How Principals Can Help Mathematics Teachers Become Curriculum Leaders New Roles for Educators in Rural Schools

Focus of our Focus Session How can the opportunities afforded by rural schools in be used to support distributed leadership? How can the challenges found in rural schools be overcome in order to allow distributed leadership to work?

Where current views of leadership came from  Scientific Management Based on the view that most people are lazy and stupid. People need to be manipulated (using punishment and rewards) if managers want them to do work. Managers are needed in order to do the manipulating of the people who do the work. The skills of management are different from the skills associated with the work itself.

For example …

We now call this approach …  Transactional leadership  Authoritarian leadership  Boss leadership  Top-down management  Traditional leadership

What are the alternatives?  There’s a long history … Participatory leadership Democratic leadership Empowerment Shared governance Site-based management Servant leadership Distributed leadership

Why haven’t the alternatives worked very well?  Human nature?  Gendered roles?  Personality?  Organizational structure?  Organizational culture?

In theory distributed leadership ought to work better than authoritarian leadership  Why? Intrinsic motivation works better than extrinsic motivation. Most people feel the need to be in control of what goes on in their lives. The more leaders there are, the more work can be accomplished.

What are the premises of distributed leadership for schools?  Teachers are already leaders.  Teachers’ leadership roles can be expanded.  Teaching and learning are the domains in which teachers already provide leadership.  Sharing leadership with teachers increases the overall amount of leadership that the school can rely on.

What instructional leadership practices are needed in order to foster reform of mathematics education?  Planning Gap analysis Identifying strategies  Coordinating Personnel Resources  Designing Curriculum Pedagogy Assessments  Providing and Evaluating Professional Development  Monitoring Performance Modifying in response to feedback

What distributed leadership looks like Saul Alinsky of the Industrial Areas Foundation

Why distributed leadership ought to work better in rural schools than in other schools  They tend to be smaller than schools in other locales.  Personal relationships among staff tend to be stronger.  There tend to be useful linkages between the school and its rural community.  Rural culture is more egalitarian than cosmopolitan culture is.

Why distributed leadership might not work better in rural schools  Authority structures tend to reflect traditional values: Leadership based on age Leadership based on gender  Rural educators are already overworked.  Reform is perceived to come from outside.

Your task  In small groups, talk about ways to make distributed leadership work in rural Nebraska schools. How can the opportunities afforded by rural schools be used to support distributed leadership? How can the challenges found in rural schools be overcome in order to allow distributed leadership to work?