0.4 Morrison, m., gosmire, d., & Van osdel, j. (july 2009).  (Page 7/9)

Educators with a BA/BS place a somewhat higher value on the standard of instructional leadership than those educators with a MA/MS/MEd, but a significantly higher value than those educators with an EdS/EdD (M=1.60, p= .050). Table 5 provides a summary of the mean rank order of each of the standards.

*p>.05

*p>.05

Discussion

Teachers and administrators generally view the ELCC professional administrative standards in the same order of importance. However, while administrators view instructional leadership as most important, teachers view ethical leadership as most important. In practice, both administrators and teachers view instructional leadership as the highest practiced standard but administrators believe the next highest standard they practice is ethical leadership, and teachers report management as the second highest standard in practice.

An implication could be that administrators and teachers view ethical leadership differently. For example, an administrator must follow policy and procedures, and a teacher may view a policy or procedure as wrong and therefore, following it would be unethical. Perhaps, an administrator may tailor administrative actions to the unique characteristics of the situation or student involved. The administrator would consider this ethical, child-centered behavior; a teacher may consider this inequitable, and therefore, unethical behavior.

Leadership literature is replete with the need for administrators to build relationships with teachers. Teachers in the same setting, examining the practice of the same leader, view the administrators’ actions differently. Perhaps behaviors that administrators practice to develop relationships, such as conversations about school events, inquiries about student progress, or a simple, “How’s it going?” may be thought to be management behaviors by female teachers, while male teachers view this as the way relationships and trust are developed and the demonstration of ethical leadership.

A final interpretation of the perceptions of ethical leadership by female and male administrators and teachers alike might be that we simply do not agree when ethical leadership is occurring. Many actions that demonstrate ethical leadership are carried out in private with appropriate confidentiality. For example, the dismissal of a staff member on the grounds of professional misconduct could demonstrate appropriate ethical leadership, but confidentially does not allow for the reasons for an action to be known.