If one wanted to look at a prime example of the practice of Servant Leadership, a person doesn’t have to look very far. It is found in every school in the form of teachers and educators. But recently implemented reforms like the Common Core have stymied teachers in their role of servant leaders.
Servant Leadership is defined as a leadership that is based on serving others altruistically. Servant leaders put the wellbeing of their followers ahead of their own needs in order to see them grow to their fullest potential. The leader makes sure that their followers grow as persons, become wiser, healthier, freer, and more likely to become servant leaders themselves (Northouse, 2013).
Behaviors that are at the core of Servant Leadership are integral to the teaching occupation. Being able to conceptualize allows a teacher to address problems creatively, which is necessary in teaching students of differing cultures, intellectual abilities and emotional maturity levels. Emotional healing speaks for itself; teachers, by nature of their job, have to be available for their students and provide them with support. Teachers do put their students first, often spending their own money (not their district’s money) on supplies that many students wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. Helping students grow and succeed is one of the core goals to teaching and ethical behavior is taught by teachers being an example of how to behave. Empowerment builds confidence for students to think and act on their own and by doing all of these things, teachers give back to the community when the students join the community as young adults, and as they become leaders themselves. But in order to be able to perform all of these behaviors, teachers have to have th...
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While there are many proponents and critics of the Common Core based on educational standards alone, from a leadership standpoint, the Common Core is detrimental.
References
Frequenty Asked Questions. (2014). Retrieved from Common Core State Standard Initiatives: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/frequently-asked-questions/
Minasian-Sommers, L. (2014, June 1). Common Core will harm education. Telegram & Gazette, p. A 13.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Strauss, V. (2014, January 18). Everything you need to know about Common Core — Ravitch. Retrieved from The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/
Townsend, S. (2014, January 30). Common Core is too rigid. Times Union.
The importance of servant leadership should not be underestimated and it can be simplified and embodied in one timeless phrase: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When applied to leadership the result can be phenomenal. Those who wish to serve do so with their hearts, it is not forced nor is it with resentment. The servant leader serves out of acceptance and ownership of their ability and duty.
Servant-leadership is a way of life that evolves and matures with the passage of time. This way of life transforms spiritual people, with strong and stable emotions, into someone who has a deep understanding of truth and the world around them.
Servant leadership consists of leaders helping their followers become leaders themselves. The use personal skills such as empathy, compassion and listening to help their followers succeed. It is not necessarily the most popular form of leadership but, it has been proven successful b those leaders who implement it in their work practices. Servant leaders typically have a strong bond with their team. They are the base and the foundation of their teams.
Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy that one carry outs to supplement the lives of others and shape organizations to become better. In order to become a servant leader, you have to first become a servant. One must be want to serve first. There’s a difference between servant leadership and an authentic leadership style. The impression of servant leadership can be traced back to have started two thousand years
The two most intriguing leadership styles presented in the readings were transformational leadership and servant leadership. Both leadership styles are relationship-oriented, that is, in order for these leadership styles to be effective, positive relationships must exist between leaders and followers. Also, both leadership styles reject the role of leader as being reserved for those individuals in designated positions of power, but rather a quality that may be exhibited by any individual (Kelly, 2012, pp. 10-11). However, the differing goals of each leadership style is the seemingly critical factor that separates transformational leadership from servant leadership.
Common Core is pushing students to think critically by answering questions with more explanation. Students are required back their answer providing evidence for their answers. “The Common Core strives to create a uniform playing field for all kids and an evidence-based, robust learning system in every grade, with the end goal of college and career success in clear and obtainable sight” (How Will the Common Core Standards Affect You Child?, 2014). On a positive note, this is great for the students, but will require corporation from everyone to make it happen. Teachers are required to make their math and literacy lesson plans rigor. “Urged to dig deeper, students will find themselves interacting with subject matter at an enhanced level, allowing for long-term retention of information and an enhanced ability to utilize analytical thinking throughout multiple areas of their lives” (How Will the Common Core Standards Affect You Child?, 2014). Common Core not only affects student learning, but it affects test also. With Common Core, tests will be more challenging and scores are said to drop. “As a measure of accountability, both for students and for schools, testing under the Common Core will be more challenging and for some, might produce temporarily drop scores and possibly the need for summer school” (How Will
Servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. Traditional leadership generally involves the
Servant leaders are servants first, have a genuine want to serve others, and ultimately make a conscious decision to lead others (Greenleaf, Senge, Covey, & Spears, 2002)Click and drag to move. Servant leadership is based upon twelve unique principles that ultimately improve the wellbeing of the followers and the community (Greenleaf et al., 2002)Click and drag to move. Many great leaders utilize a multitude of these principles to help motivate, influence, and lead others. Individuals that exhibit servant leadership qualities, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., possess skills and qualities that help motivate others and driven by a sense of a higher calling (Northouse, 2016)Click and drag to move.
Before reading about characteristics of servant leadership, I tried thinking about what I already knew about this type of leadership. Some of the thoughts I had were: leaders put others before themselves and leaders go beyond their responsibilities to help others. When I read Chapter 7 from The Special Education Teacher as a Servant Leader, I found that I was correct but did not have the full answer.
According to a journal published by Dirk van Dierendonck (Dierendonck, 2011) , the concept of a servant leader is giving up all the usual leadership powers and gaining the support of the employees. By that the leader will have much more reliable team to work with.
Common Core is attempting to create equality among all children that are in the same grade level, no matter where they are from or what level they are currently at in their learning. What Common Core advocates fail to realize is that the Common Core curriculum is actually discouraging children to
The Common Core has been a highly debated educational initiative based in the United States that provides children of all race, religious denomination, and socioeconomic background the same educational path from kindergarten through senior year of high school or the 12th grade. The Common Core provides six standards on its website that serve as its oath. “The standards are: 1. Research- and evidence-based. 2. Clear, understandable, and consistent. 3. Aligned with college and career expectations. 4. Based on rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills. 5. Built upon the
● Some people’s idea behind common core is not really that bad, they think a national educational standard is for each grade level to feed the student with the same amount of
Servant leadership was a term that was first used by Keifner Greenleaf(1970) in his first essay, The Servant as Leader (as cited by Crippen, C., 2005). Greenleaf based his essay on his belief that a servant leader is a servant first, and explained that it would begin with the natural urge to serve and then the leader would make a conscious choice to become a leader, in doing so he makes the choice to ensure that others needs are met first (2005 ). As a servant leader develops he should always keep aware of those who he serves and strive to ensure that they are becoming healthier, wiser, freer, have an increase in autonomous, and are become more like servants themselves (2005). Leaders and organizations can use the principles of servant leadership to frame decisions, and service that include focus on the community, care of others and quality services (Waterman, R., 2011). Watermen states that working to higher purpose increases standards, integrity and should lead the followers through supports, shared visions and bring followers together in toward a common purpose to provide service to others.
Servant Leadership means to serve others and to lead. It puts everyone else first teaching to put others before yourself, with this leading qualities emerge. Just being or having leadership qualities doesn’t always work. Most leadership models show possessive towards the better for themselves, some work out while others don’t, mostly I think because the unwillingness to see others before yourself is a hard concept for some to understand and use. You can be a great leader but if you don’t understand servant qualities or serve for the benefit of others your probley not much liked. Most I don’t think know what Servant Leadership is or means, I didn’t until this course opened it up to me.