ISSN : 2241-4665
|
Κριτικές του άρθρου |
ISSN : 2241-4665
Ημερομηνία έκδοσης: Αθήνα 2 Μαΐου 2018
“Ηγεσία των Εκπαιδευτικών και Συμπεριληπτική Εκπαίδευση”
του
Μπούσιου Π. Κωνσταντίνου
« Leadership of Educators and Inclusive
Education »
by
Bousios P.
Konstantinos
ABSTRACT
Providing a clear definition of
educational leadership leads to overlapping or competing determinations.
"Educational collective leadership" includes management issues,
coordinated school activities, collaborative school culture, research,
continuing education, common school vision, promotion of creativity and teacher
initiatives, with the principle of democracy and cooperation both as a purpose
and as a method. Schools need many leaders at all levels. School leadership is
more influential when it is widely distributed among educational staff. In the
exercise of leadership with the participation of teachers, three basic
dimensions are recognized: a) Leadership of students within the formal
education system, b) Leadership in operational tasks, and c) Leadership based
on the professionalism and fellowship of teachers. Inclusive education aims to
overcome all of the obstacles that make it hard for everyone to participate and
learn regardless of gender, nationality, social origin, sexuality, disability
or performance. There have been opinions related to inclusion with foreigners,
migrants or those experiencing problems in schools or with those with learning
or intellectual problems. The term "inclusive education" has come to
replace the terms "integration" and "inclusion" in order to
change the way people have been faced with this process. Educators, through the
capability offered by participatory school leadership, should enhance their
presence in the definition of educational policy and inclusion practices. This
requires a fundamental change in school culture, which presupposes the
understanding and desire of all school teachers to engage in leadership
activities. In addition, it is necessary to remove obstacles, such as the
top-down exercise of leadership, the bureaucracy, the centralized system and
the hierarchical culture that characterizes schools, the isolation of teachers,
the limited time, the lack of previous experience and support, the constant
preservation of the perception of teacher equality and others.
INTRODUCTION
In the present study we are
exploring which forms of leadership and in what ways, effectively promote
inclusive education.
Our work was divided into three sections.
In the first section, we try to clarify the concept of school leadership, to
refer to its forms and to emphasize the importance of the collective exercise
of school leadership for an effective, democratic and comprehensive school. In
the second section, we attempt to delimit the concept of inclusive education
and contrast it with its predecessors, the concepts of integration and embodiment.
In the third section, we refer to the forms of leadership, practices,
activities, attitudes and behaviors of both teachers and school managers who
promote inclusive education.
.
- SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
1.1. Collective exercise of school leadership: Conceptual determinations
The literature, in the 1980s,
presented the directors as powerful and authoritarian. From the late 1980s to
the mid-1990s, the traditional role of leadership is being challenged and
adapted to new social and educational developments [1] [2].
In the late 1990s and early 2000,
political and educational conditions shifted, demanding teachers in school
leadership [2].
In contrast to the traditional
perceptions of school leadership, leadership from school teachers is
characterized as a type of collective leadership and mutual co-operation in
which teachers develop expertise by working collectively and interacting with
each other and with their environment. It marks multiple sources of guidance [3],
has positive effects on pedagogy, educational quality and school culture [4].
The assignment of a clear definition
of educational leadership leads to overlapping or competing determinations [3]
[5].
"Educational collective
leadership" includes management issues, coordinated school activities,
collaborative school culture, research, continuing education, common school vision,
promotion of creativity and teacher initiatives, with the principle of
democracy and cooperation both as a goal and as a method [6]. In addition,
although the distinction between the concepts of "administration" and
"management" is difficult, school management aims at development,
cultivation, its vision, while managing it properly [7].
1.2. Directors and exercise of school leadership
Research shows that directors are
the key to successful collective leadership, because they are the guides, the
vision, the goals of each school, the motivation for professional development
of teachers and their involvement in school leadership [8].
The aim of a director should be to
cultivate a collaborative culture and mutual trust and to remove the tendency
to shift responsibilities [9] [10].
Nowadays, the idea of
the director as a monarch and despot is contrasted with the executive’s
image as manager and administrator, but it is also inadequate [11].
