Without significant investments in human resource capital, no country can achieve long-term economic progress. Therefore, education is one of the most critical aspects of development in every capacity. It broadens people’s perspectives on themselves and the world around them. It improves their quality of life and has a wide range of social advantages for individuals and society.
However, the educational system is a massive undertaking with several obstacles arising from society’s dynamic nature. Educational policy debates generally focus on how successfully a set of laws is executed instead of genuinely understanding what the policy’s objective is.
In a fast-paced society, the perceived purposes of education place considerable pressure on policy, educational programs, curriculum, and management. While policy and curriculum are the educational system’s direct dilemmas, management and leadership are critical in the effective and efficient steering and utilization of resources to achieve outcomes, success, and improvements in educational goals and national objectives.
To prepare proactive and responsible democratic citizens, academic/education leaders must first comprehend the process of policy development. Educational leaders should always be aware of the opportunities to participate in policy development actively; for instance, who the most important stakeholders are, and how worldwide trends relate to local needs are crucial.
There are numerous factors that educational leaders should consider while making policies, but beforehand the leaders need to be equipped with necessary courses of action. Learning how to analyze, establish, and implement a good policy that allows all students to have great learning experiences while also transforming systems for a brighter and more progressive future is equally important.
Earning a degree like a masters in education policy would help education leaders sail through the decision-making process without hiccups. While policy and curriculum are essential components of the educational system, which involves deploying significant resources, they necessitate leadership and management as a compass.
Forming a well-written policy is the first step towards achieving positive, long-term change, combining enthusiasm and values with real-world and hard-wining lessons. This ensures students have the best resources and tools needed to bring innovation and equity.
Moreover, all of this does not come easy. There are five major things that veteran education leaders do consider while making policies:
1, Mindset Evaluation:
Before devising any policy, an education leader must evaluate the mindset. Dweck, Duckworth, and Tough all stressed the need for a growth mindset. In addition to the value of hard work, one must believe that students require the opportunity to create, take the initiative, and collaborate.
Leaders who want teachers and students to acquire an innovative mindset should start by looking at their jobs and perspectives. Posing the following challenging questions will help the process of evaluation better:
- Are they willing to learn and grow?
- Do they give credit for effort as well as results?
- Do they make room for initiative and provide incentives for it?
- Have they created a conducive environment for collaboration?
2. Vision empowerment
Education leaders must align the visions for the successful results of their policy implementation. It is indispensable to have quality foresight. Leaders should embrace every chance to create a narrative of a bright future in which tailored learning can benefit the students and teachers. It is beneficial to specify the vision before making educational policies.
3. Agenda setting
Before concocting a new policy, ensuring respect for old policies, laws, and customs that make sense is crucial. Influential leaders adjust their leadership style to the organization’s maturity and situation.
Start by clarifying staff responsibilities and objectives, especially for principals and support service departments. Make it clear to them what they may anticipate. Make the distribution of resources and the decision-making process transparent.
This way, they end up gaining a better picture of what to pick from and whatnot.
4. Accurate alignment:
An influential and effective leader has a strong sense of identity and exhibits it to everyone he or she interacts with. This commitment has to be genuine. No leader can act like someone else or appear to be someone they are not.
Leaders must align their goals and commitments with their professional goals. The provision of leadership, inspiration and direction in school activities that lead to fulfilling educational goals are labeled as effective educational leadership.
The primary objective of educational leadership is to assure the school’s success. Students’ performance and achievement and school improvement are critical in reaching these goals; therefore, authentic alignment of personality will help.
5. Understanding of educational leaders politics:
Understanding the use of power by principals and the struggle of others to impact the decision-making process justifies having a clear understanding of what educational leadership is and the various approaches to it.
Activities of educational leadership, elements of educational leadership, and areas around which most tension and conflict surround educational leadership need to be addressed.
In today’s school administration, educational leadership has garnered much attention. It is fundamentally true because, in addition to instructional commitments, meaningful school leadership is required. Therefore, devising policies that allow students and teachers to be more creative and innovative is compulsory.
Conclusion
Being an educational leader is challenging and demanding. Politics is a personal and multi-layered process; at the same time, it might be the best and worst job in the world. Nevertheless, there is no situation in which an individual may have a more significant impact on a community’s development, on how it thinks about itself and its future. Only being an effective and educated leader will leverage educational constraints.
When organizational resources are up for grabs, the politics involved are determined by the individual interpretation and application of leadership resources. As a result, each group or individual within the school organization begins a battle for school resources, which substantially impacts the school’s overall objective achievement and performance. Therefore constructive policies developed by education leaders can help institutions prevail.
