My Journey Towards Personal Growth: Challenges and Reflection

Introduction

A decade of academic, research, and administration experience in India has painted a canvas in my mind where different aspects of academic leadership can be analyzed and debated holistically. Following the dream of being a teacher and an administrator, my journey from a Lecturer/Assistant Professor to Professor- has not only given me a platform for self-development but has also equipped me with a vision of what obstacles students and faculty have to address in their professional journey. My journey towards personal growth essentially started when I was appointed as an Asst. Professor, at one of the premier universities (Lovely Professional University) in India. It was an ideal substratum for my growth as the university was in the process of establishing itself as a pioneering educational entity in India. It was a wonderful opportunity to present my skills in designing the course curriculum organizing pedagogical meetings, working as an Academic Council member, mentoring graduate students, and organizing and delivering lectures at Faculty Development Conferences. These responsibilities, successfully bestowed on me, later elevated me to take complete charge of administering and coordinating at the faculty level. Over the next four years, I got a glimpse of the educational system with all its intricacies and shortcomings that laid the foundation for administrative leadership.

Journey of Educational Leadership

To further shape my experiences I started working as an Associate Professor in an Engineering college (Amritsar college of engineering and technology) accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA). Here I took initiatives on various projects, working as part of a core committee, to enhance the awareness of several issues among faculty members and students. Underlying changes were addressed and implemented throughout the college to make learning process more effective, practical and skilful. In this regard, continuous efforts and teamwork in academic leadership, has enhanced our college’s reputation that has paved the way for our college to being recognized as an autonomous college from University grants commission (UGC) of India.

Summarizing my experiences so far, I have experienced effective and not-so-effective traits of administrative leadership in India. First and foremost, the curriculum in India is very much exam-centric, too broad and doesn’t focus on skill development. Rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, more research needs to be done to develop, fund and sustain skill-based quality educational programs. Another aspect is development and application of ethical framework to support educational learning. In this regard, Western educational institutions can help train in order to understand the fine balance between application and interplay of “skill based educational programs and ethical framework.”

Teaching and especially academic leadership is an ideal profession to help others determine and reach their potential. At this juncture of my career, I feel the need to seek additional training to become a more prolific administrator. Many universities and colleges these days in India are opting to recruit a person that can fill this gap in administrative and leadership skills. India, being a booming economy, is also trying to establish itself as a self-sustaining educational hub where not only domestic but international students (from emerging economies) and faculty are looking up to our country. In that regard, there is a greater demand to earn leadership programs from an international perspective. At the heart of my career aims is an unswerving desire to help my students learn and better themselves, motivating them to become positive contributors to society and country. In order to be more successful in helping others, I need to revisit and enhance my understanding of the fundamental areas of Educational leadership (such as administration, planning, organizing) and refine my existing leadership skills with respect to skill-based training and ethics development.

I have a passion for travelling and understanding different cultures of the world. This characteristic of mine has led me to visit different countries and gain international perspective. My visit to Harvard University, (Boston, USA) in May 2016, to present research in a Conference provided a platform to interact with highly learned researchers and was a great learning exposure. My recent visit to Canada in July, 2017 further enabled me to explore different opportunities. While searching for relevant programs in this domain, I realized that the Master’s program at University of Alberta can equip me with the required skill set.

My Journey at the University of Alberta

Currently, as a graduate student in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta, I feel that University has challenged me to do even better to attain my dreams and aspirations. I worked closely with many Professors, specialist in administration and leadership. I greatly appreciate in the department that has an exceptionally collaborative culture and has an endeavour of working together towards common goals to support student’s learning for their professional development and continual improvement.

White and Cooper (2017) explained that the Canadian educational leadership is diverse and appreciable all over the world, with respect to multiculturalism (p.437). He also emphasizes that leadership does not exist in a vacuum (p. 442) and in relation to LQS (2018), I feel that the competency, supporting the Application of Foundational Knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit (5) has great relevance in Canadian educational leadership. I learned in one of the course that Aboriginal people were one of the most oppressed groups in Canada and have been for centuries. I began to think that if Aboriginal people have been oppressed for centuries and have survived, then they would have a lot to teach about oppression and resilience. I learned that a Western perspective was only one way to perceive the world and the helping profession. I ask myself that why do boundaries within our society always seem to be placed around race and culture? This confused me especially when Canada perceives itself to be a culturally diverse country.

Cultural competency can help teach learner show to see the world from other worldviews which allows more opportunity for the learner to “think out of the box”. I am hopeful that I would be able to further enhance my knowledge of the required leadership qualities, specialized skills, contemporary issues in Education and evolving concepts in Administration and Leadership.

