Leadership Assignment on Education System
Question
Task
LDI viedo response: Watch the three videos provided in the green booklet on LMS labelled ASSESSMENT VIDEOS. All three address issues related to diversity, inclusion, and leadership. They address the importance of these issues in contemporary society and an increasing body of literature reports on the benefits of engaging in diversity. What are key convergences, divergences, and gaps in practically engaging in the discourse from your context? You will need to relate this discussion to literature (at least 6 references) in the field. 1200 words and worth 15%.
Your response will not just be a summary but will also evaluate and show relationships between the terms, in order to relate key themes.
1 DISABILITY: Please watch the video on Disability. Make notes and as you do so, relate this to the education context with reference to DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, and, LEADERSHIP. Read a good article that relates the issues.
Viedo link - https://youtu.be/CtRY_1mZWWg
2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY: Please watch the video on Cultural Diversity. Make notes and as you do so, relate this to the education context with reference to DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, and, LEADERSHIP. Read a good article that relates the topics and issues.
Mehmet Celebi on "Embracing cultural diversity”. Mehmet Alparslan Çelebi is board member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), co-founder of the Center for Arts, Research and Education (CARE e.V.), co- publisher at Der.Wisch publishing house and works as a Manager at zeb Financial Services Advisory. Mehmet’s areas of social work comprise Islamic identity in Europe, Islamophobia, Turkish-German relations and social and political integration of Muslims, where he creates collaboration networks and initiates and leads projects. As political active and conservative Muslims, his parents have founded one of Europe’s biggest Turkish- Islamic NGO named ATIB with over 180 member associations throughout Europe. Mehmet has led the youth organization of ATIB and was announced as board member, where today he is in charge of refugee projects, education of young members and collaboration with governmental bodies.
Video link - https://youtu.be/iZWbgYi1Lbc
3. LEADERSHIP: Please watch the video on LEADERSHIP. Make notes and as you do so, relate this to the education context with reference to DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, and, LEADERSHIP. Read a good article that relates the issues.
Here, David DeMatthews relates leadership to education issues and inclusivity. He'd to see a discussion hear about how school leaders can help create a more inclusive and caring school environment. Do you think it's the principal's role or responsibility? What supports does a principal need to be successful? What worries you about engaging in this type of leadership?
Video link - https://youtu.be/UGQZKAKmBq8
Answer
Disability: We are providing some sample solutions of leadership assignments, to help you in building up a concept plan in drafting the solution yourselves. Leadership within the education system is a fundamental component when developing the school culture. Ensuring that different stakeholders within the school are open to the idea of inclusivity and diversity is not the sole solution for providing that child living with disability access an excellent educational environment. The needs of children living with disability surpass the basic classroom setting and extend beyond our reach as teachers who lack specialized training and skills to address issues affecting children with disability. However, I think that as teachers, it is our fundamental duty to ensure that we promote and inhibit behavior which supports a culture that exhibits inclusion as a critical component in our schools.
Dantley, M.E. & Tillman (2010) state that leadership is crucial in any discussions about creating a culture of diversity and inclusion. However, I think that we as teachers are not given the adequate preparation to bolster inclusion and diversity in schools. Though some leaders within the school are motivated to encourage integration and diversity, we lack the necessary support regarding structures to create an all-inclusive environment for students. The cultures in schools today unless influenced by the respect and understanding of the importance of diversity, will much likely reflect the values of the dominant group. This will include for example educators with a negative attitude towards learners with a disability, curricula which are unrepresentative to a particular group of students and unrepresentative staffing as Egbo (2009) explains.
The idea of dealing with the issue of inclusion and diversity by developing rules, policies and programmes to respond to the needs of children with disability is insufficient. I think the idea of creating a special all-inclusive classroom and we are equipped with additional skill can be of much significance. In this kind of setting, diversity and inclusion become a way of life as opposed to as an initiative. In this kind of environment, both the children and the teachers enrich ourselves by understanding and sharing our differences as opposed to being subjects of blame from the dominant group and the lesser dominant group. As much as lack of resources to create such an all-inclusive learning environment in the majority of schools in India persist, as teacher leaders we have a unique role in reshaping the cultures within the school to a professional learning environment as opposed to individualism. By this leadership assignment I further feel that the rapidly changing technology is going to marginalize further learners with special needs within the existing education systems. The current education systems in India still cling to the educational belief systems and curricula that underserves children with special needs.
