Educational administrators Essay

A stakeholder is an individual or an entity that stand to gain or lose from the success or failure of a system or an organization. From a business perspective the stakeholder analysis theory asserts that an organization should pay greater attention to its stakeholders’ suggestions and interests in order to incorporate them in the overall decision-making process. Just like it is in the business world, school organizations (institutions) involve several stakeholders such as students, teachers, the parents’, the government, community, etc. [Gross & Godwin, 2006] Each stakeholder has got a distinct role to play for instance; students are expected to be disciplined, participate in various school activities, and to perform excellently in their academics, the teachers on the other hand are expected to live to the expectations of the professional code of conduct, and to do all what pertains instructions giving, the parents on their part are expected to collaborate with changing demands of the school and to promptly pay fees. The government is expected to offer, technical, professional, and monetary assistance to the schools, while the community is expected pay taxes that are used in the running of the school activities. Just as the stakeholders roles differ, so does their expectations. Students expect an all-inclusive school environment that is rich in quality instructional giving methods and other social amenities such entertainment, sport facilities, etc; the teachers expect to be given reasonable remuneration packages and enough working space to professionally deliver to the students; the parents expect quality education for their children that will result into good results at the end of the school life; the government expects maximum adherence to the school curriculum and the production of happy and useful school products (students) who will fit well in various sectors of the economy; on the other hand the community expects the school to produce happy and useful products who will be called upon to play various tasks in the society. [ESD, 2005-11] Irrespective of whether the school performance is excellent or on a downward trend, all the stakeholders should work together, relate, share, and communicate more often in order to maintain the good performance or impr ove on the nose-diving performance. [Gallagher, Bagin, & Moore, 2005: p. 12] For the smooth running of the school, a proper communication system must be maintained. An administrator will not accomplish any goals in the school without adequate communication. A good communication system should always allow for the receiver to respond to the communicated message. It has been noted that school administrators fail not because they want to but due to their failure to plan. However, a good communication system will not exist without a proper plan. [Holliday (1988)] For, Harris, (2004) â€Å"Good communication does not happen by accident, it is planned, †¦ However, principals with a specific communication plan are able to provide needed support that leads to effective relationship building. † (p. 19). In a school setting communication is paramount in keeping the stakeholders fully informed about well-meaning changes that affect the realization of the school core objectives and also to keep a constant track of any changes in stakeholder expectations. One such well-meaning change in a school is curriculum development. The importance of curriculum changes is seen in the sense that a curriculum is the prime plan of the course of study that provides the learner with proper learning experiences under the guidance of a school. If a curriculum is not meeting the set goals of education then its change is always imperative. Again, it can be changed in order to meet the global innovations and changes of stakeholders’ expectations. [Walkin (1982)] However, to change a curriculum all the stakeholders must be contacted and their views collected. The current curriculum being used by the high schools in our state was lastly developed ten years ago. Many people have been complaining about it, and calls for its change have been received from several stakeholders in the state. As the chief principal in my school, the task of contacting all the stakeholders in order to get their views concerning the current curriculum efficacy lies wholly in my docket. I will prepare a comprehensive report concerning curriculum matters and a questionnaire; the two documents will be sent to students, teachers, parents, the state education department officials, and some members of the School Board of Governance. The response to these messages and others from other schools will be used to push the state education department to come up with a committee that will embark on the process of reviewing the current curriculum and facilitate changes were necessary. [Gallagher, Bagin, & Moore, 2005] In order to convince the stakeholders that a change of the current curriculum is necessary I will prepare a detailed report that will describe the national goals of education, the objectives of the current curriculum relative to the national education goals, my school performance in state tests for the last five years, and the performance or the last five years of other five schools in different school districts in the state. The report will also include several articles published in some of the leading newspapers and education journals in the state calling outlining the importance of changing the current curriculum. The purpose of this