EDUC 5336: Educational Leadership Class 4

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EDUC 5336 Educational LeadershipClass 4

• Tuesday, September 30, 3008
• Dr. J. Barnett

Dr. J. Barnett
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Getting the Synapses Working.

• Make a T chart
• In small groups, from the perspective of a
  graduate student discuss and answer

How is my life like a weather system
(unpredictable, uncontrollable, with crises)?
How is my life like a machine (rational,
orderly)?
Dr. J. Barnett
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Paradigm

• A lens you examine through

Dr. J. Barnett
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Positivist Paradigm
Looking at Leadership
Predict and describe behaviour/ traits of leaders
/ leadership
There are universal truths in what it means to be
a leader
Leadership can be examined separate from its
context
The truths are generalizable to other contexts
Dr. J. Barnett
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Social Constructivist Paradigm
Leadership is not real but is actions and
processes attributed to others
Leadership is social constructs developed
through interactions
Looking at Leadership
Language Discourse tells us a lot
Perspectives of Leaders
Reality is a social and cultural construct
Context is Vital
Dr. J. Barnett
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Critical Paradigm
Feminist theory Critical Race Theory Critical
Cultural Studies .
Looking at Leadership
Research is not value free
need to develop new constructs / ideas
Marxism how economics, capital and market drive
the social
is political and a form of activism activism by
resistance and change
Power dynamics
Oppression exists need to bring about
empowerment
deconstruct hidden assumptions / class based
society
Dr. J. Barnett
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Postmodern Paradigm
Bring Norms to light so they can be examined
Looking at Leadership
the ability of people to share their existence
emphasis on the subjective and local experiences,
history and context, fluidity and change
Focus on the direction for leadership should
come from the community of practice
universal truths dont exist beyond our
perceptions
Dr. J. Barnett
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Task

• Group A - take the Positivist Approach
• Group B - take the Social Constructivist
• Approach
• Group C - take the Critical Approach
• Group D - take the Postmodern Approach

Dr. J. Barnett