The development of moral and ethical leadership in practicing and aspiring leaders is essential for the success of educational institutions. Leaders demonstrate moral and ethical leadership through striving to act in a manner reflective of the best interests of students. Such leadership is guided by a personal vision reflecting values such as integrity, fairness, equity, social justice, and respect for diversity. These qualities are reflected in the 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders published by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration. One’s understanding of moral and ethical leadership can be strengthened by seeing the connections between moral leadership and the related themes of transformational leadership, authentic leadership, and trust in leaders. School leaders can help to create ethical schools by developing and being guided by a vision-driven professional ethos, manifesting that ethos in interactions with others, engaging staff in the co-creating of a vision-driven school, and through advocacy in the larger community.
This paper provides a conceptual overview, coupled with insights drawn from a case-study vantage point. It represents a combined higher education and K-12 research effort ultimately pointing to benefits from extended electronic contact and collaboration beyond graduation. It represents an important attempt to further support new administrators at a point in time when the role of educational leader is only growing in complexity and training programs are struggling to adjust to new accountability requirements and delivery options of their own. This paper is based upon the current and emerging realities within the United States, and advances options that could effectively augment current efforts to support novice leadership at building and higher organizational levels.
This paper draws from the unique perspectives and the guided inquiry of student researchers completing their training and transition into administration. Building on years of prior discussions with similarly positioned students in their culminating principalship course, a small group concerned with the challenges of conflict resolution delved into ways critical thinking and problem-solving skills could benefit their future leadership efforts. Realizing that these skills were no longer mainstays within the literature nor contemporary leadership training, they reflected on conditions they witnessed from their unique vantage point and developed key questions upon which to frame subsequent research. Bringing in limited though relevant literature, and utilizing survey data secured from experienced practitioners, the project ultimately confirmed their perspectives by affirming the need to better create a capacity for critical thinking and problem-solving abilities than is recognized by the professional literature and evidently those responsible for overseeing training practices as well.
Article Info This article advances compelling information about deficits in training for inclusive school leaders, and presents viewpoints along with options intended to help support their efforts to lead others through cultural challenges and conflicts. It asserts that social justice on a whole and related values and norms have increasingly been caught up in added complexity and challenge that inclusive leaders may not have been prepared to lead through. The article also presents a rationale and supporting data for better developing overlooked administrator abilities. Finally, noting a lack of currently available resources to expedite training and foster important growth in key skill areas, this article ultimately advocates for expanded informal but qualified mentoring support being offered to inclusive school administrators.
Even though conflict is increasingly finding its way into school settings, there is evidence that school leaders do not view themselves as being adequately equipped to meet the growing challenges. Training on short-term approaches to dealing with immediate issues may be available to practitioners through professional development offerings, but there is more involved in successfully and sustainably dealing with conflict than getting through a tense moment. School leaders need to be able to understand the causes and complexities—as well as navigate time elements—associated with ongoing conflict that can take place at the personal as well as organizational levels. Beyond understanding these concepts, administrators themselves need to increase the capacity of their staff and their organizations to assist in their development. In addition to learning how to recognize patterns and underlying causes advancing adversity, administrators would do well to invest in long-term conflict diminishing approaches such as building trust and improving interpersonal and organizational capacity as ways to increase credibility within and outside of the school itself. Finding people who can think critically and work adaptively to solve problems could prove to be a real advantage for educational leaders who strive to reduce the stress of the workplace and create a more collegial climate within the schools they serve. Building trust and the ability to “come through” capably for others even in tough situations increases the credibility of leaders. Leading through conflict with this credibility in turn helps to sustain a positive climate in schools.
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