The Ethical Dimensions of School Leadership

Citation

Zaretsky, L. (2005), "The Ethical Dimensions of School Leadership", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 43 No. 5, pp. 521-525. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230510615279

A good deal of important ground is covered in The Ethical Dimensions of School Leadership. Begley and Johansson assemble 13 diverse chapters in order to advance scholarly thinking about ethics through the examination of a wide range of theoretical positions relating to different underlying ideologies, philosophies, and discourses in values and educational administration. Given the complex nature of values, Begley and Johansson acknowledge that differences in understandings of values and democratic forms of leadership should be intensively examined and discussed.

To their credit, the editors do not presume to exhaust the issues discussed in any way. Rather, they recognize that key concerns in educational administration and moral leadership are deeply value‐laden. Inasmuch as contextual ambiguity abounds for practicing school leaders confronted with numerous ethical dilemmas, Begley and Johansson claim that significant differences in interpretations of scholarly perspectives on the ethical dimensions of leadership can only serve to better realize inclusive ends in schools and the communities they serve. The contributors to this volume appear to agree with the editors, and offer theoretically rich discussions of community and democracy, balanced with pragmatic perspectives on school leadership.

Begley and Johansson have arranged the contributions in this volume in a logical and accessible fashion. The book is divided into three parts. The collection of chapters in each part encompasses lively deliberation on topics that include democratic leadership in schools, moral and authentic leadership practices, and leadership situated within modernist and postmodernist conceptual thought. Given this rich and varied content, the main focus appears to be on the scholarly exchange of perspectives on values and educational leadership across many socio‐cultural contexts. This allows for a much deeper appreciation and understanding of the multiple meanings and interpretations assigned to values and ethics inquiry in educational administration.

The first four chapters in part one, “Explaining the ethical dimensions of school leadership”, deepen and extend the discussion about the nature, influence, and relevance of ethics in the study and practice of educational administration. Different conceptualizations of values are examined that raise some critical questions about the implications of these diverse interpretations for theorists and practitioners alike. The subsequent four chapters in part two, “Concepts of school community and collaboration”, explore the challenges of nurturing collaborative cultures and processes in schools within an accountability context. The contributors suggest that contemporary culture and its related institutional barriers can often impede progress in the development of collaborative dialogue and moral leadership in schools. In part three, “Cross‐cultural perspectives on educational communities”, contemporary issues of culture, community, and context are considered. Each contributor in this section identifies various elements that often perpetuate misinterpretations and divisiveness in the scholarly literature. They proceed to offer some suggestions for reconciling such differences. These particular chapters effectively illustrate the challenges inherent in inter‐cultural dialogue and their significance for educational administration.

Begley provides the first chapter, examining the ways in which values and ethics influence administrative practice. Drawing on Hodgkinson's work, Begley presents a values syntax in order to foster a deeper understanding of the dynamic linkages between an individual's motivational bases, values, attitudes and action. He highlights possible value conflicts (personal, professional, socio‐cultural, and political) that can arise when multiple meanings and interpretations are ascribed to various concepts. The arenas identified (self, group, profession, organization, community, culture, and transcendental) elucidate competing domains and functions of administrative activity.

In Chapter 2, Robert Starratt begins a deep discussion on democracy by taking the reader back to the historical context of philosophical pragmatism in the USA. He then examines contemporary democratic theories before proposing a new theory of democratic leadership. This form of leadership involves the continuous social activity of deconstructing and reconstructing values and assumptions associated with current knowledge. From his point of view, re‐scripting and rethinking schooling helps individuals acknowledge their unique historical contexts, a prerequisite to uncovering and challenging persistent stereotypes and biases.

In Chapter 3, Malcolm Richmon identifies themes in the existing literature which encompass a wide range of theoretical understandings within scholarly work on values in educational administration. Richmon points out that the literature lacks any real conceptual agreement or clarity as to what values are or might be. He encourages scholars to identify and examine key conceptual dimensions and differences of the theories as a way of clarifying for practitioners how values are understood from different theoretical perspectives. According to Richmon, such conceptual frameworks might help to uncover assumptions about knowledge, theory and research which could better inform values literature and administrative practice.

In Chapter 4, Cyril Coombs compares and contrasts six principals' perspectives on reflective practice with perspectives in the professional literature. He focuses on his participants' understandings of how prior experience, knowledge, and learning has shaped their reflective practices and supported them in developing a deeper understanding of their unique contexts and ethical dilemmas of practice. Coombs reminds us of the importance of increasing awareness of the multiple factors that influence leaders' decisions in an accountability context, especially since this context cultivates ambiguity and a sense of urgency for responsive action.

In Chapter 5, Kenneth Strike develops a theory of schools as communities. He explores the “thickness” and “thinness” of sets of values that constitute different types of community. Strike proposes four metaphors to describe “community” – communities as tribes, congregations, orchestras and families. Four hypotheses are presented for consideration on how they might work for the four proposed metaphors of community. Strike's deconstructions and reconstructions of the concept of community demonstrate how schools can achieve some cohesion, coherence and inclusivity within their distinct communities. He argues that participants must be invited to collectively define purposeful activity and excellence in education consistent with their own values, beliefs, philosophies, faiths, and cultures.

