'Teacher as Leader'...

Dear Friends

Since I entered the teaching profession I have been searching for models and tried my own approaches. This is a very important exercise as 'teaching is the mother of all professions'. 'Teacher as counsellor and motivator' has accrued some success and now I am also incorporating 'teacher as expert' into my teaching practice.

However the key is using the approaches and theories judiciously and wisely. Reality is so complex that there can be no single 'grand theory of everything'.  Theories, models are nets that capture some fabric of this reality and give direction rather than concrete answers.

I am also exploring 'Teacher as leader' especially the 'servant-leader' model which has stolen my imagination. The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, he said:

"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

I AM TO SERVE…

Rishi Faisal