The role of the Director in creating
the appropriate school structure is presented as follows:
(a) Distribute clear
responsibilities to the teachers [10] [11]
(b) Promotes teacher participation
in school decision making and problem solving [12]
(c) Encourages and supports the
autonomy of teachers in making decisions [13]
(d) Provides sufficient time for
collaborations and research by the teachers [14]
(e) Creates opportunities for
professional development of teachers at school [15]
(f) Strengthens the professional status
of teachers, since teachers need to feel that their work is recognized within
and outside the school community [16]
(g) Helps to establish constructive
interpersonal relations with pupils' parents and with members of school and
regional committees [17] [18]
Directors have to cope with these
expectations when they are aware of the needs of both their teachers and their
pupils, as well as educational reforms in general [19].
An important factor in strengthening
modern school, is not so much the effective school leadership, but the exercise
of sustainable effective leadership, a leadership that emphasizes succession [20].
It is considered necessary to have
leaders on many levels, precisely because an organization, like school, cannot
flourish with the actions of the chief commander. This is the so-called
affinity to leadership. The sustainability of leadership depends on many
leaders and the quality of leadership must be achieved by many stakeholders [21].
Therefore, schools need many leaders
at all levels. School leadership is more influential when it is widely
distributed among educational staff [9].
1.3. Educators and exercise of school leadership
The literature review, referring to
school leadership, in several cases, is identical to the position of the
director rather than the collective action of school teachers. This is because
schools remain unchanged hierarchical organizations, equalizing leadership with
prestige, authority and position.
In contrast, recent research
findings on effective leadership emphasize that it is not practiced by a single
person but shared in school among teachers [13].
Although teachers have been a target
and a factor in school reform for decades, they have not yet taken on dynamic
roles [22].
In leadership’s exercise with the
participation of teachers, we recognize three basic dimensions:
(a) Leadership of students within
the formal education system. This relates to the pedagogical climate within the
classroom, teaching, creating links with students, clarity of rules, innovative
teaching methods [23].
(b) Leadership in functional tasks
(Collinson et al., 2009). These concern the participation of teachers in school
decision making, their participation in the school council, the school
committee and various education committees. They also involve organizing the
school, coordinating or directing a team of teachers, guiding on innovative
teaching methods or educational reforms, collaborating with parents and
guardians' associations, universities, local businesses [24].
(c) Leadership based on the
professionalism and fellowship of teachers [25] [26]. It recognizes their right
to express their leadership skills regardless of their specialization or
position at school and beyond the performance of their teaching duties [27].
In particular, a network of
supportive mechanisms of distributive leadership is required under the
following six basic dimensions [11]:
(a) Existence of vision, interest
and expectations by teachers [28]
(b) Creation of leadership
opportunities at school [29]
(c) Support for teachers by
encouraging and helping their lifelong training so that they can take
leadership roles in their schools [16] [30]
(d) Provision of resources, human
and material, including time, which, although it is a crucial factor in the
development of programs for participatory leadership [31]
(e) Provision of motivations and
recognition of their work for leadership [11]
(f) Clarity of their role in their
quest to balance their classroom responsibilities and their new
responsibilities in the exercise of school leadership. It should be noted that
the uncertainty associated with the teachers' leading roles also adds
remarkable complications to the development of new cooperative conditions
between themselves and their directors [11].
In this context, teachers need
credibility, education, educational research, and easy access to information.
Literature often refers to the need
for teachers to take part in decision-making, which affects children's
learning, curriculum development, resource management, school staff selection,
academic evaluation, achievement of school objectives [32].
- INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
2.1. Definition of inclusive education
The term
inclusive education as adopted by UNESCO at the Salamanca Conference in 1994
can be read as follows: "…education
for all, taking into account the needs and diversity of all, training
non-exclusion " [33].
The term
inclusion includes the right of all children to attend a comprehensive school,
including the fight against discrimination and equal opportunities for all
children [34].
Inclusive
education aims to overcome all the obstacles that make it difficult for
everyone to participate and learn regardless of gender, nationality, social
origin, sexuality, disability or performance [35] [36].
