Impact Of Context And Relationships On Educational Leadership In Rural Areas Essay.

Discuss the impact of contexts and relationships on the work of educational leaders and managers in rural locations. You are strongly encouraged to use your own experiences as the basis for this assignment. References to support the position(s) taken, arguments developed and advanced and so forth are required. However, there is no specified number of references expected; the key point here being that your assignment demonstrates substantial evidence of engagement with relevant literature, significant reports, reputable on-line sources as well as ‘your own voice/experiences’.

Influence of Context and Relationship on the Work of Educational Leaders and Managers in Rural Locations

The role of leaders has changed in education field nowadays. The employees require leadership skills and knowledge to overcome the challenges faced by them. It is the act of leading a group of people. Their role is to help staff in implementing effective teaching strategies. They are also required to study research-based classroom strategies and discover instructional methodologies applicable for the schools. The leaders have a role in improving the learning environment of the school along with the well-functioning of the management. In order to be managers in the rural locations, a person is required to attain a diploma in rural management and development. The managers in the rural locations collaborate to provide experience to the students in order to serve both educational and community development goals.

I have been working as a Head of Department of Science in a school which is located in the rural area 70 miles away from the urban area. We face many challenges on the daily basis such as lack of funds, transport, quality teachers, collaboration, domination of local community, low enrolments and more. Our school is newly established so the management, principal, and managers faced problems in the beginning. The leaders were being influenced due to rurality.

The leadership in rural areas require particular traits. All the top authorities at school were provided leadership training but all the skills remained far when they started to conduct daily practices. A leader is an individual whose relations and judgments are accepted by the group. The leadership is exercised in a situation and directed through the communication process towards the accomplishment of specific goals. It was experienced that more struggle was faced in the rural locations because of not understanding local community. The leaders can bring improvements in the students’ outcome by understanding a locality and their laidback. It also increases the responsibility of the leaders. The leaders also encourage staff to involve parents in the school activities of their kids.

The context and relationship are two words which have great importance as educational leadership is influenced by both. A leader is already successful who recognizes the need to survive with context and the community will also provide positive results. The contextual literacy is essential for the national, social and personal development. A leader can achieve mission by the establishment of a strong relationship with the staff, parents and other organizations. It can also result in improving student outcomes and have a strong impact on the school leadership. A leader cannot make use of urban contextual strategies in the rural context. As, it will not provide the positive results (Stanley, Igler & Bever, 2017).

As per Clarke, & Stevens, 2009, the managers in the rural locations can only be successful if they practice extensive leadership knowledge to resolve complex problems of the school and build trust by working with staff, parents, students and the local community (Clarke, & Stevens, 2009). The managers make use of instructional, transformational and distributed leadership. The context can help managers to understand the society and implications can be made on the basis of it. These leadership styles have an influence on the outcome of the students.

According to Halsey, 2013, the educational leaders implement a process to scan the environment and conditions of the school which is faced by them (Halsey, 2013,). They undertake the school improvement plan in order to prioritize goals and objectives. They include methods to monitor, implement and evaluate strategies. They outline the strategies for the improvement in the students’ performance in their targeted subjects. The teachers are suggested particular types of assessments to measure the performance of the students over time. The educational leaders play manifold roles to improve student’s performance. They reframe the policies in order to improve the school environment so that the educational goals can be achieved. The way of achieving goals is not fixed and the leader keeps on changing their way of directions and actions.  Ignoring context results in ignoring elements adds to the variable local response and it troubles policymakers.

For instance, the principal in our school decided to change the syllabus of the subjects and informed parents by sending messages on their phone. The parents oppose this decision as they were not able to understand the new syllabus due to their lack of interest and illiteracy. The parents were unable to find out the difference between the earlier and the updated syllabus. They perceived it as a headache for them (Hohner & Riveros, 2017). The school started teaching as per the new syllabus in the new session. This way, identified solution by the leader for the designated problem essentially became a problem for the local community. The management of the school initiated a write-up program for the parents which comprised a record of school activities, photos and videos representing student’s performance was sent via mail. But many parents did not have email accounts and were not used to the technical devices. This policy worked in the urban areas as parents were updated and educated but did not result well in the rural areas which discouraged the policymakers.

