Generally speaking, educators and their role in the education system could be the picture paired with the definition of servant leadership. Servant Leadership, as defined by Greenleaf (1970), is a leader who has a need or desire to serve others in order to develop themselves, therefore, performing to meet organizational standards. As teachers, our job is to serve our students by guiding them in their development as young adults socially, academically, and sometimes through athletics and other clubs on campus. In our class text, Northouse (2013) lists ten characteristics of a servant leader; Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of people, and Building community. As a teacher, each of these characteristics are equally important to the overall leadership one provides to students at their school.
While servant leadership is all but a requirement for the role of a teacher, I think students and parents can easily abuse the servant element in servant leadership. I think this is even more the case at small, private schools, where families are paying for their son or daughter to attend. As a private school teacher, I believe the line between parental expectations and staying true to the standards of the school can unnecessarily move for reasons often outside of a teacher’s control.
For example, some parents believe by paying tuition for their son or daughter, they are buying a high school diploma regardless of their child’s academic performance. This can be troublesome for obvious reasons, but mainly because the standards of the school and the teacher are put to the test by complaining parents who expect the teacher, and often the school, to bend over backward for their son or daughter in order to receive a good grade in the class. In a study by Fatma Bikmaz from Ankara University titled, “What Parents Expect From Classroom Teachers and How Classroom Teachers Measure Up To Those Expectations”, her study was conducted among both private and public school families. The research showed that parents of both private and public school students were not well-informed enough to make a determination on the expectations of a teacher, and encouraged educators to hold more seminars, parent-teacher conferences, and open up communication with families to define a teacher’s role more clearly. Combine an uninformed parent with unrealistic expectations that they believe they are paying for, and you could find yourself in a troubling position as a teacher.
In my experience as a private school teacher, I have found that parents, while they claim to have their child’s best interests at heart, often don’t know the full story when it comes to their children and life outside their household. While their son or daughter may be an angel at home under the watchful eye of their parents, at school, their behavior and effort in the classroom can be quite sub-standard. For example, I have a student this year who does not enjoy my class, Strength and Conditioning. Despite trying several different ways of getting this young man motivated to develop proper physical fitness, he has little to no motivation outside of his video games. When discussing this with his parents, they are taken aback at how I have portrayed their son; unmotivated, without a desire to perform the daily tasks of the class. They provide his grades from other classes, where he performs well, and they can’t even imagine this behavior from their son. When provided with his data collected from my physical fitness testing, the excuses flood the conversation about fairness, and the lack of clarity provided for their son to properly understand what is expected of him to perform in class. At some point, a teacher in this situation is faced with a decision that challenges their ethical standards; should the student be forced against his motivational will to meet expectations in the class, while being supported by his parents, or does the teacher modify expectations for this student in order to meet the expectations of the family.
Many teachers in this position can be challenged by their desire to serve in a servant leadership role, while also maintaining their standards as an educator to meet academic expectations in their course. The traits of this role support a teacher going above and beyond to make this student not only successful in the class, but hopefully enjoy the class over the duration of the school year. In physical fitness, each student or sub-group of students will have physical restrictions based on their fitness level, while each family expects their son or daughter to earn an “A” level grade. Add in the students who have little to no motivation to be in average healthy, physical shape, and you have families paying a school for their child’s education, and relying on high grades for their next level of education post-graduation.
I once had a student who was very high-achieving, who had her sights set on Stanford as her collegiate destination. She was on the academic track to get there and be admitted to the school, until her 12th grade Spanish teacher decided to offer no make-up opportunities for assignments. This student completed one assignment one day late, and the teacher did not offer flexibility, thus the student earned a grade lower than her work deserved. Due to this poor grade, this student’s GPA was impacted the week Stanford required applications to be due, and she did not get admitted to Stanford. After four years of high academic achievement, this student and her family’s investment in her education was impacted by a grade earned for turning work in late. This was obviously an issue with the family, and they decided to pull their younger children from the school because of this teacher’s lack of flexibility. Again, in a situation where a teacher has to decide whether their academic standards are more important than their willingness to work with students to bend expectations to better position themselves, parents can misplace their expectations for what they are paying for with private school education.