compressive report will be to impart the stakeholders with the necessary knowledge that will enable them to make a decision as to whether a change is necessary or not. In accompaniment of the report will be a five-question questionnaire that will be prompting the stakeholders to sincerely state their opinions on the issue. To compile the report I will need the assistance of several people. The students from various classes, class teachers, the subject heads, head of departments, principals of other schools in different school districts in the state, local education department officers, and several curriculum experts in the state. Two sources of data will be utilized in the study i. e. the primary and the secondary data sources; the primary source will include the data that will be collected direct from the people through observations or verbal interviews while the secondary ones will comprise of stored records, newspapers, and journal articles. In order to collect reliable and valid data I will employ two qualitative methods of data collection. These methods will be verbal and over the phone interviews and scrutinizing of test results presented to me by the respective class teachers, and other written materials. [Taylor & Bogdan, 1984] These two methods will enable me to get a clear picture of subject teachers’ comments, how the students have been performing relative to the national goals of education, curriculum objectives, and the syllabus requirements, and experts’ views on the impact of the current curriculum in meeting the socio-economic, cultural, and political needs of the students and the society at large. The construction of the five-question questionnaire will be guided by the above reports conclusions. Teachers will collect their reports and the questionnaire from the staffroom while the students will be given theirs via their respective class teachers, for those other stakeholders the post office mailing service will be the obvious option. Stakeholders will be required to take three to six days to study the report fill the questionnaire and mail back the questionnaire. [Gallagher, Bagin, & Moore, 2005] The returned questionnaires will then be analyzed the overall stakeholders verdict recorded. If a clear majority shows that they are for a change – which is the most probable verdict, then another report that describes the new stakeholders’ expectations in my school will be prepared but this time not targeting all the stakeholders but the state education department office whose one of its core mandate is to constantly review the existing curriculum. The report will also be copied to the school heads of all the schools in the state through their respective school district offices, and they will also be carrying out their own change communications, their reports will also be forward to the state education department. [Gallagher, Bagin, & Moore, 2005] In order to provide a feedback to all my schools stakeholders who participated in the change-communication process, I will publish the analyzed results in the local daily newspapers, local educational journals, and even non-print media. Students will also be issued with the same reports to read and to take to their parents, and thus as much people as will be practically possible will definitely be reached through these communication methods. These will help to build a sense of trust on the school among the school stakeholders, as their true feelings will be reflected in the communicated report. Again, this will serve as a positive precedent for future communications of positive changes. [Harris, (2004)] This report will also be made the main agenda in the normal biannual stakeholder meetings, and therefore there will be still a chance to convince the skeptics on the importance of the changes and also develop a time frame, and the other important deliberations that pertains the changes. In these biannual meetings other important changes pertaining the smooth running of the school will also be discussed such as entering into agreements with local colleges and universities in order to facilitate a smooth transition from high school to college education for our school graduates. [Gallagher, Bagin, & Moore, 2005] References: Bogdan, R. C. and Taylor, S. J. (1975). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A phenomenological approach to the social sciences, Boston: Allyn & Bacon, available at; http://www. universitybusiness. com,accessed on March 10, 2009 Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), 2005-2011. UNESCO, available at; http://portal. unesco. org/education/en/ev. phpURL_ID=23304&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201. html, accessed on March 10, 2009 Gallagher, D. R. , Bagin, D. , & Moore, E. H. (2005). The school and community relations, (pp. 16-39). Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon, accessed on March 10, 2009 Gross, K. & Godwin, P. (2006). Education’s Many Stakeholders: Educational administrators are increasingly recognizing what business have long understood: customer satisfaction matters, accessed on March 10, 2009 Harris, S. (Ed) (2004). Bravo principal: building relationships with actions that value others. Larchmont, N. Y. : Eye on Education, accessed on March 10, 2009 Holliday, A. E. (1988). In search of and answer: What is school public relations? Journal of educational Public Relations. 11 (2), p. 12, accessed on March 10, 2009 Walkin, L. (1982). Instructional Techniques and Practice. Chetrenham: Stanley Thomes Ltd, accessed on March 10, 2009