Educators of today are expected to do much more than just classroom teaching and managing. In the complex system of changing educational dynamics, the schools and the educators have to do more than just complete their mission of educating students. They have to do more than just lead a classroom lesson.
Today’s educators must be able to develop leadership skills in order to direct organizational changes, create cooperative agreements with other stakeholders and navigate professional challenges at all levels – school, district, state and national.
The schools and academic institutions play a pivotal role in the healthy development of our children who are also our future citizens. The people who are leading and managing schools and navigating the various channels of administration need to have a deeper understanding of the multiple dimensions of the task. Having a skilled workforce to meet the demands of the situation becomes a pre-requisite. And with the growing changes in society and the role of the academic institutes where knowledge is no longer limited to basic literacy, the role of the leaders in these institutes have also changed.
Currently the school administration segment has become differentiated through various positions related to specific functions. Recently, there has been a steady growth of positions in the number of educators who are not directly involved in imparting of education / instruction to students. With this multi-layered growth in the school administration, it is only natural that there will be felt a potent need for strong leadership skills in those who are heading or managing the “show”.
As schools and academic institutes become more complex in their functionality, the requirement for developing leadership skills in these professionals become more pronounced. And just like with other professions, the responsibility of preparing school leaders with the necessary skills became an independent program / course / subject.
