Abstract
This edition of Management and Education focusses around issues of social justice in its broadest sense and the ways in which leadership should be distributed to engage greater shared decision making. We start with looking at aspects of transformational leadership in international settings. In ‘The relationship between elementary school principals’ Vali Mehdinezhad and Fatemaeh Nouri discuss the issues involved with transformational leadership and spiritual well-being based on the outcomes of data collected through questionnaires. The authors argue that the spiritual element of transformation has crucial importance for engaging people in change and in a sense of purpose and commitment to the aims of the organisation. The authors also associate spiritual well-being with the ability of principals to act transformationally. This is necessary to bring together a diverse range of people around a particular set of principles and directions. Ahmad Alniezi undertook a survey of schools in Kuwait to consider whether shared leadership could act to benefit levels of creative decision-making. By shared leadership Ahmad refers to leadership which engages teachers in arriving at decisions. The author argues that it is vital in an educational environment where demands are complex that teachers are engaged in providing solutions to problems as it is impossible for one overall leader to be able to address the complex needs and demands made within a school environment. We then turn to Yaser Sayadi who discusses the effectiveness of transformational and transactional leadership in Iran based on data gathered from questionnaires and argues that strong charismatic leadership facilitated staff engagement in change and school improvement. Yaser argues that individualised attention, stimulation and reward act to enhance positively teachers’ experiences of and commitment to their roles as teachers. Thus it is argued, good leaders focus on motivational incentives to engage staff and to develop their enthusiasm for their work.
We then look at issues of social justice beginning with the work of Khalid Husny Arar and Izhar Oplatka who studied attitudes in relation to social justice in two contrasting schools in Israel, one Arab-Muslim and the other Jewish. They argue that notions of social justice are clearly linked to the particular culture and context of the school leaders involved together with the influence of their personal histories. Moreover Khalid and Izhar argue that governmental policy is vague so that there may be multiple interpretations around notions of social justice which then leads to variations in practice. Additionally political and idealistic positioning within a background of conflict also influenced how these school leaders viewed social justice issues. Next Wazerah Bawazeer and Helen Gunter take an interesting look at the ways in which the development of a curriculum vitae can give us new insights into the biographies of leaders and, in this particular case, of female leaders in Saudi Arabia. Wazerah and Helen discuss the ways in which the CVs of leaders gives insights that can provoke more stimulating interviews and data collection to gain deeper insights into a biographical account of how leaders develop. Moreover, the stories collected revealed insights into the ways in which women’s careers are affected by particular presentations of their lives and the ways in which they have to negotiate the structure of a CV in order to succeed.
We then focus on the UK, and how educational leaders are constrained and operate within a set of high, level demands whilst maintaining enthusiasm and commitment to their roles. Ron Hill, Chris James and Colin Forrest discuss creativity in relation to Further Education and its governance. Ron, Chris and Colin point out that ever increasing demands around expectations and performance place the governance structures of further education under ever increasing constraints. They go on to argue that such marketplace challenges with the additions of policy, such as the Code of Good Governance, may well be acting to hamper, if not immobilise, the activity of some governors and distance them from their connection to the work of further education. Others, they argue, may be energised by such challenges. The authors concern is about the potential loss of experienced and dedicated colleagues who may choose to retire in the face of such challenges.
Finally, Paul Irvine and Mark Brundrett explore just what divides a middle-leadership role from that of class teacher in the high school within the independent sector. Paul and Mark point out that like schools in other sectors, middle leaders face many contradictions in direction, fast paced and reactive pressures in undertaking their work but also that in this study the teachers operated within a complex matrix of relations within their community. They argues that to do the job effectively there needs to be a clear link to leadership development programmes that draw on experiences, literature and research.
The issues raised in this edition are extremely important to education if we are to maintain high levels of social justice within our activities as leaders. I hope that these papers have stimulated some thoughts and reflections.