Hello Sea Breeze,<\/p>\n
Wonderful post on behalf of Change Makers, ET2 group! You have provided a lot of food for thought for me to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cServant leadership would therefore bring about more engagement from staff (Hughes et al., 2014, p.56).\u00a0 Staff would feel loved and appreciated. \u00a0They would be encouraged to emulate their servant leader and would thus start performing at a higher level.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0I find the linkage of \u201cmore engagement\u201d to \u2018feeling loved and appreciated\u201d an interesting comment. I wonder if this criterion is needed for most people to be engaged at a higher capacity? Are you speaking for yourself personally? For me, I don’t need to feel loved, but I do need to be respected.\u00a0 Also, I was in a senior administrator meeting today where there was a conversation about the lack of staff engagement even though there have been several transformational servant leadership competencies applied to these specific teachers. Being strategic in ones TSL can be difficult to implement also.<\/p>\n \u201cAt staff meetings, there would be more participation and open-ness to experimenting with the new curriculum.\u00a0 Negativity, pride, selfishness and gossip would all flee. \u00a0If servant leadership were the central focus of strategic leadership in schools, there would be a new revolution.\u201d<\/em> I also find this an interesting interpretation of the effects of strategic TSL. As we are in different sectors of the education system, you in public and me in private, I wonder if you interpret the public-school system as non-strategic TSL? I get that sense when I read your post. Maybe I am interjecting, so this is why I ask. I would consider my school as striving for strategic TSL, and yet there are still negativity, pride, selfishness, and gossip found in the staff culture. As humans, we are prone to walk in the flesh, participating in the fruits of the flesh (Galatians 5). However, as strategic TSL leaders, the job is to cast vision higher (ex. towards the Lord, towards a better future) so that the fleshly expressions are dampened. We inspire to give hope, to take the thoughts off of the difficult day-to-day work we do, reminding people of the calling we have. Maybe we are saying the same thing but it seems your description is too utopian!? Let me know.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>I think TSL is a great strategy to implement in educational settings and would work best in a Christian school environment where all teachers are at least on the same page and the Christian school community would rise up and eagerly support with little or no backlash.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0To be sure, being in a Christian school environment provides leaders the opportunity to acknowledge the desire to follow and be like Jesus. However, it is my also my experience in the public-school environment when I did my teaching practicum recently, that the passion for making a difference in students\u2019 lives was palpable. Creating unity on these bases created wonderful professional learning communities that I am still in contact with today. Do you have this opportunity in your school? As the sower of seeds, teachers in both sectors have the awesome ability to share the love and light of Christ in our spheres of influence. In fact, my high school Biology teacher, who inspired me to pursue a B. Sc., was a Christian but I didn\u2019t know that until a few years ago. As a young person searching for God, I saw the light in him and that passion changed me. I hope you see that you have that same impact in your setting!<\/p>\n Blessings!<\/p>\n Stella<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie\u00a0 D. (2014)\u00a0Becoming a strategic leader<\/em>. San\u00a0 Francisco: Jossey-Bass Second Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello Sea Breeze, Wonderful post on behalf of Change Makers, ET2 group! You have provided a lot of food for thought for me to consider. \u201cServant leadership would therefore bring about more engagement from staff (Hughes et al., 2014, p.56).\u00a0 Staff would feel loved and appreciated. \u00a0They would be encouraged to emulate their servant leader … <\/p>\n