Educational Leadership

What a broad term… EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP.  A good chunk of my teaching career, I believed that educational leadership meant school administration.  For many years, I strived to become a school administrator but conflicted by my role as union/teacher leader.  The two worlds did not seem to blend.  It felt like I had to choose a side to belong to… union or management.  It was a strange dichotomous existence for me to function within.  Admittedly, I was confused.  Am I union or am I management?  In the end, I left the teaching practice disillusioned by educational leadership and what it truly meant.  Could this be one of the reasons why I am enrolled into a doctoral program in Educational Leadership?  Maybe.  But, by removing myself from the system and exploring different educational opportunities awakened me to the definition of Educational Leadership.  

I have taken many courses and read many articles on Educational Leadership in my doctoral course work three years ago.  There are lots of definitions, directions, and perspectives on educational leadership.  There is servant leadership, transformative leadership, or transactional leadership… blended in with power, influence, and politics… embedded in policy, practice, and the institution.  That aside, what is educational leadership?  This has been a burning question of me for many years.  Although school administrators may be educational leaders, positional leadership does not necessarily equate to educational leadership.  For the past few days I’ve been meaning to write about educational leadership.  Since my intention, I’ve been seeing it everyday and enlightened.  

What I realize today is that educational leadership means so much more than “school administration.”  I see it in PAC (parent advisory council) parents at PAC meetings.  I see it in the sessional instructor at SFU I am working with as a Site Assistant.  I see it in the practicing teachers enrolled in the MEd cohort.  I see it in my colleagues.  I see it in school trustees.  I see it in parents advocating for their child’s learning.  I see it in senior management at the Board Office.  The truth is, if you are a person who is an advocate for student learning, student success, and student achievement… you are an educational leader.  The list is infinite.  One of my EdD professors said to my cohort a few years ago, “A measure of good leadership is the number of leaders you leave behind.”  What are your thoughts on educational leadership?  Are you an educational leader?