For Centuries, pedagogical
leadership has been one of the integral aspects of educational leadership. One
cannot dream of the role of an educational leader without measuring the pulse
of pedagogical vibrancy in his or her role. However, we failed to give it a
name and form and have been breathing it in our professional lives. As such, the Merriam-Webster dictionary
detailing the meaning of the word pedagogy says “the art, science and the
profession of teaching”. Further, giving the history of the word it says “Since
in Greek agogos means "leader", a paidagogos was a slave who led boys
to school and back, but also taught them manners and tutored them after school.
In time, pedagogue came to mean simply "teacher;" today the word has
an old-fashioned ring to it, so it often means a stuffy, boring teacher. The
word pedagogy, though, is still widely used, and often means simply
"teaching". McCormick Centres
for Early Childhood at National Louis University gives a brief definition of
pedagogy in the following words “Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching
with an emphasis on the dispositions and behaviours of teachers and their
interactions with children”
Pedagogical leadership, though
has a significant objective and purpose in the spectrum of several other
leadership qualities of an educational leader, it facilitates the much-needed
glow and intellectual charisma to the person. A few important engagements of
the Pedagogical leader in an institutional environment cover the following
aspects:
1. Providing
Learning-centric leadership
The objective
of pedagogy is to enable and empower learning. Therefore, the leadership has to
focus on the process of learning which involves both the teacher and the
learner. The leader has to evolve appropriate strategies that would help the
teacher to discharge his academic responsibilities both efficiently and
effectively. The learner has to be committed to the process of learning with
the required aptitude, interest, motivation so that learning happens in the
stipulated time and in the environment in which it has to occur. The leader,
therefore, has a responsibility to envisage this and put in order or place
resources, human and others, which would ensure the effective learning. An
effective pedagogical leader should have the capacity to examine the learning
curve of the school populace and ensure the growth and achievements along the
line, in a measurable manner. Designing
and offering appropriate learning experiences, both within the premises as well
externally to the learners by a series of well-articulated activities is an
important aspect of pedagogical leadership.
2. Designing
Content vision and dynamics
The pedagogical
leader needs to have a deep insight into the curricular content – both in terms
of its architecture and design, its spread, its defined goals, its age
appropriacy. This would help the individual to mentor the teachers and other
instructional designers to deliver their inputs effectively. However, in this
process, the leader neither plays an autocratic role nor does he adopt a laissez-faire
approach. It calls for a distributive leadership, wherein every teacher-student
becomes a participative leader in content management. This becomes all the more
necessary, because the pedagogical leader may not have the expertise in the
micro-management of several disciplines of learning. As a visualizer and
mentor, the pedagogical leader should have the capacity to take an overview of
the entire spectrum of the curricular universe and make interventions to ensure
a balance among the various domains of learning and to establish a healthy
learning style. It is equally important
for the leader to be sensitive to the dynamics of change and respond to
curricular changes with the required speed and authenticity. It would indeed
mean that the pedagogical leader is himself or herself, engaged in the process
of continuous learning, failing which one would not be able to understand and
appreciate the cause and flow of change.
3. Developing
professional learning communities
Given the fact
that in a school there is a reasonably good population of teachers, the
pedagogical leader would not be in a position to address the needs of every one
of them due to paucity of time. It is in this context, the design of professional
learning communities in an institution becomes important. A pedagogical leader
acts as a source of inspiration and becomes a motivator to encourage the team
to take responsibilities of pedagogical issues both for transactional purposes
as well as for creative and innovative interventions in the classrooms from
time to time. This process, would, in turn, help people to step into the shoes
of pedagogical leaders over a period of time, thus to develop the next
generation of such leaders. It would be the responsibility of the pedagogical
leader to ensure ‘organizational development’ through systemic instruments of
learning for all functional cadres both laterally and vertically.
4. Providing
Thought Leadership
A learning
organization has to be a nucleus of purposeful thinking. Freedom to think is
fundamental to any logical and legitimate growth. The evolution of societies,
the progress of civilization, creativity and innovation could happen only in an
environment which is nurtured and nourished by freedom of choices. This has to
be the fundamental objective of a learning organization engaged in nurturing
the future citizens of the country. This calls for vibrant and disruptive
thinking. As such, the homo sapiens have
moved from the age of wheels to the modern age, thanks to the aggressive
thinking and freedom of learning in the concurrent societies from time to time,
though resistance to change has always been the part of the developmental
history of humans. It is, therefore, important that pedagogical leaders provide
conducive environment for thinking and learning, both to the teaching faculty
and to the learners. In order to provide and nurture such an environment, the
pedagogical leader himself or herself, has to be a thought leader – who is
willing to re-engineer the thought dynamics of all factors contributing to
effective pedagogy and navigate both the pedagogy and the environment in which
it occurs to a safe and self-sustainable goal.
5. Committed
to Change Management
For long, it has
been claimed that learning leads to behavioural change. But, changes in the
external environment also impacts the way we live, we communicate, we cohabit
and we learn. The role of institutions is to prepare the learners, not only for
the present, but to a future in which the next Gen-Z would live and prosper. The
pedagogy leader, has to be sensitive to such changes by not only forecasting
them, but by creating mental, psychological, emotional environment embedded in
appropriate skills, both life and vocational. Readiness to change, leading to
change and preparing for continuous change are some of the traits of the
pedagogical leader. In doing so, he acts as bridge between the heritage and
culture of the past and the dynamics of the present. Thus, a pedagogical leader
elevates oneself to the position of a change agent and change manager.
6. Ensuring
Order in Chaos
As learning is a
multi-polar activity involving the interests of different types of
stakeholders, it is quite possible that the pull and push of interests, goals,
attitudes and objectives, both at the individual level and the societal level,
would impact the process and the products of the learning environment. To bring
some element of commonality of purpose is indeed a very challenging task.
Further, history is evidence to the fact that the field of education has always
been the battlefront between the conservatives and the liberals with regard to
retention of heritage and legacy as against progress and modernity. The
pedagogical leaders have to be sensitive to these conflicts, purposes,
pressures at a societal level and should be able to bring some alignment in the
functions and operations of the pedagogical deliveries so that there is a
reasonable order in the system. Leadership in education,
has indeed, this challenging task of managing multiplicity and to bring
homogeneity, uniformity and order. The administrative wisdom coupled with
pedagogical insights alone could empower the pedagogical leaders to achieve
this purpose.
Pedagogical leadership is indeed a leadership
where human sensitivities, both individual and social, are handled with skills soaked
in wisdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment