Leadership Report: Appreciative Inquiry for School Change, Punjab

This report analyzes a student's proposal for implementing change within the Maharishi Public School in Punjab, India. The core of the proposal centers on improving teaching methods and enhancing the learning experience through the adoption of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach. The AI approach involves four stages: Discover, Dream, Design, and Destiny, which encourage teachers to identify innovative teaching methods, set a vision for the future, identify resources, and implement the change. The report emphasizes the crucial role of leadership, particularly the school principal, in facilitating this change. The principal's leadership skills, including communication, motivation, and the ability to handle resistance, are highlighted as essential for a successful transition. The report suggests that a democratic leadership style, which encourages input from all team members, aligns best with the AI approach. The report also discusses the benefits of incorporating curriculum approaches, linguistics, and content-based instruction to enhance the learning environment for diverse cultures.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1LEADERSHIP
The concept of the change introduced by me is related to modifying the teaching method
and thereby, improving the learning experience for the students studying in the Maharishi Public
School in Punjab. The approach identified by me is the Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI).
Although, there were no needs for a change in the learning methods as they are already good;
however, sticking to the same learning method is just like being static and not grabbing the
opportunities. Instead, the change should always be there to accommodate the best of the
working experience and more importantly providing new directions to the business (Georgalis et
al. 2015). The educational standard at the global level is undergoing a revolutionary
transformation from a traditional learning model to a much more modernised learning model.
Digitised learning is increasingly becoming a part of global education. Classrooms are becoming
smarter (Atabekov 2016). Hence, I thought of following the same trend to enhance the learning
experience at my school back in Punjab. Smarter classrooms will help to transfer more
understanding of foreign cultures. It is to be noted that static culture is never productive but a
dynamic culture. A dynamic culture provides opportunity make useful amendments to the
existing syllabus and thereby making it much easier and helpful for the learners (Jæger and
Breen 2016).
The Appreciative Inquiry Approach is a four-dimensional approach and is broadly
divided into sub-parts such as ‘Discover', ‘Dream', ‘Design' and ‘Destiny' (Trudel, Gilbert and
Rodrigue 2016). ‘Discover’ of AI encourages to discover a bunch of ideas that could be
profitable for a venture or a business. In the context of this study, it is about identifying a huge
lot of ideas that could change the teaching methods and enhance the learning experience of the
learners. In the case context, teachers will be a group of people identifying the various innovative
teaching methods. Each teacher will have their ideas noted down on a piece of paper. In this way,

2LEADERSHIP
there will be a huge number of different ideas pouring from the teachers. The second stage in an
AI approach is ‘Dream’. It is about setting a vision for the teaching experience, which is both
productive and feasible as well. The management team in the school should understand that
everything is not attainable and that they have their own limits. At the ‘Design’ stage, resources
of changes will be identified. If there has to be a change in the teaching methods, teachers should
identify on their own how to achieve it. Teaching methods can be made more modernised with
the help of technologies like audio-visual aids, workshops, presentations, flip card, etc. Smart
classes could also one of these digital technologies.
‘Destiny’ is the last stage in an AI approach. It encourages to identify ways through
which the vision could be attained. For example, the principle of the school should know how to
implement the change. The Principal can even arrange technological experts, provide adequate
support to teachers needed to understand the technology and workshops for the teachers (Doppelt
2017). By understanding each other’s needs and limitations a strong collaboration between
teachers and the principal can be established. A collaborative environment can be developed and
is needed to drive intercultural understanding as well in schools. This will require planning for
and developing the curriculum, which is highly engaging for students from diverse cultures
(Rumble 2019). A highly engaging syllabus will require assistance from linguistics method of
literacy, content-based instruction, genre-based approaches, programing and planning of
intercultural languages to make the contents both engaging and worth learning for the students.
Small changes keep happening regularly and sometimes do not even come to the notice of those
who to some extent have an influence of such changes. However, a major change in this regard is
quite different from small changes and cannot be accomplished without having a leadership
involvement in it (Neves and Schyns 2018). Organisational leaders can contribute to a change

