MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

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My Philosophy of Educational Leadership

--
Presented to the Department of Educational Leadership
and Postsecondary Education
University of Northern Iowa
--
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the
Master of Arts in Education
--
by
Nikhil Dandekar
The American School of Bombay
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
July 16, 2013
--
Dr. Timothy Gilson





MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

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I began my career as an Engineer with no expectation that I would become an educator
some day. All I had was a genuine love and concern for children and grew up watching my sister
educate young minds. That was her job and she inspired me. Before I knew it, I acquired a
Certificate in Teaching English to Adult Learners (CELTA), went on a voluntary program
teaching English in Georgia (East Europe) and finally to teaching at The American School of
Bombay (ASB), Mumbai-India. There was no looking back after.
Being raised in an education system that was designed around the model - one size fits
all, I realized education is not just about being able to read, write and count. It is about creating
minds that wonder, inquire, reason, and feel motivated and inspired. Every student learns in a
different way. Schools need to customize an education to match the way each child learns in
order to motivate them intrinsically. I didnt experience this until I joined ASB.
ASB is a fast paced, progressive school and things moved rapidly for me professionally. I
was encouraged to engage with students and interact with faculty the moment I joined. My
performance and interactions with children were observed closely. In less than a year I was
offered three job positions at ASB. I started as a Class Assistant, was then offered a Teaching
Assistants position to finally being offered an Online Learning Interns position at the middle
and high school. I feel pursuing the masters degree in educational leadership will shape my
beliefs in understanding what it means to be an effective educator and leader, help me support in
my new job role, gain efficiency and greater knowledge about how to approach different learning
experiences for students and have a deeper understanding about 21
st
century learning.
In my belief, imagination is a crucial component of the educator of today and tomorrow.
Successful leaders understand this and look across the disciplines and through the curricula; they
see the potential in the emerging tools and web technologies, grasp these and manipulate them to
MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

