Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Unit 4
EED 214/05
Management and Leadership
in Education
Leadership,
Educational Reform
and Effective
Educational
Management
C WAWASAN OPEN UNIVERSITY
EED 214/05 Management and Leadership in Education
COURSE TEAM
Course Team Coordinator: Mr Khoo Chiew Keen
Course Writers: Dr Soaib Asimiran and Professor Dr Abdul Rahman Md Aroff
Instructional Designer: Ms Marnisya Abdul Rahim
Academic Members: Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani and Kasthoori Bai a/p Munusamy Naidu
COURSE COORDINATOR
Mr S. Vighnarajah
PRODUCTION
Editor: Pelangi Sdn. Bhd.
Graphic Designer: Ms. Chrisvie Ong
Wawasan Open University is Malaysia’s first private not-for-profit tertiary institution dedicated to
adult learners. It is funded by the Wawasan Education Foundation, a tax-exempt entity established
by the Malaysian People’s Movement Party (Gerakan) and supported by the Yeap Chor Ee Charitable
and Endowment Trusts, other charities, corporations, members of the public and occasional grants
from the Government of Malaysia.
The course material development of the university is funded by Yeap Chor Ee Charitable and
Endowment Trusts.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without prior written permission from WOU.
Contents
Unit 4 Leadership, Educational
Reform and Effective
Educational Management
Unit overview 1
Unit objectives 1
Objectives 3
Introduction 3
Change as defined 3
Objectives 11
Introduction 11
Effects of change 13
Objectives 17
Introduction 17
Systemic reforms 18
Summary of Unit 4 25
References 29
UNIT 4 1
Leadership, educational reform and effective educational management
Unit Overview
Unit Objectives
By the end of Unit 4, you should be able to:
Introduction
The present educational environment demands educational leaders and managers
to handle change, which require them to make major changes in the organisations,
especially in schools. A proposed change is either a top-down change or initiated
change. Even though change is expected to bring positive results, it will still challenge
the status quo and may pose threatening situations to certain individuals. Razik
and Swanson (2010) argue that in the current turbulent environment, leaders have
the responsibility to maintain organisational stability despite the constant change.
Change as defined
According to Razik and Swanson (2010), there are three basic questions we need
to ask about change: What is change? What are the scenarios of current changes?
Why are changes necessary? We will now explore systemic change and its effects
on effective educational institutional management and leadership.
Reading
Razik and Swanson (2010) have cited several definitions of change given by scholars.
These definitions are summarised in Table 4.1.
Scholar Definition
Smith (2002) Any intentional shift in the way the organisation does business
related to their competitors.
Based on the definitions above, change is considered as the primary means for
organisations to remain fit, healthy, and able to cope with new and differing demands
(Razik and Swanson, 348).
Activity 4.1
1. Enforced change
2. Expedient change
3. Essential change
4. Planned change
Match the four types of change above with the description below:
2. The working structure must not hamper the creativity of the members to
perform their tasks.
5. The organisation should avoid negative practices and get away from
organisational politicking.
Look at the following figure and try to explain what is meant by each condition.
Activity 4.2
Reading
The involvement and cooperation of the members of the organisation are essential for
the successful implementation of change initiatives. A leader cannot simply attempt
to impose and implement change single-handedly, but he or she must develop or
formulate strategies to introduce and implement change.
Strategy Explanation
Activity 4.3
Summary
Feedback
Activity 4.1
1. Enforced change: B.
2. Expedient change: D.
3. Essential change: A.
4. Planned change: C.
UNIT 4 9
Leadership, educational reform and effective educational management
Activity 4.2
Activity 4.3
The answer here will depend solely on your choice of what areas in
your organisation that needs change. Any of the strategies above may
be appropriate as long as you can justify its use and effectiveness in
the context of the change desired in your organisation.
UNIT 4 11
Leadership, educational reform and effective educational management
Introduction
This section will introduce you to systemic change as the outcome of leadership
practices. We shall look at school leaders as change agents, then factors affecting
change in schools, followed by the effects of change in school.
Reading
Domain Explanations
Activity 4.4
Reading
Change is continuously present in schools and there are various factors as mentioned
by Razik and Swanson (2010). These factors can be summarised as follows:
Activity 4.5
Effects of change
The effects of change can be divided into four categories:
a. organisational effectiveness
b. reduced cost
2. Teachers Teachers’ morale will increase if the changes will benefit them.
Although initially some may resist change, it is believed that gradually they
will accept change as a necessity. There are several reasons for wanting change:
a. to impress others
14 WAWASAN OPEN UNIVERSITY
EED 214/05 Management and Leadership in Education
Summary
Feedback
Activity 4.4
Activity 4.5
Introduction
Education reform is a planned, systematic initiative or programme which aims to
bring about positive outcomes in education. The initiative is usually imposed by
the government and implemented through policies and strategies. The idea to re-
examine the examination format for example, can be viewed as an attempt to bring
about new changes to the ways examinations are conducted in our education system.
This section focuses on educational institutional reforms.
First challenge:
Increased workload Principals have to deal with increasing social and personal
needs of students and families, increasing legal requirements imposed by the relevant
agencies and an expanding list of job responsibilities.
Second challenge:
Third challenge:
Fourth challenge:
Fifth challenge:
Increased stress The working conditions and workloads have increased the level
of stress among the school principals. Principals have been forced to compromise
between priorities on their personal lives with school priorities. Long working hours
and increased pressures have also made them suffer from fatigue that resulted in
increased stress.
Activity 4.6
Systemic reforms
School reforms as mentioned by Razik and Swanson (2010) can be divided into
three phases. Phase one is on raising students’ performance, increasing teacher
quality, initiating longer school days and years, introducing competency tests,
standardised curricula, and introducing rigorous promotion criteria for students.
Phase two is on making the school an agent for change, which includes capacity
building, professional development and governance changes. Phase three focuses
on system and policy integration and coordination, targeting on structural reform,
school reform, and curricular reform.
UNIT 4 19
Leadership, educational reform and effective educational management
Activity 4.7
Over the past two decades, various types of reforms have taken
place in schools in Malaysia. They include the Smart School, Cluster
School, Vision Schools, The Teaching of Science and Mathematics
in English (PPSMI), SchoolNet, etc. Select any one reform and
write a 1,000 word report on how it is different from the regular
school or what is new or special about the reform.
SchoolNet: http://www.schoolnet.my/default.php
Reading
Effective schools are characterised by several important factors. The factors are:
1. Strong cultures.
2. Strong beliefs.
4. Structurally loose.
Activity 4.8
Reading
Moral leaders bring about reforms through their own moral strength and the inherent
righteousness of the reform they are committed to.
Activity 4.9
The day that I realised I could no longer do everything myself was a major step in
my development as a person and a leader. I’ve always had a vision, plenty of ideas,
and vast amounts of energy. But when the vision gets bigger than you, you really
only have two choices: give up on the vision or get help. I chose the latter.
Activity 4.10
Summary
Self-test 4.1
2. What are the challenges faced by school leaders and suggest what
kind of leader will be able to overcome the identified challenges.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Feedback
Activity 4.6
Activity 4.7
Activity 4.8
Activity 4.9
Activity 4.10
Summary of Unit 4
Summary
Feedback
Self-test 4.1
References
Everard, K B, Morris, G and Wilson, I (2004) Effective School Management,
4th edn, London: Paul Chapman.