3LEADERSHIP
process in numerous ways. Change without a strategic leader will fail to communicate and
sustain the vision of the change. Moreover, employees could get surrounded by negativity. They
can have distrust on the management and their decision for the change. Indeed, leaders are
responsible for demonstrating the needs for change. They do not just design and communicate
common goals but also encourage members to relate to it (Neves and Schyns 2018). Moreover,
leaders know how to keep their members or followers motivated throughout the change process.
Communication is essentially a leadership characteristic (Bush, Bell and Middlewood 2019).
Successful leaders know very well how to establish effective communication with their
employees. They know how to build trust among their followers. Nevertheless, employees' trust
in management is always a boost to a change (Holten and Brenner 2015). Great leaders listen to
the concerns and try to fulfill it to an extent it is possible. Effective communication skills in
leaders help them establish a productive relationship with the customers, employees and
community. A solid relationship attained this way to help leaders reduce the level of resistance to
a change (Holten and Brenner 2015).
Leadership in the context of the Maharishi Public School in Punjab could be highly
beneficial as there is already very good bonding between the school leaders and the teachers. The
Principal with its leadership skills could give valuable input to the change. They could provide
support in various forms. For example, the Principal can help by seeking approval on the change
from the higher authorities of the Maharishi Public School in Punjab. The monetary and physical
assistance needed for technological developments requires the inclusion of the Principal. From
seeking approval from the higher authorities to managing the teams are a few responsibilities of
the Principal (Li et al. 2016). Some of the teachers can have a resisting nature to the change
despite having good knowledge of a variety of technologies. In all such condition, the Principal

4LEADERSHIP
can step in and communicate with the teachers. Since they have a bonding existing already the
Principal should not have too much of an issue in letting their teachers understand the
importance of a change. The Principal could be the best person in dealing with unplanned
situations, ambiguity and unexpected responses. Nevertheless, this is perhaps an essential part of
a change (Li et al. 2016). The positive response from the school Principal will serve as guidance
for teachers to imitate. The Principal can also encourage implementing genre-based approaches
that can include a poem, a description, a recipe and so forth (Martin 2009). Intercultural
classrooms can be benefitted from adopting curriculum approaches, using linguistics and
facilitating content-based instruction (CBI). Curriculum approaches will help in designing
appropriate syllabus, modifying contents when required and working on the feedback to bring
more improvements to the syllabus (Richards 2013). Linguistics method of literacy could be
helpful as well. This will help the Principal provide its team of teachers, resources that will repair
the cultural understanding from the very basics (Yang and Wang 2016). Moreover, content-based
instruction will ensure that students are more concerned with the contents and are able to deliver
despite not being from the local culture (Stoller 2004). In all this way, the Principal in schools
will be able to portray a leadership approach.
To conclude, it can be said that the proposed change for the Maharishi Public School in
Punjab could be a productive move for the school. The change should enhance the teaching
experience for the teachers. Hence, the standard of teaching will improve. In addition, the
learners will get a very interactive and engaging study environment. However, the desired
change to be brought by following the Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI) requires leadership
assistance from the school's Principal. There is various leadership approach that could be useful
in this context. However, the inputs that are required from the Principal such as those discussed

5LEADERSHIP
in this paper indicate that the ‘Democratic Leadership’ will be highly viable with the case
school. Democratic leadership encourages every team members for their input to the change.
This concept is in-line with the AI approach as being taken to implement a change in the
Maharishi Public School. The AI approach says that every teacher should participate in the idea-
generating process. Moreover, they all should also agree to the selected idea. Democratic leaders
are aware of how to conduct a change process. They know how to manage the barriers
supposedly coming from a few teachers. It is because they have effective communication skills,
which allow them to understand the diverse situation and answer the queries of each one of the
teachers. Moreover, democratic leaders know how to keep their follower motivated to the
destined change. This is exactly similar to what is being spoken about the role of the Principal in
the Maharishi Public School in the context of the change. Hence, democratic leadership should
be the kind of supervision required by the Principal of the Maharishi Public School.

6LEADERSHIP
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