While servant leadership is displayed by educators each day they arrive on campus, it is a leadership style that can be easily abused by students and parents, alike. For those who work day in and day out to meet the needs of their students, these teachers can be put into tough spots professionally and ethically to attempt to make their requirements fit the needs of the individual students who do not want to follow the track set by their teacher, and use their parents (and their wallet) to influence a teacher’s decision. Strong academic administrators will take the side of a teacher in most cases, but at private schools, the parents paying for a product (their child’s high school diploma and a GPA high enough to meet high academic standards at colleges and universities) often get their way.
References:
Bikmaz, F. (n.d.). academia.edu. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from https://www.academia.edu/1362140/What_Parents_Expect_From_Classroom_Teachers_and_How_Classroom_Teachers_Measure_Up_to_Those_Expectations.
Greenleaf, R.K. (1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Fredric Holfoth says
I enjoyed your post about teachers and their role as servant leaders. My wife has been a teacher for over 25 years, so I understand much of what you discussed. She is a public-school teacher in a very diverse but also somewhat affluent district. Private schools certainly add a dimension regarding the tuition and its perception by some parents that their kids will do well in classes and graduate with good grades. This still happens in the public sector but probably not the extent and without as much pressure and influence as in the private sector. I never really considered the concept of servant leadership until I took this class, and it is very intriguing to me as you relate it to teachers. It’ s almost seems counter-intuitive that a strong leader be a servant at the same time.
Northouse explains that the servant leader approach focuses on the leader and their behavior. Servant leaders are attentive to the concerns of their followers, they empathize with them, empower them, put the followers needs first, and focus on developing them to their full potential (Northouse, 2016, p. 225). This description fits a role of teacher, but in many ways also the school administrators’ job. In 2002, Spears identified ten characteristics from Greenleaf’s previous work that were key to the development of servant leadership (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.227-228). These characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth of people, and building community. You related some of these characteristics to the role of the teacher and I agree, but I also feel many of these also apply to the school administrator. The administrator is responsible for the success of the school (or district), leadership role over the teachers and other school or district employees, and interfaces with the school community at large.
To illustrate my point in more detail, I will use the ten characteristics with some examples.
1. Listening – a school administrator must be a good listener. They need to listen to the needs and sometimes challenges that the teachers are going through. They also need to listen to the parents and members of the school community (school board, etc.) to understand their goals and/or concerns.
2. Empathy – They must also be able to show empathy and understanding of the teachers and the parents (groups of followers). This allows them to see the situation from different perspectives.
3. Healing – This characteristic is somewhat unique and can be apply in different situations. It may mean supporting a teachers or school employee through a difficult time personally or professionally. I could mean to ability to help a school community heal after a tragic event.
4. Awareness – This is the very important ability to be aware of your surroundings but more importantly be aware of the impact your may have on others. I feel strongly that leaders do not always comprehend the impact (positive or negative) that they can have on a follower. A servant leader can be acutely aware of this phenomenon.
5. Persuasion – Through clear and knowledgeable communication an administrator needs the ability to convince and persuade the follower groups to consider options or change.
6. Conceptualization – This is especially important for a high-level school administrator, such as, a district superintendent or curriculum planner. This characteristic can assist them in planning a good and progressive road map for the future. They not only need to be servant to the follower groups, but to overall future of the operation and community as well.
7. Foresight – This characteristic is important to always consider the possible outcomes of a decision or situation. The history is a good guide, but also the instinct and discipline to consider alternate outcomes that others may not consider.
8. Stewardship – This key to the servant leader is to except the responsibility that’s comes along with a leadership role. The “buck stops here” is appropriate and by accepting that responsibility even when things do not go as planned is key to their credibility.
9. Commitment to the growth of people – In the school administrator role I feel this characteristic most applies to the teachers. A true servant leader cares about their follower’s well-being, but also in their personal and professional growth. This can be giving a teacher the support to deal with a difficult parent or child, or the opportunity to advance their career. This can also ne the teacher’s roles in the growth of the students.
10. Building Community – In this example I feel it applies to building the community of teachers and staff, as well as, building a sense of community in the district.
I agree with your example using a teacher to illustrate the concept of servant leadership, and I appreciate the opportunity to expand that example to also include members of the school administration.
Rick Holfoth
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership, Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008237/modules/items/27074746