School leader standards from ISLLC to PSEL. Retrieved
23 September 2019, from http://npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Smylie-
Murphy-2018-School-leader-standards-from-ISLLC-to-PSEL-UCEA-Review-article-
only.pdf
Treagust, D., Won, M., Petersen, J., & Wynne, G. (2015). Science Teacher Education in
Australia: Initiatives and Challenges to Improve the Quality of Teaching. Journal Of
Science Teacher Education, 26(1), 81-98. doi: 10.1007/s10972-014-9410-3

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Appendices:
Appendix 1: Challenges of Educational Leaderships
Figure 1: Challenges of Educational Leaderships
(Source: Shields, 2017)
Appendix 2: Institutional Stewardship
Figure 2: Process of Institutional Stewardship
(Source: Grogan, 2017)
Challenges
of
Education
al
Leadership
Transition
Challenge
Creative
Challenge
Developm
ent
Challenge
Activist
Challenge

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