CHAPTER 8 TEACHING AND LEADERSHIP
5.5 LEADERSHIP: BEING
5.5.1. Walk the talk: being a role model
The idea of the role model is best discussed through examples. A role model is:
Someone who is prepared to do what they ask others to do. (Opal 3)
Several respondents recognised the power of the role model in the classroom to influence and thus lead. This recognition reflects the almost intuitive realisation by the thoughtful that what is expected of followers must first be displayed by their leaders. Some of the respondents spoke of role modelling as a synonym for leading within the classroom:
141 I think leadership in the context of teaching means being a role
model to the people under your care. (Topaz 3)
We have to be the right kind of role model – walk the talk.
(Emerald 2)
[A leader is] someone who … I wouldn’t say perfect, someone you hope to be more like, someone who has definite goals, is able to get through tasks, and it’s a really broad category – but someone who is a role model. (Sapphire1)
Sapphire 2 equates role modelling to setting an example:
Leadership is to set an example […] to be a role model in everything you tackle in the classroom. The children need to see you as a role model. (Sapphire 2)
Role models were recognised by Ruby 1 and Garnet 3 as a source of motivation and influence:
[…] they can always see you […] and you must behave in the way you perceive they should be. If you want to encourage them to be the best then you must behave in that model. (Ruby 1)
Leading by example … if you want them to do their work, you should be doing your work. If you want them to be on time, you must be on time. (Garnet 3)
Several of the respondents commented on the importance of “shaping the ethical and moral fibre of our young generation via the example we lead in our everyday interaction with them” (Samuel, 2008, p. 6). Diamond 1 and Sapphire 1 ruminated as follows on the lessons pupils learn from just watching and being with their teacher- leaders:
Teaching is not just a matter of theory […] I think a lot of life lessons will come out as well from how you react and that sort of
142 thing. I think this is something that rubs off on the boys, which is a good thing […]. To see your motivation and that sort of thing toward work and what you want to do – this is a big thing. (Diamond 1) A skill like coping strategies […] hopefully one imparts this as a leader as a role model – when they see me with other teachers and other adults, with other children for that matter […] I hope to show them, to lead them into that, to be a good role model. (Sapphire 1)
The importance of the teacher as a role model was emphasised by Diamond 1, who recalled the influence of his one teacher on him. As a child, this respondent took note of his teacher’s grooming, his sense of humour, his professionalism and his strong presence (an issue to which I will return again later on in the study):
As teachers go, I remember in my younger years a teacher, Mr F____, who is now teaching at _______ School, and I remember how he told me about an essay I wrote and it was great. He was always well groomed, well turned out, professional, and also on the other side he could have a good laugh and joke around, but the line was the line, and you won’t step over the line, and he had a presence with him that you could respect. (Diamond 1)
Opal 5 similarly notes how children can develop respect for a leader as a result of that leader simply being the person that he/she is (versus respecting that person based on his/her position or title):
Going back to the word ‘leader’, children will look at a person and respect them as a leader, not because of rank or position, but just because of the way that person, in front of them, will be a role model. And they can respect that that person is leading them whether it may be in thought process, whether it be in analysing, whether it be in faith, or whether it be in the message that that person in front [is conveying]. So leadership is not about a title – you can be that person without any rank – but you can still lead by your philosophy.
(Opal 5)
143 Being a teacher who is also a role model begins with the person that that teacher is, though a willingness and ability to do and behave as he/she expects others to behave greatly enhances his/her ability to lead. Giuliani (2002, p. 209), in recounting the lessons in leadership that he learned from being the Mayor of New York City, has the following to say about setting an example:
You cannot ask [others] to do something you’re unwilling to do yourself. It is up to you to set a standard of behaviour.
The participants’ responses suggest that they possess a good understanding of the significance of teachers being role models. The ethics I saw displayed by all of the four teachers that were individually observed reinforce my opinion that they have a good understanding of and regard for this principle.