The Role of an African American Principal, Article Review Example

An Article Review on

The Role of an African American Principal in an Urban Information Technology High School

by Mark Gooden

Introduction

Schools around the world at present face the same dire issue they are better defined with. It could be analyzed that somehow, schools have failed to cater to the needs of the students that they are serving, the need to provide quality education. Understandably, the society has created a sense of expectation among schools and how they ought to perform towards their sworn responsibility towards the children who ought to receive rightful education. The failure of schools to completely respond to this social responsibility for years has been accounted for as part of the failure of leadership system that is applied by administrators in such institutions. In the research written by Mark Gooden, he tries to examine how the leadership of a principal actually affects the entire function and operation of the school for the sake of the students it caters to. How Gooden, the author, handled the said presentation of information shall be further examined within the article review that shall be discussed within the paragraphs that follow.

Reliability of Research

To note, there were three primary problems that this research intended to tackle about. One is regarding the nature of an African American principal’s leadership style and how its nature affects the operation of a restructured urban technology high school. Another is directed towards the African American Principal’s connection with the roles of a bureaucrat administrator or the enthnohumanist. The third focal topic is that of the role realized by the principal and how it is applied in the urban technology high school. (633)

To be able to consistently define the connection of all the three problems being dealt with in the research, he tries to first describe the environment on which his subjects are thriving in so as to provide a glimpse of reality for his readers to recognize the emergence of the real issues that need to be addressed. Pointing out to Lincoln High School as the primary location for observance, this reading insists on exploring how both the environment and the society that the students have to live in specifically affects the quality of leadership that the principal decides to adapt to and how that specifically affects the functions of the school as well. Pointing out how drop-outs increase and academic excellence drop down to an incredibly unacceptable level, this research clearly shows how outside forces affect the perception of the children towards the importance of learning and how much the principal is in need of responding to these irregularities in the system.

Through researcher observation and interview process, 5 participants from the administration were asked about their opinion on the current situation of the school. From this interview comes the resulting implication on how their process of leadership actually affects the current situation the school has to face. Focusing on the Principal’s capability to lead, his background specifically supports his competencies in providing approximate application of good leadership. Apart from that he also had the chance to live the life that his students lived with making him capable of relating to their problems. Considering the way he reacted on the questions presented to him during the interview in par with the scale of his leadership approach towards the situations that his school is currently dealing with, he was assumed to have taken the bureaucrat-administrator and the ethnohumanist approach altogether as part of his leadership system.

Being a bureaucrat-administrator, the principal believes in having one goal that will define his path towards the course of development, and being an ethnohumanist, he is directed towards helping his group realize the course of that development through motivating them to work with him towards that single goal. It is with this approach that the principal is able to make sure that everyone in the administration follows the track that he has created to assure the completion and fulfillment of the goal. What makes his leadership specifically in dire support of the current situation of the school is the fact that he encourages compassion and motivation from his staff towards the children. This however has been seen to be lacking among most of his staff members, which means that there should be a certain call for change and development. Consistency in the applied system approach shall further improve the development of the solutions to the current problem of Lincoln High School and further improve the capacity of the administrator to handle issues of insubordination among the young students when it comes to following the rules and regulations of the school.

To note the competence of the participant based on how he commended on several questions presented to him during the interview, the flowchart to be shown herein shall better define the procedures of development that the principal goes through.

Implications on Reality

Urban technology learning establishments are noted for their need to cater to diversity, issues of student-insubordination and defined issues in consideration with support from the parents of the children. It is for this reason that educational institutions like that of the Lincoln High School are rather expected to be prepared to handle such matters of institutional irregularities. In the aspect of taking the bureaucrat-administrator and the ethnohumanist approach, the principal showed close concern with what he needs to impose as a leader to his staff and as a mentor to his students. Effective as the said approach is deemed, there are still several points of improvement that could be imposed especially in directed the effect of the process towards the students and their realization on the importance of the education that they are trying to acquire.

Commentaries and Critique

Well-defined as the problem of the research is, the researcher was able to create a more assuring process from which the problem could be better understood and how much it could be better handled by the administrators who might be having the same problems in their own learning institutions. Practically, it is not only the direct attitude of the students that should be examined, but it should also be considered that the students face different problems of their own that are at some point affected by the society and the environment that they are living in. Controlling these elements have been the constant reflection that the research imposes on the readers and the major stakeholders that were considered as part of the individuals and the institutions to which this research is dedicated to. Effective as the approach was though, it could be analyzed that at some point, the actual level of application of the research results as per suggested by the researcher himself is rather weak. Practically, a creation of a more definite path for application could have made this research more applicable rather than just a reliable source of a well-researched set of solutions for the impeding issues facing urban technology schools at present.

Overall Reflection

African American communities are at some point having a hard time redeveloping the course of their path towards reestablishing their community from a particular history that binds them for many years. However, at the turn of time, these elements of development have caused the said community to embrace modernization and there had been several advantages and disadvantages in the course of embracing such process of progress especially in the field of education. With this research, a creation of several solutions towards the improvement of leadership among administrators and school staff becomes more clarified hence making the approach to the impending problems more efficient based on the needs o the students for educational excellence.

Reference

Gooden, Mark A.. (2005). The Role of an African American Principal in an Urban Information Technology High School. Educational Administration Quarterly.