Future Personal Growth and Learning Goals

As I read through the Leadership Quality Standard (2018) in Alberta, and analyzed the discussions we have done so far in the course, I found it a visionary step to evaluate leaders in the education system. But it’s really hard to expect all the competencies in one individual. I see some competencies directly corresponds to leaders which includes, Fostering Effective Relationships (1), Modeling Commitment to Professional Learning (2), Embodying Visionary Leadership (3), Leading a learning community (4), Providing Instructional Leadership (6), Developing Leadership Capacity (7), while others competencies corresponds to the definition of Management. As Administration includes both the leadership and management, each competency is equally important.

To reflect upon my growth plan at this point, I would focus on three competencies of the Leadership Quality Standard (LQS); Fostering Effective Relationships (1), Providing Instructional Leadership (6) and Developing Leadership Capacity (7). As a learning leader, I believe that these competences require attention continually in order to outline the focused growth. To endeavor upon to achieve these competences, I have a responsibility to take action in ongoing and current learning / development to improve the professional practice in achieving the goals of educators.

To define long term educational development goals, my current growth plan is formatted for educational leaders, need to choose competencies first and then support those competencies with indicators, strategic planning and timelines. For the achievement, I would focus more specifically on the above mentioned three competencies because I have gone through various situations while dealing with the big size of faculty, focused only on recognizing the best in everyone but now I feel that it is important to understand the competencies for effective leadership practice.

For fostering effective relationships i.e. Competency (1), I believe that I must develop ability to think, express and reflect and there is a strong connection in order to construct and communicate meaning. Although the components are important, I feel that leaders are great support for teachers and students in the learning process for their professional growth. Achievement of this competency will help me to create and implement a shared vision for the success of students and also provide opportunities for the team to develop leadership quality. Eventually, the safe, caring and respectful environment will establish positive working relationships and further support everyone in fulfilling their educational roles in the best interest of students.

The leadership competency (6), i.e. a leader ensures that every student has access to quality teaching and optimum learning experiences (LQS, 2018), strained me to think the meaningful and significant definition of a leader in this context. White and Cooper (2017) defined leader as all things to all people (p. 446), indicating that educational leaders will have to be versatile and capable of grasping all the global and local needs of learners. However, the control of educational matters to be handed over to policy-makers with no background and interest in educational matters to educate future generations is of serious concern. This society is under stress and mental health issues are of serious concern in school and institutions of higher education (Gallant & Riley, 2013) and will need an integrated leader.

This competency will help me to gage the team understanding of their learning targets at the deeper level so that they can transfer this knowledge to new situations (learning needs of all students). Innovative instructional strategies with focus on the strong understanding of effective pedagogy and curriculum will provide the students with an opportunity to gain deeper understanding of concepts and learning targets. This instructional vision of continuous improvement of instruction- aligns resources, policies and procedures will ensure that the student assessment and evaluation practices are fair, appropriate and evidence-informed. I will devise and institute a system to set benchmarks to empower the team and check their progress throughout the year of the area of focus/goal, rationale, standards, and implementation in an effort to ensure evaluations and observations are conducted timely and thoroughly. I understand that to support the team in their professional development, it is important to instill the belief in them that every student is capable of high levels of learning. I believe that by improving the quality of instruction with improvement in student learning, students will experience success as life-long learners.

As I make meaning in my experience as a leader, inevitably I seek to master behaviors and skills that foster shared relationships to develop leadership capacity i.e. competency (7). It will create opportunities for the team to participate in leadership activities and decision making which in turn helps them to achieve professional learning objectives/goals that are consistent with the teaching quality standard (TQS, 2018).

Conclusion

Through reflection on competencies, I know that I cannot achieve all of the quality indicators, but I can push myself to meet many of them. It will keep me from getting complacent and make a difference at various leadership positions. The indicators will help in mastering the skills and behavior needed for the leadership role. The vision that was established ten years ago when I entered into these roles will lead to embracing future expectations.     

Works Cited

1. Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning By Doing.
2. Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills For Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook, Third Edition. Palgrave Macmillan.
3. White, E. R., & Cooper, J. E. (2017). Research on educational leadership in Canada: An examination of themes and methodologies. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 179, 30-52.
4. Leadership Quality Standard (2018). Alberta Education.
5. Gallant, A., & Riley, P. (2013). Teaching and learning in higher education: Psychological stress, depression and suicide. Educational Studies, 39(5), 517-526.
6. Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) (2018). Alberta Education.