Yuki Yamashita
Dr. Hamel
PSYCH 485
October 2, 2023 (JST)
Teachers as a Leader
Learning about leadership, I often recall teachers in a classroom. As I have shared in this course, I played the role of a leader, called “class leader,” who was expected to ask classmates to be quiet as necessary, encourage students to submit all assignments on time, lead peers to be on time at every class, and to explain to a teacher why the class was not on time when they did not manage to get fully prepared before the bell rang when I was an elementary school student. Although I had a lot on my plate as a leader, it still seemed that the teacher was a kind of paramount leader of the class. I feel, however, that I did not get enough support from the “leader” when I worked as the leader. Thus, I would like to analyze the teacher’s leadership style in terms of behavior.
When it comes to being a class leader at the elementary school, I had a lot of difficulties in completing the tasks assigned to me as the leader since kids would not be quiet or would not hand in every assignment by the due date even if a teacher tells them to be abided by the rules. Since I was skeptical about the probability of successfully making peers obey the rule, and I did not make it, I always wanted some teachers’ help while almost all the teachers just focused on how to encourage students to obey the rules instead of supporting me or students who seemed to fail to be ideal in class so that everyone would be on the same page with the teacher about the class structure and the rules that everyone should follow.
Applying the teachers’ leadership style to one theory about leader behavior which is part of leadership style, the teachers seem to be directive. According to course material, the directing leadership style is that a leader directs their followers instead of being supportive (The Pennsylvania). Similarly, Northouse says that directing leaders often see a lack of supportive behavior (Northouse, 2022). In the situation where I did not conduct a brainstorming session with teachers to discuss the process for students to improve the quality of their academic journey, and rather, the teachers would often focus only on the result they want to get from kids’ improved performance and attitude during class, I am sure that their leadership style was directing which could sometimes be dictatorial.
I do not mean to criticize the teachers at that time since I now understand as a grown-up person that it is difficult to lead one class of around 30 kids to do ideal work both in class and outside of class. Thus, I should have thought about some possibilities of leadership styles I could have adopted so the blend of multiple kinds of leadership styles could work for teachers and kids.
Reference
Northouse, Peter G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice (9th ed., pp. 109-131). SAGE Publications, Inc.
The Pennsylvania State University. (2023). Leadership Style and Development Levels. [Lecture notes]. Canvas @ PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2283258/modules/items/38927174