Is a Title Necessary to Become an Effective Leader?: A Theoretical Perspective

There has been a lot of talks lately about the need for a title/position to be a true leader among academics and researchers. Likewise, most people are confused about the title and the action of a leader in an organization. The words on the street are that most of the leaders believe in their titles, not in their actions, as well as in most of the research on leadership are characterized by fragmentation and conflicting nomenclatures. These confusions and conflicts must be solved through adequate reviewing and research studies. The primary goal of the study is to find out if the title is needed to be a leader and to identify the key qualities to be an action-oriented leader. The review is a stand-alone literature review conducted using the electronics databases such as EBSCO, DOAJ, RESEARCH LIFE, EMBASE and Google Scholar. The information on leadership, effective leadership positions and qualities of effective leaders was obtained after reviewing relevant research papers from these different journals. The present review shows some rough ideas on how to be an action-oriented leader without a title. It also showed that communication skills, trust, pragmatism, and relationship building are the most important qualities of leaders to enhance the personal power to gain organizational power, to be the most effective and dynamic leader, the present review suggests some requirement of additional skills such as trust, compassion, stability, hope, relationship and influential skills to make an impact in the 21st century leadership environment.

21st Century Leadership in Times of Global Change and Organizational Trauma

This chapter explores 21st century leadership practices found in the theories of complexity and adaptive leadership as a path to addressing uncertainty, volatility, and complexity in an increasingly interconnected global world. In this exploratory chapter, the authors discuss the notion of leaders versus leadership and argue that leadership is a process that people do and not a role. The authors also assert that complexity and adaptability are key in addressing trauma that results from change that occurs inside and outside the organization.

21st Century Leadership Skills Practiced by School Leaders in Pakistan During COVID-19 Pandemic

21st-century leaders need strong leadership skills to effectively lead schools. They must use and implement 21st-century skills for long term change. The study aimed to identify the practices of secondary school leaders of Rawalpindi city about [recommended] 21st century 4 Cs leadership skills (Competence, Character, Compassion & Courage) during the pandemic of Covid-19. This was exploratory research following the quantitative research approach. One hundred and nine school leaders were selected through a simple random sampling technique to complete an adapted survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for analyzing and reporting the findings. Quantitative data analysis indicates that school leaders are using 21st-century leadership skills during Covid-19, but the level of use is dissimilar to the recommended 21st century 4 Cs leadership skills. It was identified that school leaders use relationship (mean= 4.21), Accountability (mean= 4.45), and Self-Belief (mean= 4.37) skills more than other sub-skills in their leadership practices. The findings recommend that policymakers and professional development organizations should plan workshops on these recommended leadership skills for school leaders so they can perform well under situations like Covid-19.

Leadership for School Desegregation

School desegregation efforts begun in the 1960s through to the 1980s persist into the 21st century. School leadership for desegregation began in the late 20th century. School leadership efforts began in the early 1960s with compliance-based responses focused on court-ordered and government directives in pursuit of equality with an eye to societal integration. Leadership for desegregation is a legal response to de jure and de facto segregation as practiced in social, political, and economic systems throughout U.S. history. Efforts at more equal opportunities for historically marginalized students have, over time, evolved into an equity focus that holds a value for educating children and youth whether in integrated settings or not. By the turn of the 21st century, leadership efforts for equity began to recognize the need to provide access and opportunity to all students in all settings. Four distinct chronological periods of school desegregation have evolved: desegregation leadership experiences, 1950s–1970s—mandated, minimum compliance; school desegregation leadership experiences, 1970s–1990s—supported by Emergency School Aid Act; school desegregation leadership experiences, 1990s–2015—Emergency School Aid Act and resegregation; and school desegregation experiences, 2015 to the present and predictable future.

School Leadership Preparation and Development in England

School leadership preparation and development in England has to be understood in the context of England’s radically changing school system. Local democratic accountability of schools has been reduced and a range of new actors have entered the state school system to sponsor and govern schools. Since 2010, the numbers of such “independent” state schools have increased rapidly. As the role of local authorities has diminished, the middle tier of governance has been transformed and continues to evolve, with new forms of grouping schools emerging, such as multi-academy trusts (MATs) and teaching school alliances (TSAs). This and the influential idea in England of the school system as a school-led, self-improving system have implications for leadership and its preparation and development. System leadership, by national leaders of education for example, is seen as an essential layer of support for and a catalyst to school improvement, in addition to leadership of and within schools. In the first decade of the 21st century, leadership preparation and development became more like a “nationalized” service, with the creation of the National College for School Leadership (later the National College for Teaching and Leadership). With the abolition of the National College in 2013, the direction of travel was towards more plural and diverse providers of school leadership and preparation—some would say a privatized model of provision—including MATs, TSAs, schools and other providers. There are both potential strengths and weaknesses in this model. More autonomy is promised for providers and participants in preparing for and developing leadership, which could foster creativity in modes of provision. There are also tensions. Policy aims that promote the quantitative measurement of education on the basis of instrumental and economistic goals sit uneasily with other policy aims that appear to value education as the nurturing of human development as a good in itself; yet different educational purposes have different implications for the practice of school leadership and hence its preparation and development. A further tension is that between a positive recognition in the leadership discourse of the distributed nature of leadership and a tendency to revert to a more familiar focus on positional leadership roles and traditional, hierarchical leadership. Other issues include the practical consequences of a system of plural and diverse providers. The system may increase opportunities for innovation and local responsiveness, but it is not clear how it will ensure sufficiently consistent high-quality leadership preparation and development across the system. There are questions to do with power and inequalities—for example, whether greater autonomy works well for some providers and participants in leadership preparation and development, whilst others are much more constrained and less able to find or create opportunities to develop their leadership practice. Space for critical and questioning research and professional enquiry, independent of the interests and priorities of providers and government, is essential. Such research and enquiry are needed to illuminate how leadership preparation and development practice actually evolves in this more plural system, and who shapes that practice in the differing local contexts across England.

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND 21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Background and Purpose: This systematic review article focuses on leadership challenges encountered by school principals in the 21st century. International evidence indicates principal leadership affects school and student performance. However, little systematic review has been carried out on the issue. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the existing literature on leadership challenges faced by school principals in the 21st century. Methodology: Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, a systematic review was done on two main databases, Web of Science and Scopus. There were three main stages in the process: identification of keywords, screening of articles, and determination of the articles. This resulted in a final database of 16 eligible documents. Findings: The review of these documents resulted in three main themes – personal challenges, school context, and stakeholders, and 11 sub-themes. There were three subthemes for personal challenges such as lack of knowledge and skills, while school context challenges can be divided into six sub-themes such as lack of trained staff and inadequate facilities and resources. The two subthemes for stakeholders challenges are negative attitudes of parents and interventions from the Ministry. Contributions: This systematic review expands the literature of principalship in the 21st Century by highlighting the challenges faced in the context of North American, African, European, and Australian schools. Further work on the challenges faced by school principals in other continents should be carried out to achieve a better understanding on the issue. Keywords: 21st century, challenges, principal leadership, school leadership, systematic review. Cite as: Adams, D., & Muthiah, V. (2020). School principals and 21st century leadership challenges: A systematic review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 189-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp189-210