There were some other forces which forced leaders to slow down the pace of growth and enforced them to indulge in the community so that they can understand the aspirations and expectations. It creates more challenges for the leaders in the rural areas to carry out their roles effectively (Myende & Chikoko, 2014). Some other factors which disadvantaged students are the identification and elimination of the barriers for the teacher’s attribution and school capacity building by leadership preparation programme. The quality of mentoring and infrastructure have also a role in the leadership preparation programme.  

As per Cornell, 2001, Inaccessibility and remoteness of rural context encourage leaders to develop relationships. The educational leaders and rural managers can only be successful if it contributes positively to the school effectiveness (Cornell, 2001). It is possible by having extensive leadership knowledge in order to solve school-based problems. It is because the managers in the rural areas face encounters such as scarcity of resources, funds, network and more. To fight with this challenge, the leaders can build trust by maintaining a relationship with staff, parents, student and the local community. The rural managers at school are required to lead in a way which is appropriate to the culture and the local community. They should be given an opportunity for the management support training. The school managers focus on the planning, evaluation and the enhancement of teaching in order to attain positive student’s outcome. The managers are required to assess the performance of the students and the teachers in such a way that to be responsive to the student and staff’s strengths and weaknesses (Bhengu & Myende, 2016). A move can also be taken by the leaders to involve parents in the concern of the students.

Our school faced challenges and opposition of the local community in the initial level but gradually it established good relations by maintaining the good interactive bond. The principal conducted a workshop with the help of staff to guide the parents regarding technology and made them habitual of using such practices (Bown & McClellan, 2017). The parents were also allowed to visit classrooms and observe their children through peepholes, a special feature in the school. A teacher appraisal framework was used by the school in order to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the teachers (Ruppert-Winkel, 2018). The staff was provided with assessment measures and various forms of teacher appraisal to standardized test scores of the students.

The other management functions were implemented by the educational leaders such as clear management framework which comprised maintain school libraries, storerooms and addressing health and safety issues. The school management has a particular relationship with the student’s learning outcomes. It includes the attention of the students in learning core subjects and support to improve staff effectiveness (Munoz, Steiner & Farmer, 2014).

It is important for the leaders to build relationships in an organization, more importantly for the rural leader. The school community partnership has been formed for the purpose of assessing the needs of the school and rural area, building partnerships, managing funds, engaging community and building partnership capacity (Maharjan, 2017).  For instance, our school lacks an auditorium but the leaders have taken permission from the nearest school to conduct the annual function in their auditorium. In turn, our school conducts fest in which all the students are invited to participate. The group of 5 to 6 schools were using resources collectively and with mutual consent (Rey, 2014). Our school does not have sufficient resources as it is recently set up. So, the group of schools helps us in conducting final exams. The school cluster is also helpful in providing resources to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The cluster comprises similar roles and responsibilities in the individual schools. The experienced administration can appropriately oversee the curriculum and evaluate schools to determine whether they are self-sufficient or not. Training and resources are required for the operative management of the school cluster. The decision of forming a cluster should be based on the school needs and the shared goals for developing cluster (Jepson & Sharpley, 2015). The cluster also identifies the centralized location for the teacher resource center. The leaders can motivate teaching staff by establishing good relationships. Our principal used instructional leadership to manage curriculum and defining goals. The leaders made efforts for providing professional training (Beer, 2014).

