Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

Nicholas R. Johnson
Dordt College

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

2
Philosophy of Educational Leadership
This paper is written for you the reader to understand my personal beliefs and
interests of becoming an Educational Leader. In this paper, I will discuss what interested
me to get into leadership program, why it is important, why I think it is important to lead
Christianly, and how under my tutelage of being a principal will have an impact on my
students.
I got started looking into becoming a principal when I realized that a principal is
essentially a Head Coach of their school. I mean think about it. Teachers, students,
support staff, staff, centralize to this one person for feedback, inspiration, motivation,
understanding, and guided instruction on how they can do their job better. That is exactly
what a coach does. He is the center focal point of taking a group of people, setting a goal
to achieve, giving feedback, provide instruction, inspiration, and motivation to all of his
athletes to merge onto one goal; that is to succeed at the sport they coach and learning
valuable lessons during that time that will help them become better citizens. This is
supported in Peter Northouse (2013) book stating, Leadership is a process whereby an
individual influences individuals to achieve a common goal (p.5).
He also went on to say, Leadership includes attention to common goals.
Leaders direct their energies toward individuals who are trying to achieve something
together (Northouse, 2013, p 6). This led me to conclude that if my ultimate goal when
becoming a teacher was to be able to help as many kids as I possibly can to help achieve
their goals, why not be the person who is in charge of helping all of the rest of the people
in the building responsible for helping the students succeed? Give those people guidance
and understanding of the job they are to perform. Help them understand what great

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

3
things they do and help them create a vision for their educational world to make it better
and a more technological way of living.
My goal as a school leader is to provide a common goal for the kids, staff and
community. With this common goal year in and year out, I want to promote the idea of
working towards one clear vision and that is to succeed. I want to build a community that
has a sense of wanting everyone to achieve their own goals. Where people will ask you
what your goal is and does everything in their power to help you obtain that goal.
I believe that being a good decision maker, detail oriented, communicator /
sociability, are three vital principles that I currently hold that allows me to realize that I
am ready to step into the role of being a principal leader. You can get a good sense of
what it means to by a good communicator / sociability person by reading Northouse
(2013) where he states,
Sociability is a leaders inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships.
Leaders who show social ability are friendly, outgoing, courteous, tactful, and
diplomatic. They are sensitive to others needs and show concern for their well
being (p. 26).
I currently work as a Head Football Coach who deals with everything from gaining
physicals to dealing with turning in of football pads. Everything has my stamp on it. My
coaches know what is expected out of them, they understand when given a task that has
been delegated to them, I expect them to do it as detailed oriented as I would have done
it. They know the expectations on what needs to be done on a daily basis and I make sure
jobs are taking care of to the best of their ability, if not our whole team fails. I firmly
believe that if you focus on the smallest of details, then the biggest of mistakes will not

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

4
happen as often. While focusing on the smallest details, I take pride in being very open; I
am a good listener when it comes to receiving suggestions on how to do things and can
be humble enough to give credit where credit is due.
I feel leadership is important because there always needs to be a go-to person.
Not necessarily a person with all the answers, but the person that can get everyone
together to work collaboratively and for a common set of goals. Leadership is important
because their needs to be a vision for everyone. The person whom decides what needs to
be worked on, how we are going to work on those strategies collaboratively and find the
best solutions to help their teachers achieve the goals that you have set out for the
children.
What can make a person a good leader is the never-ending pursuit of being the
best servant leader as possible. A servant leader is best described by Malphurs (2003),
where she states, Christian leaders are servants with credibility and capabilities, who are
able to influence people in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction
(p.33). Being a servant leader is serving others on a constant basis, to put people in front
of you for the greater good. As I plan to put my staff and students ahead of myself when
being coming a principal, it leads me into the thought of making sure everyone is capable
of doing their jobs the best they can. To go the extra mile to make sure a student feels
safe. To know that new teacher is comfortable in her surroundings and make sure they
have everything necessary to get off on the right foot. These things, however small, can
make an impact of your school and if not they can cause a big distraction for people
doing what they are supposed to do.
The frustrating thing of what is going to happen as a principal is to be able to

