LEADERSHIP TRUE TO MORAL PURPOSE
Abid Hussain
Kech Balochistan
Teaching at its core is a moral profession, If we scratch a good teacher definitely we will find a moral purpose .Certainly, calls for reviving the moral foundation of teaching are necessary, but increasing commitment at the classroom levels alone is a way for moral martyrdom. To have any chance of making teaching a noble and effective profession, teachers must be equipped with the layer of moral purpose with the skills of change agentry. To understand this notion, I will discuss two core levels of moral purpose of education namely; micro and macro level. Each of these levels has its own structure, norm, and practice of inquiry. The main argument of this paper is that change agents must be fully aligned with moral purpose and it should widen their sphere of influence if they want to make a purposeful difference to micro (school) and macro (society/community/country) level.
Moral purpose in micro level begins with two major questions; first how do educational leaders view their leadership influence in micro level? Second how do they see their sphere of influence inside the school gate? True leaders always see their sphere of influence in school gate where human values, valuing education, honoring equity and diversity intersects .As moral responsibilities for educators are very significance, in my teaching career I have never experienced such moment where I initiated a point to reduce prevailing gaps such as the cultural, linguistic and religious which was formally and informally established in school. The gaps between teachers in their classrooms, among students, teachers, and families widened the gap of their learning. If I paid my attention to reduce these gaps I might be able to develop a culture of sharing, diversity, harmony, understanding, empathy, peace, love, respect and sense of responsibilities among students.
Realizing the importance of moral purpose in micro level we school heads and teachers should always be concerned with children moral development as it directs us making difference in our lives. To implement this we need to develop the culture of collegial environment so that students could develop their knowledge in general but attitude in particular. However, the situation in my context (Turbat) is totally diverse such as once one of my colleagues asks me “why did you become a teacher” surely I did not answer to make difference to my students and their lives whereas to earn money. This answer does not show the matter of value what is understood to the moral purpose of education but a kind of assassination with this profession (teaching). This answer also indicates the way I was taught and treated in my school life where punishment and physical, emotional and psychological exploitation was order of the day. This realization revealed that micro level moral purpose is very significant for all; teachers, students and leaders, it not only helps to enhance sense of commitment and responsibilities to students but also to teachers who are involved with change process. Naturally, human being always needs love, respect, and acknowledgement if we as a teacher promote the culture of love, care, freedom, wellbeing and respect no doubt we make a difference in the lives of students from all backgrounds and by doing so we produce a greater capacity to cope with change.
At a larger level, moral purpose means to acting with the intention of making appositive change in society. One could argue that in contemporary world teacher cannot do the work alone due to complex nature of the world therefore, there is need of time to call for the leaders across all sectors to work together to make the contribution to the society. There is also need of general calls for closing the gaps between school and community. These calls would be worth noticing in a context where a large numbers of students are deprived of basic needs and where number of children has no access to quality education and they are forced to bed with empty stomach. Consequently, motivation of parents towards education becomes low and they ultimately prefer to send their children to fields rather than school. According to them schools have no potential to address their societal and economic needs. We always argue that school is a part of community if yes, then it must be engaged with renewal process of society. This argument is somewhat subtle, here make it clear with these questions; to what extent school support the society and to what extent teacher consume and produce knowledge and to what extent he would improve the condition of community. These are the questions which align the vision of teaching with community and motivate us to understand the change process because moral purpose without understanding the change process would be martyred.
Realizing the innovative ideas and being good at change process we need to understand the gaps between high performance and lower performance schools and high performance and lower performance students which seemed the gap is widened in my own context. After understanding these variations we can initiate change in school level then community level, community directs us towards societal level and the societal level leads to country level. I have never experienced such linear process of change and I have never seen education as a valued commodity which determines deep understanding about ethical issues. Similarly, in my context teachers would hardly be invited in special occasions such as marriages and functions. They hardly valued and respected by the community members. Because in the eyes of the parents, a policeman, or an employ working for another government institution is more powerful than a teacher, a teacher is seen as a harmless person and thus not valued. This is also certain that I have never experienced a school or head teacher which were engaged in promoting education for social building and reforms. Hence, school is a part of community and community is a part of school but I did not find any strong relation between two components in my context therefore, I recognize that there is need to develop schools which not only represent the social ills but also paves the way for a moral building. Thus, collaboration, love, care, equity and shared purpose are hard to continue unless attention towards moral education is ensured.
In short, educational leaders have the power to be a major positive influence on children, families and communities in the society. We need to step up into that realization every day in our life works and take out time to think about diversity, respect, harmony and peace among schools, teachers, students and communities. Today, we are thinking of educational change but it is true that the real change occurs where when we promote the culture of collaborative environment not only among teachers but also students that facilitate us to make positive differences in the society. Systems don't change by themselves but we as change agents need to build bridges among the families, communities, schools, students and societies so that the moral purpose of education would be achieved. This would only happen if the sphere of influence and responsibilities for making positive difference to students’ lives would move beyond the school gate to impact the wider level of society.
