Unit 10 – Principal as Ethical Leader Day One

Principal as Ethical Leader Key Questions  What does ethics have to do with educating all students to high standards?  What serious ethical issues do school leaders confront and what processes do they use to resolve them?  How do school leaders ensure that instructional matters are at the top of the agenda of ethical issues?  How do school leaders create, nurture, and sustain a just, fair, and caring community?  How do school leaders motivate staff by tapping into deeply held ethical values?

Principal as Ethical Leader Day One Agenda Why Be Concerned About Ethics? Defining Moments Video Case Study 1 Just, Fair, and Caring Vision Defining Moments Case Study 2 Defining Moments: Peer Review Guided Debrief

Principal as Ethical Leader Pre-work Review Summarizing the readings, what makes an ethical leader?  Sobol  Sergiovanni What kinds of ethical issues do principals and other school leaders confront?

Principal as Ethical Leader “Educational leadership raises the moral stakes...educational leaders have power— information, positional authority, and control of resources. How they use that power is a profoundly moral matter.” Tom Sobol from The Principal Challenge, pages 84–85

Principal as Ethical Leader  A just, fair, and caring school community is every student’s birthright  Students have a keen sense of what is fair and learn best in a fair and caring community  Students and teachers should know their rights and responsibilities  School leaders should establish and maintain mutually respectful relationships. They need to model the behavior they wish to see in others. Summary of Day One

Principal as Ethical Leader  People matter, and relationships matter more. Behavioral norms based on authentic and genuine relationships enhance organizational creativity, adaptability, and accountability.  Exercise leadership that motivates by tapping into deeply held positive values.  Consistently place the interests of students above the interests of adults who work for them. Summary of Day One

Principal as Ethical Leader Pre-work For Day Two Please complete the following before Day Two: Complete Unit 10 Computer-Based Activity Read the following article found in your Unit 10 Readings: Lickona, Thomas. “Creating a Positive Moral Culture in the School.”

Unit 10 – Principal as Ethical Leader Day Two

Principal as Ethical Leader Day Two Agenda Defining Moments Creating Just, Fair, and Caring Communities The Importance of Ethical School Culture Making Connections

Principal as Ethical Leader Six Elements of a Positive Moral Culture in the School 1.Moral and academic leadership from the principal 2.Schoolwide discipline that models, promotes, and upholds the school’s values in all school environments 3.A schoolwide sense of community 4.Student government that involves students in democratic self-government and fosters the feeling “This is our school, and we’re responsible for making it the best school it can be” 5.A moral atmosphere of mutual respect, fairness, and cooperation that pervades all relationships--those among adults in the school as well as those between adults and students 6.Elevating the importance of morality by spending school time on moral concerns. From: Thomas Lickona, Educating for Character

Principal as Ethical Leader Key Learnings  Act in an ethical and moral manner  Place ethical growth and development as part of their core mission and tasks  Create, nurture, and sustain a just, fair, and caring community  Consistently place the interests of students above the interests of adults  Motivate staff by tapping into deeply held shared ethical values Principals and Instructional Leaders should:

Principal as Ethical Leader “…right-versus-right choices are best understood as defining moments. These are decisions with three basic characteristics:  They reveal  They test, and  They shape In other words, a right-versus-right decision can reveal a manager’s basic values and, in some cases, those of an organization.” From: Defining Moments. Joseph Badaracco, Jr. Harvard Business School Press, Boston Defining Moments