Leadership for Educating Students: A 21st Century Perspective

This essay delves into the critical role of leadership in educating students for the 21st-century global economy, specifically within the context of Barbados Community College. The essay examines various leadership styles, including authoritative, affiliative, democratic, coaching, and visionary leadership, evaluating their effectiveness in fostering 21st-century skills. It emphasizes the need for leaders to consider instructional requirements, student outcomes, and teacher expertise. The discussion highlights the importance of integrating technology, promoting teacher development, and adapting assessment methods. The essay concludes by advocating for coaching leadership as the most suitable approach, emphasizing its focus on continuous learning and development for both students and educators, to equip them for the challenges of the evolving global landscape. The essay also critiques the traditional education system and proposes actionable strategies to align education with the demands of the modern world.

Running head: LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
Leadership for Educating Students
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
The term “leadership” brings a wide range of different things, because of the types of
leaders; one has been exposed to in the earlier days. A great leader is an individual who is self-
aware and who understands the vitality of communication with the community members and
seeks for building a sense of collaboration and community in nature (Priest & Gass, 2017). He is
the one who opens new paths and leads by example and set further precedents for his followers.
He is the one who harnesses the power of learning and teaching. Today, all the learners, right
from cradle to career, require new knowledge and skills for succeeding. This global economy,
the requirements of a job has changed rapidly. More than ever, the students of the contemporary
era are called upon for demonstrating their understanding of the crucial skills and knowledge in
an integrated way. To excel in such a competitive scenario, the opportunities to learn the 21st-
century skills are significant. This, in turn, invites the school administrators and the teachers for
feeling empowered to adopt some same kind of 21st-century practices. Different individuals have
a different leadership style. Similarly, different educational leaders practice differs in leadership
style. Such difference in styles makes every leader, a unique one. This essay is going to elaborate
on discussing the kind of leadership that is needed for educating students for the 21st-century
global economy in the context of Barbados Community College.
Effective leaders in the 21st century need to consider the instructional requirements, the
final specifications of students and the expertise of the teachers. Teachers in the contemporary
world face many unique challenges that were never encountered before or even imagined
(Wiliam & Thompson, 2017). Preparing today's students for thriving in this technologically
advanced and global society where the all the business leaders demand using the digital tools that
have evolved at a fast rate for succeeding at careers that were not even existed a few years back
is a challenging task for the teachers. The skills of information processing have become a skill of

2LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
survival (Lemon, 2016). For preparing the student for their near future, the contemporary
teachers need to have the leadership and support of the school administrators who have a good
understanding of the 21st-century skills. In this 21st century, the world has become mostly global
and digitally interconnected. All the learners, right from cradle to career, require new knowledge
and skills for succeeding. This global economy, the requirements of a job has changed rapidly.
To excel in such a competitive scenario, the opportunities to learn the 21st-century skills are
significant. These skills of the 21st century are more crucial to the students now than ever before.
Although, there are several improvements done in the field of education in recent years, and
there are several trends that have been emerged (Bush et al., 2018). For example, in the Barbados
Community College, the very first and significant is the use of technology and integration.
Technology has dramatically enhanced by the education system of this college and has driven the
learning of all kinds. Next is the expansion of mobile technology. Technology has become
increasingly mobile, and the opportunities for education exist everywhere and at all the time
(Reychav, Dunaway & Kobayashi, 2015). With the same, the teachers and the students are
experiencing and gaining more of the world, and they start from a younger age itself.
Furthermore, it is also to state in this context that, for developing 21st-century
competencies among the children, teachers need to be exposed to all the opportunities for
improving theirs. As per the survey conducted in the year 2017, teachers approve the 21st-century
competencies, but they spend very less time in the classroom for the students (Zeichner, 2017).
The ongoing peer teaching communities in Barbados Community College that help the teachers
to understand how such competencies should support the achievement and how it would
integrate them into their teaching process is significant along with the shifts in the assessment
and accountability that are noted. With the same, it is also to mention that there is a disconnect

3LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
between new goals and the regular ones. Leader is the one who opens new paths and leads by
example and set further precedents for his followers. He is the one who harnesses the power of
learning and teaching. Effective leaders in the 21st century need to consider the instructional
requirements, the final elements of students and the expertise of the teachers. Teachers in the
contemporary world face many unique challenges that were never encountered before or even
imagined. The preset accountability system in the United States as well as in the Barbados
Community College systems of examination is the obstacles in the part of competencies of the
21st century. Working on the new forms of assessment, comprising of the self-assessment of the
students is underway. However, it is also to mention that there is still not any proper measures
for most of the 21st-century competencies. In most of the classrooms today, the curriculum that is
taught is designed in the late 1800s, and most of the courses are being prepared right now have
transformed very little in not more than hundred years.
The educational leaders in the contemporary world practice many leadership styles. They
include authoritative, affiliative, democratic, coaching, visionary leadership and instructional
leadership. Authentic leadership is exemplified when the educational leaders dictate the policies
and the procedures (Shulhan, 2018). The authoritative leaders depend more on the moral as
compared to the positional authority and affect more than overt control. They balance a higher
level of responsiveness along with a higher level of demandingness. The affiliative leadership
works best in the stressful circumstances to heal the rifts in a group and motivate them for
keeping the work on. These leaders are much more inclined toward building relationships. As per
their leadership style-, "people come first." Such leaders successfully create a sense of harmony
and make emotional bonding. With the same, they also form groups that ensure that the
followers are feeling connected to one another. Today, all the learners, right from cradle to

4LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
career, require new knowledge and skills for succeeding. This global economy, the requirements
of a job has changed rapidly. To excel in such a competitive scenario, the opportunities to learn
the 21st-century skills are significant. However, as per the theorist of Caribbean De Andres
Gonzalez (2018), the primary challenge of this leadership is style is that the performance of the
poor performing students tends to go unchecked.
On the other hand, the Democratic leaders are the ones who make the final decisions.
However, they include the other members like the other outstanding teachers in the school in the
process of decision-making. These leaders encourage creativity, and the students are often
engaged in projects. Notwithstanding this fact, there is also a significant drawback of this
leadership style. This is that it might not work at the time of making quick decisions.
Over the past few decades, very strong efforts are made to make sure that the leaders of
the upcoming schools to gain ample of accredited trainings with the hands-on experiences in the
school setting, the classroom theoretical exposure and proper professional development in order
to ensure that the teachers are well prepared for their role of school leadership. The present
curriculum of the schools is firmly rooted in the traditions of the last centuries that focuses on the
necessary skills and content knowledge. Today, schools make use of technology and
standardized tests for teaching and measuring student learning (Savery, 2015). With the same,
the business leaders today mainly claim that- it is the K-12 system of education that is failing to
prepare the students for the realities of the hypercompetitive global economy. However, most of
the school systems now demand leaders to practice effective instructional leadership. This is
because these leaders set clear goals, manage curriculum, monitor the lesson plans, evaluate
teachers on a regular basis and at the same time, allocate the necessary resources to promote the
student learning, development, and growth. They make the quality of instruction their priority.

5LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
Principles of the schools are required to practice this style of leadership. It is also to mention in
this context, and the instructional leadership should reside with a group of leaders. With the
same, the principal of the school should serve as the leader of leaders.
Moreover, the style of visionary leadership is a mixture of all the three leadership styles.
These leaders are apparent regarding what they believe, and they know what best is for teaching
(Ricard et al., 2017). With the same, the individual beliefs of these leaders are developed in
collaboration with the stakeholders and are articulated into some or the other kinds of mission or
vision statements.
The next leadership style if that of coaching. It is the best-suited leadership style for the
21st-century students as it is learning-focused and that too, learning for both the students and the
adults. With the same, the learning under this leadership is measured by the improvement in the
instructions as well as in the quality of the student learning. To my viewpoint, it is the best
leadership style. It does well in the education sector. The educational leaders who practice this
leadership style help the students to develop and grow, keeping in mind the future situations and
circumstances. These leaders force the teachers and other employees to try out new things and
help them in improving and developing further. It is to note that coaching is the best style for
schools as it models learning by encouraging and motivating the teachers and the staffs for
establishing long-lasting development goals as well as to find out new ways for achieving them.
With the same, the coaching leaders also give ample feedbacks and instructions as well.
Feedback is very crucial and integral to the empowerment of teachers. They keep a look at the
overall performance of the students on a daily basis. With the same, as per Reiss (2015), these
leaders also excel at delegation.

6LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
However, according to one of the theorists of Caribbean, Van Nieuwerburgh (2018), it is
a very time-consuming approach. It takes much time to ensure that development is taking place.
Farver and Holt (2015), in this context, have claimed that learning is not a matter of short term. It
requires much time, attention and practice. Hence, just because it is time-consuming, one cannot
deny the positive output that it could bring. If successfully applied, it can bring in some positive
and productive impact on the performance and climate. Moreover, Pagnotta et al. (2016) too, has
opined that this approach works the best when the teachers are already aware of the strengths and
weaknesses of the students and when they want to improve. Furthermore, it is also the best as
because it does not emphasize the excellent performing students, but also the weaker ones as
well.
Hence, from the above analysis, it is to conclude that to become an active leader in the
21st century and educating students for the 21st-century global economy, teachers should make
sure that all the instructional needs, the ultimate needs of the students as well as the expertise of
the teachers are considered. Attaining the outcomes of the 21st century need to reconsider how
and what the students are required to learn. Therefore, the teachers and the administrators require
being very useful technological and instructional leaders in their respective schools and must
very effectively be participating in the selection and the implementation of the tools that the
teachers would use for engaging the students and improving their learning. However, the most
effective leadership style in this process of preparing students to face the 21st-century global
economy is that of the coaching leadership. This is because the leaders who use the coaching
leadership style, helps the students to develop and grow, keeping in mind the future situations
and circumstances.

7LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS
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