Education leadership and management

Introduction

Education leadership and management can be understood as a process in which Education leadership and management actors work to define aims for the education system and the achievement of those aims.

The aims of education system are invariably closely linked with what aims actor have for the evolution of society as a whole, since education system works with the children of today, to shape the adults of tomorrow. The complexity of ELM arises from education being a political process of society determining its future shape. This means different actors will tend to have widely varying aims, many of which would be in conflict. Hence negotiating these conflicts and complexities is in itself an important part of ELM.

The negotiation of these conflicting aims is never complete! It is to be seen as a perennial process of negotiation, to arrive at a 'shared understanding' of what the education system should aim to do.

While evolving this 'shared understanding' is in itself a perennial process, at any point in time, based on the current 'semi-consensus' of sorts, subsequent processes of making plans, establishing structures, processes and norms, engaging people, facilitating their activities/actions and monitoring the same, as well as assessing/evaluating these also needs to be set in motion.

Thus ELM can be seen as a set of ELM processes being engaged with by a set of ELM actors.

Concept Map

[maximize][fold]

Learning Outlines

Key Idea # ELM processes are engaged by many actors

Actors include individuals, institutions and networks

Key Idea # Challenges

Education seen as a activity of shaping society, hence significantly political in nature. Underestimating this can cause serious failure of initiatives.

Actors have highly differential power/authority. Parents / Community members and teachers are often seen as less powerful.