Elements of Educational Leadership, Essay Example

Introduction

ELCC Standards 5 and 6 deals with the way Educational leaders deal with law, integrity, fairness and ethics.  Standard 5 focuses upon a district leader who has the right amount of knowledge and ability to promote the success of students in a responsible and ethical manner. Standard 6 deals with the ability of the leader to have a wider understanding of the political, social, legal and cultural considerations in order to achieve success for the students.

Self assessment

There are a number of key legal responsibilities of the teacher. The general guidelines of legal governance being defined by the Headmaster. These basic rules include Child protection, criminal records disclose of new teacher applicants, Equal opportunities Act, protection of employee rights.  Teachers are challenged in keeping abreast with legal developments in school law and as such they rely heavily upon the School Authorities, the Teaching professional bodies and the school legal representatives.  In general terms most teachers are ill prepared to understand the legal governance requirements at schools. There are two areas where strong support is required: (i) nature and legal source of public school control (ii) The main legal principles defining current school issues (iii) areas where Federal intervention may be deemed appropriate.

The National Council for Teacher Accreditation (NCATE) provides a significant role and support structure for helping teachers to maintain the ethical standards at schools.  In addition Educational leaders have become more involved with Branch networking with other agencies with a view towards sharing both experiences and ideas. The internet has facilitated these communications by use of online bulletin boards, preparation of shared discussion papers and e-mail.  The legal frameworks have started to become instrumental in shaping the landscape of school leadership.  The events at Columbine have resulted in much more collaboration between Teachers, Parents, Local Authorities and State/Federal governments.  Equally the Teachers have started to work much closer with the pupils on legal awareness and how the school legal requirements impact the pupil / teacher relationships.   Head Teachers have also worked towards improving knowledge on Government policies and where Federal intervention has been required.  Understanding the legal framework has become an important part of developing the school business strategy.