Cultural Diversity: When in any classroom, as a leader there are various changes I this leadership assignment that I can undertake to foster diversity through understanding the ideas, experiences, beliefs and strength of my students. Students come from unique backgrounds with different experiences. As teachers, it is our responsibility to ensure that these students can learn in this diverse environment and collaborate with others from other backgrounds. To create an inclusive class, I think that as teachers we need to be aware of the diversity of the students and make an effort to work with the students to create a collaborative and safe learning environment.
Cultural diversity touches on the values, beliefs, customs as well as social behaviors of a particular group of people. This diversity can be seen in the facial expression of vocal tone and body language of students as they express themselves or as they interact with other in class or within the school environment. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to bring in their experiences, knowledge and beliefs within the academic setting (Plessis & Bisschoff, 2007). To be able to accommodate this kind of context, as teachers we have to learn about the background, the histories, traditions, practices and values of these students as well as their families. This understanding is critical in making connections with culturally diverse students.
The process of learning and influencing behavior within a culturally diverse class calls for exceptional leadership skills from teachers. As leader teachers, we have to ensure that through our influence, we can create an inclusive classroom where the as the teacher and the students, we value the contributions of students as well as their communities or families. When the class recognizes the uniqueness of every member, it helps build the class interests, cultures and languages which further eradicates any social barriers that might hinder learning.
Cultural diversity within Indian school indicates that different school enrolments will include students from various cultural backgrounds (Joshee, 2010). Open acceptance, acknowledgement, celebration and valuing of diversity within schools is critical towards realizing better outcomes for our students and the school at large. When children from different cultural backgrounds receive respect and feel a sense of value, they tend to develop a positive cultural identity. Having a positive cultural identity enables students to connect better with other students and teachers. My prior experience with students who have experienced a sense of inclusion at school point out these students also tend to develop a sense of belonging which enhances their self-esteem as well as resilience and reduces the probability of experiencing anxiety and depression. The leadership qualities of teachers are essential towards influencing a sense of inclusion within the class or entire school. As teachers we can change inclusion through the integration of every student’s cultural background and knowledge, frames of reference and previous experiences within the classroom to enable learning to be more relevant and enjoyable for the students.
Leadership: You can observe that in this leadership assignment a detailed analysis is being conducted which helped us to arrive at this conclusion. I agree with much points put across by David DeMatthews (2014) in his video about leadership, change and diversity. It is in my opinion that the principal has the role and responsibility to influence a caring and inclusive school environment to enhance learning. The reason is that I think that leadership starts from the top and drops down to the teachers and any other stakeholder. I feel that principals are strategically placed to influence behavior through developing policies, standards and procedures which push towards creating a school environment which values the beliefs, experiences and diversity of students, teachers and parents with the school system. Salisbury (2005) adds that principals must support and guide change towards inclusion by bringing together the people and resources necessary for inclusion to be successful.
I feel that for a principal to be successful, he needs financial support, moral support and be equipped with knowledge and skills to deal with cultural diversity. To create an inclusive environment at school, the principal also needs help from the local community and other stakeholders. However, what worries me much from leadership which aims to foster inclusion and diversity is the fact that different students tend to learn differently depending on their individual needs. Conflicts might arise in regards to adjusting curricula to fit the needs of students with special needs. The push for inclusion might also bring conflict with local education authorities as principals push for allocation of more funds to be able to create an all-inclusive learning environment. Sometimes the style of leadership might result into conflict with teachers who feel adopting some procedures and practices pushes them from their comfort zone. Leadership assignments are being prepared by our management experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable management assignment help service.
References
Dantley, M.E. & Tillman, L.C. (2010) Social Justice and Moral Transformative Leadership, in C. Marshall & O. Maricela (Eds) Leadership for Social Justice, 19-31. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
DeMatthews, V. (2014, June 7). Inclusive Leadership, Diversity, and Change. David DeMatthews. Retrieved September 8, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGQZKAKmBq8&feature=youtu.be
Egbo, B. (2009) Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall
Joshee, R. (2010, August 18). A Framework for Understanding Diversity in Indian Education 1. Race Ethnicity and Education, 6(3), 283-297. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332032000109646
Plessis, P. d., & Bisschoff, T. (2007, September 4). Diversity and complexity in the classroom: valuing racial and cultural diversity. Educational Research and Review, 2(9), 245-254. Retrieved September 8, 2018, from http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/ERR/article-full-text-pdf/89639A33699
Salisbury, C. (2005, November). Principals of Inclusive Schools. National Institute for Urban School Improvement. Retrieved September 8, 2018, from http://guide.swiftschools.org/sites/default/files/documents/Principals_of_Inclusive_Schools_Brief.pdf