The ISLLC( Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium) is an educational leader engaged in promoting the success of students by assisting development, articulation, application, and stewardship of the vision of learning which is supported by the school community. It integrates the success of the students by acting fairly and in an ethical manner. As an administrator, it influences the political, social, economic, legal and cultural framework. There is also an advanced program in educational leadership known as the ELCC (Educational Leadership Constituent Council). It has the ability to promote the success of all students by assisting the development, implementation of a district vision of learning sustained by the school communities. The SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) is connected with the principals who have improved student’s achievement in the schools with high-risk demographics. This standard is useful to be implemented by the managers in the rural locations. It develops a culture of expectations in order to learn higher level content (Alford & Sampson, 2016). It designs standards-based instructional system in order to recognize instructional practices which can motivate students and enhance their achievement. The achievement of the students is focused more in this standard to improve student’s achievement and vision of the school.

Conclusion: 

From the above report, it can be concluded that context and relationship both influence the leadership. It is important for the leaders to understand the surroundings and the culture to take a decision. It is not probable to train leaders and managers for the future due to the impact of context and relationships. It can sort the strategies and actions of a leader. The managers in the rural area perform multi-task. The challenges and opportunities faced in the rural areas make them more creative. More challenges encountered in the rural areas than the urban areas which make them more expertise. The rural managers stay in the same context because of the loyal relationships with the rural people. They promote educational equity for the disadvantaged students of the rural area. They improve teacher retention by eliminating barriers and training programmes on time to time. The educational leaders focus on both student outcomes along with the social welfare. The role of educational leaders and managers in the rural areas is challenging. But it can be improved through leadership preparation programmes, quality mentoring and professional networks.

References: 

Alford, B. J., & Sampson, P. M. (2016). Transcending the contexts of a rural school in Texas and an urban school in California: A cross-case comparison of principal leadership for student success. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 31(1/2), 192.

Beer, A. (2014). Leadership and the governance of rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies, 34, 254-262.

Bhengu, T. T., & Myende, P. E. (2016). Leadership for coping with and adapting to policy change in deprived contexts: Lessons from school principals. South African Journal of Education, 36(4), 1-10.

Bown, C., & McClellan, J. (2017). Culturally Situated Leadership in the Ecuadorian Andes. Journal of Leadership Studies, 11(3), 6-20.

Clarke, S., & Stevens, E. (2009). Sustainable leadership in small rural schools: Selected Australian vignettes. Journal of Educational Change, 10(4), 277.

Cornell, S. (2001). Enhancing rural leadership and institutions: What can we learn from American Indian nations?. International Regional Science Review, 24(1), 84-102.

Halsey, R. (2013). Space, spatiality and educational leadership formation for rural contexts. Leading and Managing, 19(2), 78.

Hohner, J., & Riveros, A. (2017). Transitioning from Teacher Leader to Administrator in Rural Schools in Southwestern Ontario. International Journal of Teacher Leadership, 8(1), 43-55.

Jepson, D., & Sharpley, R. (2015). More than sense of place? Exploring the emotional dimension of rural tourism experiences. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(8-9), 1157-1178.

Maharjan, K. L. (2017). Rural Community Leadership in Decentralization. In Decentralization and Rural Development in Indonesia (pp. 99-110). Springer, Singapore.

Munoz, S. A., Steiner, A., & Farmer, J. (2014). Processes of community-led social enterprise development: learning from the rural context. Community Development Journal, 50(3), 478-493.

Myende, P., & Chikoko, V. (2014). School-university partnership in a South African rural context: Possibilities for an asset-based approach. Journal of Human Ecology, 46(3), 249-259.

Rey, J. C. (2014). The rural superintendency and the need for a critical leadership of place. Journal of School Leadership, 24(3), 509-536.

Ruppert-Winkel, C. (2018). Leaders, networks and the social context: A relational leadership approach to regional renewable energy self-sufficiency. Journal of Cleaner Production, 193, 811-832.

Stanley, A. C., Igler, E. C., & Bever, J. A. (2017). Teen Leadership Academy (TLA): An Intervention for Enhancing Community Advocacy and Reducing Substance Use Among Youth in a Rural Community. Journal of Adolescent Health, 60(2), S70.