Peer Responses needed

Critical Incident Two Schools—Two Different Cultures

Kennedy Elementary School

The principal at Kennedy Elementary, Linda Shoenfeld, is a very organized person. She believes that success in fulfilling her job responsibilities depends on making sure the day-to-day operations of the school and staff function well. Standards are very clear, and tasks are carefully divided among the leadership, office staff, teachers, and nonprofessional staff. Linda is famous for her motto, which adorns her office wall: “A school cannot be successful unless it is well managed.”

Linda also believes that principals must make logical decisions. She likes order and predictability, and she believes that change should be slow and orderly. She has stated that people need to be able to depend on the principal to analyze problems correctly, use data effectively, and make the correct choice. She talks to other principals, goes to professional meetings, and reads the professional journals for principals, so she is knowledgeable about how to manage schools effectively. She uses her knowledge to make decisions about the school bell schedule, teacher schedules, budget allocations, and new programs. When teachers are affected by decisions, she relies on her skills to convince them that her decisions are in the best interest of the children.

Linda treats everyone with a degree of respect, and for the most part the staff like her as a person. They believe that she is responsible for making the school what it is today, and although they would like more input into decisions, they appreciate having a stable leader they can depend on to be consistent and fair.

Johnson Elementary School

Principal Margarita Lopez is known for her willingness to try new ideas and experiment to see if they work. She doesn’t focus on management aspects of the school, such as book orders and other business chores, which she leaves to others to do. Margarita’s leadership philosophy is that she is there to assist others in getting their jobs done. She believes that any individual can be a leader and that the individual’s ideas are to be respected. This belief often leads to conflict among teachers and with her, but she thinks some conflict and disagreement among professionals is good for an organization. She realizes that some view her leadership style as leading to chaotic situations, but she believes that the organization learns from chaos and that without it the school would stagnate. She sees her job as bringing order to the chaos by making sense of it for everyone, by connecting ideas to theory and research, and by encouraging continual change and improvement.

The staff members view Margarita as a good leader. On the one hand, they appreciate that she allows them a voice in the decisions that are made in the school. They see the school in a constant state of flux that moves the school forward. On the other hand, they also would like some occasional relief from the constant changes that are going on around them.

Reply to Debby Ann Gordon

The positive and negative attributes of the two principals outlined on in Chapter 8 (Owens, R. G., & Valesky, T. C. (2015) )are as follows; Principal Linda Shoenfeld of Kennedy Elementary has clearly established standards and expectations. This helps to maintain a culture of consistency and accountability among the staff. Additionally she treats everyone with respect this leads to the school having a positive work environment. Additionally she runs the school in an organised and efficient way. She does this by relying to data to make logical decisions and stays up to date on best practices. Her leadership style can best be described as autocratic. Some drawback to this style is that if the staff feels disempowered they might become disengaged. Her top-down method may limit collaboration in terms of problem-solving and the sense of shared ownership of any of the school's initiatives. 

    While Principal Margarita Lopez of Johnson Elementary School is innovative in her own way. She has a willingness to try new ideas and experiment. This has the potential of creating a culture of innovative educational practices that can improve the school in dynamic ways. Her leadership style is empowering to her staff because this sense of shared leadership can lead to increase creativity. He style can make the school stand out from the rest because it is more dynamic and progressive. On the other hand her style also has drawbacks. Her lack of focus on the management aspect of the school, which according to the text she mostly delegates, can lead to organisational inefficiencies if these tasks are not properly executed by the people whom she delegated.  Additionally her leadership style can lead to feelings of chaos and instability which can cause undue stress among the staff. 

  As a teacher who has worked with different principals who have exhibited both of these styles I have experience first hand the effects of both. Therefore I would like my leadership style to be a mix of both. Creating an environment that fosters innovation and creativity, while ensuing that best practices are followed to provide high quality education. I would like to provide stable leadership that can steer the direction of our school. However have a culture among the staff that makes them feel heard  in a way that encourages them to have a strong buy-in in the vision of our school.

Reply to Scott Easton

What are the positive and negative attributes of each principal?

The case study mentioned two principals name and they are Principal Shoenfeld and Principal Lopez. The positive attributes of principal Shoenfeld is the fact that she is highly knowledgeable consistent, fair and respectful. While principal Lopez is known for encouraging new ideas and new ways of handling issues. Principal Lopez also has a respectful nature just like principal Shoenfeld. Considering the both principals negative attributes, I will say that principal Shoenfeld uses the autocratic system of leadership as she does not buy in the ideas of her team members. She will rather carryout the whole responsibilities by herself. Principal Lopez negative attributes consists on the fact that she is a leader who finds it difficult to control activities. She is not good with leadership management.

What type of climate and culture would you say characterize each school?

I think there will be a rigid climate in the school though it will at least feel save to work in in the Kennedy Elementary school. People might likely withdraw from participating in activities with the feelings that they are not being carried along in the activities. The culture of the school will be the fact that transparency and consistency will be encouraged. While in the Johnson Elementary School, the climate seems to be very encouraging while the culture is more likely to encourage conflict.

With which principal would you rather work? Why?

I will prefer to work with principal Shoenfeld. It might be a little bit confusing making this decision but one thing I am sure is that I do not enjoy work in an unsafe environment.

Which scenario will more closely resemble your school, when you become the principal?

When I eventually become a principal, I see the scenario at Kennedy Elementary School having same similarities with my school. I will want to encourage bit of democratic leadership while still making my team to understand that I am still their leader.

Reference

Owens, R. G., & Valesky, T. C. (2015). Organizational behavior in education: Leadership and school reform. Pearson Education.

Valesky, Robert G. Owens Thomas C. (2015). Oraganizational Behavior in Education 11 Edition. Pearson Education Inc.