A study of social and political acumen in dynamic educational  (Page 5/15)

The skills involved in political acumen will support dynamic educational leaders in maintaining productive relationships that sustain the systemic structure within which they operate. Through understanding how connections function within the structure of the system, dynamic leaders are able to sustain the system (Senge et al., 1999). This requires leaders to be politically aware at all levels and to understand the relevance of relationships within the structure. In fact, dynamic leaders also need organizational skills to make the necessary changes to sustain relationships and the system.

Understanding the structure within which educational leaders exist will support leaders in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities in a dynamic manner. Such understanding brings insight and a greater level of awareness regarding the influences on the leaders’positions. The ability to make connections within the structure in which leaders work will enhance relationships that support a productive network and allow leaders to function at a more optimum level of capacity.

Research Method

In this study I aimed to understand the nature of dynamic educational leadership and the role of social and political acumen in supporting dynamic leadership. A further aim of the study was to make deductions from this understanding of leadership in relation to planning and implementing leadership development programs. In order to achieve this aim, an attempt has been made in the research component to examine the role of social and political acumen in the educational leadership of a specific group of school principals.

The focus of the research study, therefore, was to explore an identified group of dynamic principals’experiences as leaders and explore the structure of the consciousness of their experiences. Because the study involved human exploration, the flexibility of qualitative research techniques (Cresswell, 1998) supported the investigation. Qualitative techniques in collecting and analyzing the data from the research provided the ability to guide the investigation and interpret the data to support the purpose of this study. For this reason, the analysis of the data collected from this group of principals, involved mostly qualitative techniques that were supported by some quantitative analysis.

Analysis of the data aimed at identifying an understanding of the role of social and political acumen in the reality of dynamic educational leaders fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. In addition, the research aimed at identifying the extent to which social and political acumen were essential invariant elements of these principals’leadership. The research component provided the participants the opportunity to provide their views about what characteristics of leadership support dynamic leadership. In addition, the participants were able to provide their views on appropriate leadership development activities.

In the analysis of the research data, therefore, the invariant elements and structure within which these principals functioned were identified. The analysis also included an assessment of how these elements reflected this group of principals’development and exercise of social and political acumen and the research participants’views on leadership development in general and their leadership development in particular.