Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Abstract
This essay takes an emergent perspective to two educational philosophies: essentialism and
best driven by value-added leadership and moral reasoning. Leadership that promotes freedom,
trust, justice, compassion, connectedness, and peace, for example, demonstrates that besides
having knowledge and skills in order to be productive members of society, it is also important to
develop a good disposition. Aligning curriculum, assessment, and instruction that merges both
core subjects and values better address not only what students should know but what they are to
become.
Value-added leadership 2
Assuming a progressive educational philosophy, students learn best when their cognitive
(i.e., academic), social, and emotional needs are taken into consideration. Although common
phrases such as teaching the whole child and no child left behind are left open to a certain degree
of interpretation, the need for teaching in a more moralistic and equitable way remain an
essential part of the learning process. Likewise, teacher development includes a moral facet that
consciousness”, and “teacher concerns” (Glickman, Gordon, Ross-Gordon, 2007, p. 67), which
the social capital necessary to pursue this end. Thus, learning not only takes on an
epistemological perspective but also an ontological one as well; therefore, leadership that takes
into account both what teachers are to learn and what they are to become reaches out to the entire
faculty in a way that is more just and appropriate for building a community of practice.
The essence of judging moral behavior is determining what is good or bad (The Free
Dictionary…, 2009). But what is good or bad for one person could be interpreted differently for
another person, especially when people come from different cultures and share different beliefs
within the same social group or context. For example, when given a certain amount of freedom
to exercise a degree of choice in a teaching technique, some teachers may feel motivated to try
new things while others may feel lost if they are used to having authoritative leaders dictate
teaching practices to them. In other words, the value of freedom in one case is seen as something
“good” because it leads to having a choice, but is can also be seen as something “bad” because it
concept that contributes to an ontological view of education. Sergiovanni (2005) puts forth the
notion of “value-added leadership” that “calls attention to that which is intrinsically important
and desirable, as in ´What values do we believe should guide our actions?´ ´What values define
us, give us a sense of significance, and provide the norms that anchor our lives in a culture of
meaning?´” (p. x). Leadership as a quest for values directs faculty towards a collective group of
values that a school is to abide by. As teachers reflect and share on their own values, certain
moral behaviors then become expected. Thus, the spaces and structures for formalizing values
develop in a top-down fashion, but the values themselves are reached through consensus on the
part of each of the teachers. Gordon (2001) suggests the following moral principles that drive
“the good school”: “compassion, wholeness, connectedness, inclusion, justice, peace, freedom,
trust, empowerment, and community” (as cited in Glickman, Gordon, and Ross-Gordon, 2007,
pp. 452-455). As these are more than likely to be some examples of what teachers reach as a
consensus; the next stage is to convert these principles into collective commitments or actions
Leadership becomes crucial when moral principles merge with core subjects (i.e.,
reading, writing, and arithmetic), and teachers and administrators have different views on
education can cause a level of conflict unless there is clear direction and expectations are made
clear. Moreover, with the push for standardized testing established by the No Child Left Behind
Law, many schools are forced to a more epistemological view of learning that ignores the value
set required for students to be productive and responsible citizens. Value-added leadership finds
ways to merge “soft skills” with the “hard skills” throughout curriculum, assessment, and
Value-added leadership 4
instruction, and does so both at the faculty level as well as the student level. This merging of
chaos theory and the notion of complexity. Siemens (October, 12, 2008) states that although
chaos theory comes from a mathematics and advanced physics, the theory can broadly be applied
to two areas within the social sciences: “1) the concept of sensitivity of initial conditions, and 2)
recognizing that learning similarly consists of unpredictability that occurs within certain
structures of form (deterministic unpredictability)”. In other words, chaos theory states there is a
specific reason, justification, or rationale behind what appears to be random. Similarly, the
notion of complexity is best described by an example. Imagine viewing a seashore from high up.
At a distance, the seashore seems fixed, but upon closer examination, one realizes that there are
many factors that influence or form the seashore: tides, man-made formations, weather patterns,
etc. In fact, a seashore is in a constant state of flux depending on how all these factors interact at
any given moment. Indeed, it becomes difficult to predict to what degree each factor had on the
final outcome – seashore. A similar phenomenon occurs in education. Of all the factors that
influence one´s learning, it is difficult if not impossible to know with certainty which factor or
Taking chaos theory and complexity into account, change occurs in a more nonlinear
fashion dependent on the actors of the social group. A more “rhizomatic educational” (Cormier,
2008) approach to change views of each teacher, administrator, or student as an emergent figure,
each having a particular journey as the change process unfolds. Professional development that
focuses on incorporating values in the core subjects, for example, can take a diversified group of
teachers in the same direction but recognizes that each will have different understandings,
Value-added leadership 5
knowledge, pedagogical skills, and disposition as they pursue the objectives of the course,
workshop, or conference. The goal of the instructional leader is to facilitate these journeys in a
respectful way so that each teacher is motivated to reflect on current practice and to share ideas
with others, each having their own starting and ending point.
When undergoing change within a school, leadership undertakes certain stages as well.
Sergiovanni (2005) defines these stages as follows: a) “bartering, b) building, c) binding, and d)
bonding”, and adds that these stages can move from one to another or they can be combined
depending on the situation (p. 173). The goal, however, is to lead to a more binding or bonding
relationship, one that fosters transformational development for the entire faculty. And although a
school may be categorized as being at a particular stage, it may also involve a variety of stages
To conclude, value-added leadership and moral reasoning address learning from both an
existentialism as a dichotomy, the new learning paradigm blends both philosophies within the
educational design. By doing so, curriculum, assessment, and instruction are aligned in order to
adhere to core subjects and to promote good moral judgment. Values such as trust, freedom,
justice, and the like build the necessary base for becoming better citizens. With the advent of
technology, the lifespan of content and knowledge is becoming shorter, so students who develop
their moral reasoning skills will emerge as more competitive in the workforce as well as
democratic process whereby the “gifted” and struggling students share or have the same
opportunities to share the same spaces and thus allowing students and teachers to interact,
References
Glickman, C., Gordon, S., and Ross-Gordon, J. (2007). Supervision and instructional leadership:
A development approach. New York: Pearson.
Sergiovanni, T. (2005). Strengthening the heartbeat: Leading and learning together in schools.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Siemens, G. (October 12, 2008). Complexity, chaos, and emergence. Retrieved on February 3,
2009 from http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=anw8wkk6fjc_15cfmrctf8