The
objective of inclusive education is to involve and eliminate the exclusion of
low-performance pupils with disabilities or with divergent behavior from the comprehensive
school.
The success of this goal is related
to the negative attitude of teachers towards inclusive education because it
impedes their school class objectives such as material coverage or high student
performance [32].
The creation of a comprehensive
school for all, respecting diversity and exploiting diversity is the ultimate
goal of inclusive education [37].
Nowadays, the idea of
school inclusion reinforces the prevalence of children with
learning disabilities or people with special educational needs and, at the same
time, the assumption that these children have more common points and fewer
differences than other children of their age [38].
According to Ganevaro, the inclusion
of children with special educational needs is an innovative change in the form
of a traditional school that is beneficial for all students, as it contributes
to "shaping a pedagogy that respects
differences and accepts diversity as the highest pedagogical and social value
" [36].
A research by Angelides, Stylianou
and Gibbs [39] proves that participants with different ways in the educational
process have a different perception of inclusion. Some argue that inclusive
education emerges from the Special Education sector, some of which address the
education of the disadvantaged, others that its main concern is the
categorization of pupils with those with special needs, and some advocate that
the term "inclusion" means the movement of some children from the
special to the regular education. Opinions have also been made regarding
inclusion with foreigners, immigrants or those experiencing problems in schools
or those with learning or intellectual problems.
In general, however, we can say that
the concept of inclusion governs the development of curricula and educational
systems in many countries, although it varies from country to country, even
within the education system itself. By this definition, we are not just
referring to the placement of a child with special educational needs in the
normal school, but also to the conditions under which we can effectively
educate all children [39].
2.2. Correlation of the concepts of "integration",
"embodiment" and "inclusive education"
The term "inclusive education"
has come to replace the terms "integration" and "embodiment"
in order to change the way people have been faced with this process. The
difficulty in separating the concepts is that the terms "inclusion"
and "inclusive education" are socially charged and thus differentiate
according to status, time and content [40].
The term "integration" means "the systematic placement of someone
within something else and the completion of the subject as an independent,
integral part of a larger whole" [41]. The term "embodiment"
means "the one-way attachment and
simulation of one to a totality" [41] and the term "inclusive
education" refers to education involving all pupils, the diversity of all [42].
The term "embodiment"
means "reciprocal acceptance by a
group or a team, of one person or of one team" and the development of
relationships, without the provision of any particular assistance either by the
group or by any external agent, resulting in full absorption of the individual
or group in formed relationships [41]. It is a socialization process that takes
place through interaction. This term is used to emphasize the efforts made to
eliminate isolation and marginalization.
The difference between the terms
"integration" and "embodiment" is that in the integration,
the original basic characteristics of the individual or group of individuals
are maintained, which are enriched and progressed to ever-increasing levels of
integration, while in embodiment, the original basic characteristics disappear,
from the characteristics of a wider set.
Finally, there are some basic
differences between the concepts of "integration" and
"inclusion", in terms of the school environment and the student,
although the distinction is not so obvious. Thus, the term "embodiment"
is interpreted narrowly to attribute the physical placement and adaptation of
the pupil to a common school and not to its wider social and educational
integration. The term "inclusion" considers it necessary to adapt the
school to satisfy all pupils without exception [43]. The term "embodiment"
implies changes that occur to the disadvantaged, according to criteria of
people who do not notice any disadvantage. It proposes an assimilation model,
which implies that the goal is to incorporate someone who has been excluded
from something that is considered normal to return to it. Additionally, the
term "embodiment" does not admit the positive elements that each
individual can bring to his / her learning environment, which detracts
primarily from any kind of alternative, personal experience [44]. However, the
term "inclusion" translates the right to belong to the prevailing
tendency and puts an end to discrimination by emphasizing equal opportunities
for all students [39].
- LEADERSHIP AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
The role of leadership that has
changed significantly in recent years is considered crucial to effective inclusive
education. A large number of studies highlight the important role of leaders in
the development of inclusive education [38].