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

5
focus on those people who may not be your best followers whom still have success in
their classrooms, it is here where I may find my job most challenging. In Malphurs
(2003), she reiterates:
Serving with others and retaining humility is often difficult. We know our
ministry partners well and are all too aware of their frailties and shortcomings,
and that often makes it extremely hardtop serve them and to serve with them. We
may also find that at times we are jealous of their ministry accomplishments. And
so its often easier to serve people we dont know or dont know well.
Consequently a real test of our servant leadership is our attitude toward and
willingness to serve not only others in general but those who serve with us in
particular. (p.39)
To lead Christianly means to lead a life full of integrity, fairness and respect. You
should be that model person always doing what is right, because it is right. I feel, as a
principal you should always keep in mind what is best for the student. Set that example,
let them see that example, and give them a chance to grow into that example. The
process is always on going and there is always someone out there watching you, we as
administrators have a great chance to make a big impact in a lot of young lives. To do
everything with integrity, fairness and respect will get the most out of all of the people
around you.
In our readings, in order to be a good Christian leader says that you must lead
with love. The best reading of that came from Malphurs (2003) when talking about love:
Jesus notices that the disciples, who were likely reclining around a table, had dirty
feet. Customarily a slave or servant would wash the guests feet when they

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

6
entered the home. Some would say this was the responsibility of the lowliest
slave in the householdSo the Savior assumed the servants role and washed
their feet for them. (p.41-42)
The love that was shared by Jesus at that moment is one of the most defining moments of
his character. He did not care whose job it was, it was a job that needed to be done. He
took it upon his self to demonstrate a most self less act. I can only work in my power to
become that type of leader. It is my goal as a leader to provide that unselfishness. To
always look for a way to my followers hearts, to establish that relationship, that is
willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help people succeed.
My goal for my staff, is to become as good of teachers as they possibly can be.
To provide them with confidence to branch out and ask for help on teaching a lesson, if
there is a lesson maybe they do not feel the most comfortable teaching. I want my staff to
be innovative in technology, using technology as a tool to help excite kids about learning,
and to use technology as a means to get the content out to their kids easier. In order to be
able to do this, I feel that professional learning communities need to be created each year.
To establish a group to work for a common goal, and to watch that goal from birth to end
succeed. Having the time to talk and reflect on things teachers are doing in their
classrooms with other teachers and staff to find the right mode of remediation for their
particular group of students. This in turn will give staff opportunities to talk about at-risk
students, and suggestions for remediation of those students as well.
When I think about how I am going to make sure students are going to succeed, I
feel there are many ways to accomplish this. When I think about the standards,
benchmarks, and curriculum in a school I feel that those things are great to have a

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

7
guiding point for teaching and a path to show student improvement on paper. I feel a
student always has a start and a finish, it is the power of my fellow leaders and myself to
make sure that the student has the tools he / she needs when they leave my district to be
successful in the outside world. What I also feel, however, that just not on a testing stand
point do we need to make sure our students experience greatness. Many students need to
grow with open arms, and knowledge that they will make mistakes. They need to know
that those mistakes will be able to be covered up. Those are the learning stones that
provide humility for them and are able to share later on in life.
My goal for a community is to get them involved as much as possible. Get them
in the halls during night activities and to help foster their learning and to see what we are
giving their kids and what their kids have access to them. Guiding the community in the
involvement and pride of what the district is providing for their kids.
In terms of a pluralistic society we must remember the significance of a pluralistic
society. In an article Dallas Willard (1992) stated, Pluralism does not mean that
everyone is equally right in what they think and do. It does not mean
that we must agree with the views or adopt the practices of those of
other persuasions. It does not mean that we must like those views or
practices. It does not mean that we will not appropriately express our
disagreement or dislike for other viewpoints (p.1).
I believe that this hits the nail on the head of what it takes to
become a principal. Everything that you do is not going to be right,
but you are put in a position to make the best decision you know how
to for the students. There are people that are not always going to

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

8
agree with you, you have to provide those people the facts that you
have addressed and used to make your decision and lead them to help
you show them the way. We as new principals are going to make a lot
of decisions that people are not going to like. It is those people that we
have to have good relationships to not only let them know we tried to
make the best decision, but it was the best decision of the group.
Although having a vision in my head of what being a leader looks like, what
concerns me the most about being a leader is do I have enough charisma / humility to be
a good leader. How am I going to handle a situation when I have a veteran teacher that is
totally against everything that I do? How am I going to handle the different hats that I
may have to be willing to wear over the course of the day? And how am I going to make
sure I find time for my family to succeed as well?
Throughout this process, I feel that giving someone or a group of people a
common goal and something to work towards is the best way to get through to your staff
and the community, show lead them and celebrate with them. Although that goal can be
broad, it can be simplified when broken down into groups, such as, administration, staff,
students, support staff, and parents. If everyone is on the same page, there is no telling
how high you can go!

Philosophy of Educational Leadership

9

References

Malphurs, A. (2003). Being leaders: The nature of authentic Christian leadership.

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Willard, D. (1992). Being a christian in pluralistic society. The Student, Christian(7), 1.
Retrieved from http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=17