In Chapter 6, Jacqueline Stefkovich and Joan Shapiro extend the discussion of communal processes to explore the place of community in ethical decision making. The authors build upon Starratt's framework of justice, critique, care, and add a fourth ethic of the profession. In doing so, they ask the reader to consider professional ethics within the local contexts of school leadership and school community. This chapter affords the reader an opportunity to critically reflect upon employing a multidimensional framework that appears to add immense practical value to the resolution of ethical dilemmas of practice embedded within individuals' historical, cultural, and geographic narratives.

In Chapter 7, Elizabeth Campbell presents impressive empirical evidence in favour of using core ethical principles with which to guide educators in addressing and resolving complex issues of professional practice. Her analyses and interpretations suggest that typical professional codes of ethical standards invite varied interpretations, making it very difficult to develop any unified concept of professional ethics for educators. Given educators' unique ethical orientations to many complex issues, Campbell concludes that scholars and practitioners should focus on achieving some common understanding of a moral foundation upon which standards of ethical professionalism can be built.

In Chapter 8, Pauline Leonard and Lawrence Leonard provide an overview of collaboration and the many definitions associated with collaborative processes. They explored teachers' values and beliefs about collaboration and to what extent their espoused values are realized in collaborative practice. They emphasize a more intensive examination of the relationship between espoused values and their influence on collaborative activity. Their important work also highlights the need to further interrogate the notion of schools as moral and democratic communities if a working conceptualization of collaboration is to be achieved.

In Chapter 9, Alan Walker makes a case for adopting a more inclusive and contextualized approach to knowing and enacting leadership across cultures. He explains that euro‐centric theoretical perspectives have traditionally dominated how values, beliefs, and assumptions influence leadership practices. This overemphasis on a Western context has limited any shared understandings of other social constructions of educational administration. Therefore, he encourages scholars and policymakers to consider how educational administration is conceptualized and practiced across a diverse range of cultural contexts in many different countries.

In Chapter 10, Isaac Friedman begins with an overview of various classical, neo‐classical and modern organizational theories. He identifies numerous core values in school culture and identifies four major types of schools. Friedman offers a new theoretical account of the unique structure of organizational values in schools that might help others to classify school cultures and further their understanding of how emphases on different values construct very different types of schools. He concludes that this approach might help schools develop more capacity for self‐direction and management through complex change processes.

In Chapter 11, John Collard stresses the interaction of gender with other dimensions of difference such as culture, class and race when examining beliefs about schooling and leadership. He argues that the characteristics, cultures and histories of particular schools generate diverse forms of leadership beyond the traditional conceptions of “masculine” and “feminine” ways of leading. While women in administration has become a significant area of study within educational leadership, femininities and masculinities have not been scrutinized to the same extent, and certainly not within an interactive process involving many different dimensions of difference beyond gender.

In Chapter 12, Johansson explores the nature of school leadership work in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, using the metaphor of arenas. Johansson describes the educational arena as dynamically interacting with many other arenas such as policies, politics, locality, parents, teachers, unions, and special interest groups, each influencing and informing democratic leadership practice in schools. Johansson's work provides considerable conceptual insight into how multiple arenas may dynamically intersect. The application of an arenas perspective also serves a practical purpose in identifying the values‐in‐use of principals and value coherence or incoherence across jurisdictions.

In Chapter 12, Hodgkinson critically examines (and extrapolates) the cultural and educational context of the period 1960‐2020 and analyzes the implications for educational administration. He emphasizes the socio‐cultural values impress that shapes individuals' motivational orientations, interests, goals and judgments. Skepticism, cynicism, and irony abound as he shares his perspectives on cultural confusion and dysfunction within postmodernist approaches to educational administration. In educational administration studies, he laments the loss of instruction in administrative philosophy. From his viewpoint, current and future scholars and school leaders must have exposure to logic and rhetoric in their coursework if they are to gain some understanding and clarity of how moral philosophy can inform administrative practice.

A final word

Begley and Johannson are to be commended for assembling such a wide‐ranging selection of papers that engages ways in which theories of values and democratic leadership are constructed in both educational discourse and practice. What's more, this discussion enters international contexts as cross‐cultural comparisons, teaching both scholars and practitioners a great deal about democratic schooling. Begley and Johannson encourage us to examine our epistemological assumptions, methods, and practices in the study of values and educational administration. All contributing authors have stressed the importance of bringing greater coherence and clarity to the study of values in educational administration if we are to make sense of (let alone enact!) ethical leadership in schools. There is certainly agreement among the scholars in this volume that inclusive, dialogical activity can promote democratic practices within contexts of diversity and difference in our schools. This engaging book identifies key contemporary challenges and dilemmas of school leadership through the presentation of stimulating research on school leaders. To this end, this book is as worthwhile as the weighty goal of ethical school leadership it serves.