Educational Leadership and Change: An International Perspective

Introduction

Introduction Wong Kam-Cheung and Cheng Kai-Ming This book is the result of the Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration held in Hong Kong in August 1992. However, this is not the proceedings of the Conference. Efforts have been made to select the relevant papers to form a coherent theme. We choose'Educational Leadership and Change: An International Perspective' as the title to reflect our emphasis. This book contains papers on the shifting role of school leaders and their preparation; the reflection and report on the latest change in management - the devolution of responsibilities to schools; and the cultural dimension of educational administration. It draws on experiences from different parts of the world. The papers are grouped under three main headings. The first section, 'Setting the Scene', includes six papers that focus more on the theory aspect. The second section, 'Devolving Responsibilities to Schools', has seven papers reporting largely on how schools respond to decentralization. The last section, 'Preparing School Leaders', consists of seven papers mainly on the teaching profession and the preparation of leaders. In order to facilitate reading, we attempt to give a brief account of the papers in the Introduction and where appropriate discuss some of the implications. Setting the Scene Michael Fullan begins (Chapter 1) by tracing the evolution of change and the work of school leaders in the process. He reports how the role of school leaders has oscillated from one extreme of little involvement to full 2 Wong Kam-Cheung and Cheng Kai-Ming participation in the past two decades. On leadership theory, Fullan is particularly critical of the recent emphasis on vision of the leaders.l The recent studies on leadership return to the trait theory of the 1930s, this time with a better research design and wider concept of personal quality. The emphasis is on charismatic and transformational leaders (Stogdill, 1974; House, 1977: Conger and Kanungo, 1987; Bums, 1978; Bass; 1985; Yukl, 1994). These leaders are said to have strong conviction, excessive energy and appealing vision. They possess great ability to articulate their arguments and to inspire followers to put up exceptional effort and even make personal sacrifices to accomplish the group goals. as: Quoting Senge (1990), Fullan comments that this view treats leaders special people who set the direction, make the key decisions, and energize the troops ... (These beliefs) are deeply rooted in an individualistic and nonsystemic worldview especially in the West ... (p.6) and the leadership theories: are still captured by the image of the captain of the cavalry leading the charge to rescue the settlers from the attacking Indians. (p. 6) Interestingly, Senge (1990:341) went on to paraphrase Lao-tzu in advocating the concept of the 'leader as designer'. The designer leader takes a backseat and finds satisfaction in being part of an organization capable of producing results that people truly care about. The influence of the Chinese culture on management theory is a theme to which we shall return later. The objection Fullan raised in his paper against the leader's vision is its blindness when imposed on the followers, because such vision will often command compliance, not commitment. Fullan advocates the learning organization, a concept he borrowed from Senge's 'The Fifth Discipline' (1990). The learning organization advocates system thinking. In the learning organization, the leaders will take the role of designer, steward and teacher. It is interesting to note similar metaphors have been used by the Chinese government when referring to their national leaders.2 For a radical criticism of the leadership theory, see SMYTH, J. (eds) (1994). Critical perspectives on educational leadership (reprinted). London: The Falmer Press. 2 In China, Chairman Mao Zedong was referred to as the greatest designer, steward and teacher. The Evolution of Change and the New Work of the Educational Leader 3 The learning organization is a new strategy. It is gaining influence in large corporations like Royal Dutch/Shell, and Hanover Insurance in the United States. There is similar echo in Europe.3 But it is not yet known in educational communities. Perhaps the promoted leadership style and system thinking strategy oriented towards Chinese philosophy deserves a close examination in this part of the world. Fullan is also critical of school-based management (SBM). He questions whether SBM has generated any substantive changes in pedagogy and in ways teachers worked together on instructional matters. Fullan is not alone to raise issue with SBM...