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serve their needs. The visionary leader can look at others' ideas and envisage how they would use
these in their school setting.
Among the most important qualities I possess are self-awareness and the willingness to
engage in thoughtful reflection. In these areas, I often adjust lessons within minutes or hours of
finishing a class if I recognize that there was an opportunity for improved student learning. I tend
to ask questions and seek feedback on my adjustments, thoughtfully explaining my rationale and
demonstrating a great deal of reflection. As Ramsey (2006) reminds us, Save time for reflection
and planning every day. Make it routine (p. 18). I believe effective leaders have the ability to
reflect and question their actions and make adjustments accordingly in order to deliver quality
education.
I consider being honest and genuine in my interaction and communication with others to
be very important. Being authentic is necessary to create a climate of respect and trust. Staff,
parents, and community members are quick to spot phonies. Kids do it best of all (Ramsey,
2006, p. xxii). I have the ability to effectively communicate and relate well with others, and
establish an immediate rapport with children. A good leader builds positive relationships with
others and communicates effectively through formal and informal structures with care and
sensitivity. If you cant communicate adequately, you cant lead (p. 145). Working with an
international body of students and parents I am able to demonstrate international mindedness and
respect for other cultures.
I have always believed myself to be well organized and tend to plan in advance and
prioritize my work. This quality also ties in with being flexible. When working with children,
things rarely go as planned. Adapting to last minute changes is the key to being a good leader.
These qualities were noticed and appreciated by my grade level team.
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Technology integration and its application is one of my many strengths. I understand its
value as a tool to aid learning not as a separate component and support students and colleagues.
Technology is advancing at a headlong rate of speed. It's transforming how people work, think,
and connect. It's transforming our cultural values. To introduce customization, schools need to
move away from the monolithic instruction of batches of student toward a modular, student-
centric approach using software as an important delivery vehicle (Christensen, Horn & Johnson,
2008, p. 10). An effective leader keeps up to date with latest developments in educational
technologies to increase student learning.
In my opinion one way of being an effective leader is how soon you engage students and
staff into believing in and understanding your vision and mission. Just putting it out there isnt
enough. If you want a buy-in from all the stakeholders you have to empower and engage every
staff member right from the beginning. The role of an effective leader is to create a climate that
welcomes, supports and rewards (Ramsey, 2006, p. 26). The idea is to create an environment
where everyones inputs are valued and heard; a flattened structure for all to equally speak,
rather than having a traditional top-down leadership structure where the decision solely rests
with the leader. As a leader I believe in creating an environment where everyone, irrespective of
their experience or designation has equal opportunities to share ideas and make decisions within
their areas of responsibility. When this happens, any school can become an idea factory that
consistently produces creative thinking necessary to drive sound decision making (p. 4). This
encourages everyone to be involved, show ownership and take decisions.
Effective leaders dont make decisions in isolation. When possible, they rely on input from
others to help them determine appropriate courses of action (p. 7).
Collaboration is involving everyone in the process, sharing ideas and maintaining
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transparency in order to come up with better ideas, better solutions and eventually better results.
When leaders share credit for good ideas, it creates a ground for innovative thinking, builds
confidence and active participation. True leadership is not about just managing your leadership
responsibility but how you empower the people you lead, respect each other's passions and
experiences and benefit the school as a whole. The Teacher Leader Model Standards Domain I
emphasizes in fostering a collaborative culture to support educator development and student
learning (Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011). I value and recognize the
contribution of every team member. An effective leader should be able to foster a teaching &
learning community in which teachers collaborate with each other more openly in order to come
up with better ways to provide formative assessment, to give timely and effective feedback, to
promote self-directed learning, to let students master knowledge and skills by applying them in
meaningful, real-world projects or simulations, to foster community and to encourage service to
others. I believe a leader has the potential to bring the team together in order to learn and benefit
from each other and increase student learning.
The Teacher Leader Model Standards Domain III emphasizes on facilitating varied and
differentiated professional learning. I believe good leaders always identify and use appropriate
technologies to promote collaborative and differentiated professional learning in order to keep
schools moving forward. Staff members should be given all the training they need in order to
encourage continuous learning. This is modeled well at ASB. ASBs current R&D Director, Dr.
Shabbi Luthra is truly an exceptional leader as she continuously presents and demonstrates
opportunities an understanding of adult learning. In my opinion an effective leader like Dr.
Luthra recognizes the importance of careful study and preparation before making a big move.
An ailing leader is a liability (Ramsey, 2006, p. 49). An effective leader must follow
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and model a balanced lifestyle. Your body and mind is your temple. If you want to be at the top
of your game and bring the best out in your employees, you need to take care of yourself and
work SMART. Realizing and respecting your employees personal time is the key to winning
your employees trust and respect. Everyone has the right to enjoy a life outside work boundaries
and an effective leader always respects that. From my current work setting I see the benefit of
having fun at work can increase the morale of the employees and generate better results and
better performance. An effective leader knows when and where to encourage humor at work.
I believe a 21st century learning environment both gives and gets support from families
and the local community. This can tie in with the Teacher Leader Model Standards Domain VI
(Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011), as it is important to involve parents and
families of staff to shape and define a school community. As Michael Fullan, a leading expert
on school leadership, notes, the research is very clear about the benefits, indeed, the necessity of
parental involvement. There is strong evidence, as well, that greater community and parental
participation yields important educational advantages. The George Lucas Foundation cites
numerous studies showing that strong home-school connections result in the following
outcomes: children do better in school when their parents are involved in their education, after-
school learning opportunities promote student achievement, community youth development
programs spur academic performance, schools that integrate community services reduce risk and
promote resilience in children (Partnership, n.d., pp. 22-23). To maximize parental support, do
everything possible to get parents in and involved in the school (Ramsey, 2006, p. 47). I believe
parents should to be partners in the education journey of their children and ASB is a good
example of this belief.
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Reflecting back on the series of events that unfolded in my life, I wasnt sure if I was
ready to be a leader until Dr. Luthra inspired me, encouraged me and made me believe that
everyone has equal potential to be a leader.



















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References
Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting class: How disruptive
innovation will change the way the world learns. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills. (n.d.). 21
st
Century Learning Environments.
Retrieved from
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/le_white_paper-1.pdf

Ramsey, R. D. (2006). Lead, follow or get out of the way: How to be a more effective
leader in todays schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium. (2011). Teacher Leader Model Standards.
Retrieved from
http://www.teacherleaderstandards.org/downloads/TLS_Brochure_sm.pdf