"The Tenets of Classical Leadership"
Of the four tenets listed, I feel that only the third - "Leaders manage a rational system of management that takes into account structures, routine, outcomes, personnel and action" - is relevant to modern leadership. The other tenets condone elitism and exclusivity. According to Lambert, these tenets would describe a leader with a low degree of participation and a mixed degree of skill. (Lambert, 5) If solely leaders have "formal authority and overarching roles," they become "autocratic managers" and control a "one-way flow of information" as described by Lambert on page 5. On pages 13-19, Lambert describes a variety of teams found in educational settings, as well the many ways individuals can lead and participate those groups. If a staff that is eager to participate and produce is cultivated, it will eliminate the idea that an administrator needs to be the ultimate authority within a school. S/he will have a large, active group in which to collaborate and exchange ideas.
The "New Perceptions" of Authority
There were two themes in these tenets of modern leadership that popped out to me - adult education and purposeful work as educators. There's such a demand for teachers to keep their own educations current that schools/districts must provide ample opportunities for their teachers to learn. When I was in a public district, I was required to attend frequent workshops that taught best practices for literacy and ESL. I picked up a lot of valuable information at these conferences, since they were well prepared and extremely classroom-appropriate. The district offered further teacher education resources, such as ESL endorsement courses and credits available through a local university. When I moved to a small, private, parochial district, the district-provided opportunities dried up a bit - we attend fewer workshops and they're substantially lower in quality than I've attended in the past. However, my coworkers have prepared school specific presentations on topics such as Singapore Math and ELL interventions that have been useful and high-quality. They're displayed the "readiness" for participation that Lambert describes on page 12. The administration of the school does encourage attending outside resources for professional development, and will allow us days off and will provide funding for teachers to attend seminars and workshops.
The ideas about educators being professionals who produce purposeful work made me think of William Pinar's "What is Curriculum Theory," which I'm reading for a different course. Pinar argues the same thing - educators should be recognized as professionals who are actively engaged in furthering their own educations and careers. In my opinion, the role of educator would be viewed with more weight. Rather than carry the same "weight" in influence as parents and other community members, there would be more recognition that teachers have a significant amount of education, expertize and experience in their field - teachers as professionals providing a service rather than "partners" in the educational process. This may be leaning towards being way too autocratic, since it does eliminate a lot of outside influences and opinions. On the other hand, it could be viewed as a teacher assuming a different role as leader in the educational process. Ultimately, I think Lambert describes it well on page 4 - "Collaboration that doesn't work can become a real setback." A teacher as the sole educational authority within a classroom would ultimately be detrimental to the learning process - without participation and multiple points of view from other education professionals and parents, a teacher's performance would suffer.
