The Importance Of School Leadership

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Background of the Study Leadership is not a new concept at all. The idea of leadership dated back to the primitive period when humans first formed small communities (Bass, 1990). The importance of leadership is out of debate, yet there remains a mystery about what leadership really is and how to conceptualize it. This elusive concept has received numerous definitions that are arbitrary, ambiguous and subjective (Bass and Bass, 2008). Bass (1990) noted, “there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who attempted to define the concept”. Although some definitions are “more useful”, there is “no single correct definition” (Yulk, 2013). ……………. Discussions on the phenomenon of leadership have roots at the very early era of human civilization. The early writings on leadership were documented by ancient oriental and occidental philosophers and thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Confucius, Sun Tzu and among others (Goethals et al., 2004). These philosophers and thinkers constitute an initial knowledge base on leadership…show more content…
School leadership is second only to classroom instruction in effecting student learning (Leithwood et al., 2004). Research on educational leadership has obtained its legitimacy as an important discipline in the educational sciences. The development of approaches to leadership inquiry presented above is applicable in the research on educational leadership. Studies nested in the discipline of educational leadership and management are not only confined to investigation of the traits and behaviors of principals as a single school leader, but also expanded to the inquiry of interactive leadership process of other in-school stakeholders (e.g. teachers) and educational leaders beyond school with integration of situational, behavioral, and relational

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