Leader today is not only the school
principal, but the tendency for leadership to be scattered and distributed to
more and more people, including students [45] [46]. Ryan [47] considers the
inclusive leadership not as something hierarchical or as people mechanically
performing their duties, but as a collective function in which everyone is
involved or represented. This leadership is inclusive because it includes as
many individuals and groups as possible and as many values and
ideas as possible in decision-making and policy-making.
3.1. The role of the director in the development of inclusive education
'' The director is everything ... It is
more than how he works with teachers ... he affects everything: motivation,
moral, emotions, relationships with students ... with parents ... how he
relates to children .... Effective managers are the ones who create a positive
climate ... An inefficient person can destroy them all. " [48]
Director as the head of the school
is the person who will or will be able to create the conditions for conversion
of the school into a school team by exercising the basic administrative work
and providing space and resources to the human potential school community to
develop and progress.
According to Leithwood and Beatty [48],
the development of emotional intelligence, i.e. the ability of the person in
charge to perceive, recognize and take into account the feelings created in his
team, and the ability to share personal feelings, as well as creating
conditions of safety and openness for all members of the school community, is
the most important condition for creating the real school team. A school team that
we are envisioned to be a member. A school team that is open, social, friendly,
productive, synthetic, collaborative, critical, progressive, essential, and inclusive.
The secret of such an attitude is
not existed in the ability of the director to feel the others, but in wisdom
and inner power to feel together with others.
3.2. The role of teachers in the development of inclusive education
In inclusive education programs, an
important element is the cooperation of both teachers and students. For
children with special educational needs, their co-education is related to the
collective responsibility of the entire school community and not only to the
class teacher or the specialist teacher. The separation of teachers' roles and
the cooperation among teachers within the school community can influence the
inclusion of children either positively, which is both desirable, or negative.
When there is a clear distribution of roles and a proper and responsible
co-operation of all the specialties that exist in the school community, then
the program of inclusive education will be implemented and achieved, whereas if
not all of them exist, there will be nothing successful and the only one who
will be disadvantaged is the child with special educational needs [49].
This was also observed in a study
carried out in France by teachers working in inclusive education schools, and
the fact that the roles were not clearly separated was observed, thus
influencing the proper functioning of the co-educational program and
cooperation, but on the other hand, there was a great concern on the part of
parents about the effectiveness of this program [50]. Regarding the
co-operation between teachers and pupils in the context of inclusive education,
teachers should have discussions with students so that they do not distinguish
their classmate because of their cognitive, behavioral or even external
differences.
Also, another competence of the
teacher is to recognize the child's accomplishments with distinctive features [51].
Certainly, the requirements of
inclusion are enough and teachers' doubts about the effectiveness of these
programs have been strongly and repeatedly highlighted in the traditional
course conditions. Most of their criticism focuses on the inadequacy of
teaching time, the potential inadequacy of programs, and the potential burden
on the rest of the classroom students. However, the majority of teachers also
report the lack of the necessary knowledge and skills that are essential for achieving
inclusive programs. Nevertheless, the greatest number of deficiencies of most
teachers is not so much about the subject of special pedagogy as a didactic
methodology, i.e. it is not related to their readiness in relation to knowledge
and educational programs but to their ability to approach different children
with different methods [52].
What needs to be understood is that
all students do not learn at the same pace and in the same way, and therefore a
different approach to the objectives in the design of teaching and a different
supportive structure are needed. They also mention obstacles to the inclusion
of children with and without special educational needs in school building
facilities and the lack of appropriate supervisory tools [48] [53].
CONCLUSIONS
Educators, through the capability offered by participatory school
leadership, should enhance their presence in the definition of educational
policy and inclusion practices. This requires a fundamental change in school
culture, which presupposes the understanding and desire of all school teachers
to engage in leadership activities.
In addition, it is necessary to remove obstacles, such as the top-down
exercise of leadership, the bureaucracy, the centralized system and the hierarchical
culture that characterize schools, the isolation of teachers, the limited time,
the lack of previous experience and support, the constant preservation of the
perception of teacher equality and others.
Thus, educators will overcome the leeway offered by the classroom,
change their way of thinking for their colleagues and devise new ways of
developing inclusive education.
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