An Assignment Submitted by
Raquel Gair
Part One
Traditional vision towards the leadership and education has both positive and negative effect on the emotional and academic development of the students. From one point of view, the school follows a standard framework validated on the national level and make sure the students comply with the educational norms established in the U.S. From the other hand, there is no room for creativity and thinking out of the box that decreases the chances of teachers to reveal all potential of the students and teach them to be innovative. There is a need for a multicultural framework in the educational curriculum as well as the introduction of modernized educational approach to meet all requirements of the contemporary job market and business environment. Customized approach to every student has to be implemented as well to create the environment of effective learning.
Curriculum and supervision techniques have to be changed in order to match the requirements of the modern world. For instance, the curriculum has to be more practical rather than theoretical and introduce to the students real-world problems and situations. As to the supervision, nowadays the companies try to use transformational and transactional leadership techniques that require the subordinates to be autonomous, creative, and adaptive. If the school uses authoritarian approach, the students will have fewer chances to adapt to the modern conditions of the business environment. These changes can be made by proposing the teachers multiple ways of on-the-job professional training and off the job courses that will help them to evolve professionally. Such options as leadership training, risk management, and decision-making skills development may help the modern educators to revisit their approach to their career and the method of teaching. In this way, the students’ learning will automatically improve as the teachers with a new perspective on education will achieve better results than those operating on the basis of obsolete norms.
Part Two
Legal advice may be needed in the disputes with the parents or personnel. Yet, this kind of advice is given after the school was sued. The school management may seek legal assistance when there are complicated issues involving students or personnel. For instance, a student is injured during the class, which may hold the school accountable for this situation. Also, when firing a staff member, the management has to make sure that all laws are followed in order not being sued in future. Professional misconduct of teachers can lead to lawsuits as well and in this case, the school has to make sure it will not be held responsible for this situation. In a case of the drug search, the police have more authority only when the officers have the warrant validating the search. In this case, the lockers of students may be searched as well without the permission of the students or principals. At the same time, the students are qualified as minors and the officers can arrest them, yet the parents have to be notified immediately. Also, the police cannot question the arrested students without the presence of their parents.
Questions
My best experience in professional development was the ability to improve my interpersonal skills and connect with the people, which helped me in both professional and personal life. At the same time, the worst experience was the intention to achieve the level of an ideal teacher. I am an idealist and a maximalist, which I think affected my ongoing self-criticism that does not stop until today. I always believed that there is a room for improvement and it is essential to take examples from the well-known educators. What I have found out is that it is impossible to satisfy everyone. I also noticed that there are increased demands for teachers’ work, but there are fewer chances to comply with them. Therefore, I think that professional development has to be the choice of a particular educator, as all of them have their individual approach to their career and responsibilities that may benefit the school better than standardized norms.
The conversation about choice and responsibility generated by Glickman et al. (2013) is a complicated issue, which demands another analogy than “chicken and egg”. Choice and responsibility are like a seamless web that connects with each other and predetermine the consequences of our actions. I think they are interrelated, especially in the profession of a teacher, where it is important to make a choice that complies with the responsibility encapsulated in this profession. To my point of view, the responsibility comes first and it foreordains the choices made by the educators. At the same time, the choices have to be generated out of the initiative of the educators rather than to be driven solely by the responsibility.
The primary purpose of the U.S. education is to evolve our society intellectually and personally. While school aims at preparing children for the adult life and professional career, it is responsible for the development of the society as a whole in order to be functioning in compliance with the national course, evolving with the time, and remaining progressive for improvement of the core values and lifestyle of the American public. The aims of the education back to 1791 are not relevant for the modern framework, thus, their analysis does not hold essential value for the current conversation.
References
Glickman, C. D., Gordon, S. P. & Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2013). Basic Guide to SuperVision and Instructional Leadership. New York, NY: Pearson.
