Education Leadership

Emotions and Education Leadership

Emotions and Education Leadership

Introduction

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. The literature on emotions and educational leadership is in need of a viable conception of "emotions". Recent studies of emotions and educational leadership have unwittingly inherited serious problems from current research on educational leadership and consequently misunderstand the political force of emotions. In this article we argue that a viable conception of emotions and educational leadership needs to understand emotions with two key conceptual shifts.

Discussions and Analysis

First, emotions need to be understood as publicly and collaboratively formed, not as individual, private and autonomous psychological traits and states. Second, leadership needs to be seen as an enacted, emergent phenomenon rather than socially expressed or constructed.

A sustainable and distributed model of educational leadership cannot be achieved without understanding how both feelings and leadership are "constituted and operate interactively at the level of both individual personal experience and wider social formations...[and] power relations" (Harding and Pribram 2004: 863).

Emotions with leadership studies

This article summarizes recent research that has pioneered new space for emotions within educational leadership studies, and analyzes how this research could extend analyses to engage questions of power and cultural hierarchies that are embedded into cultural norms.

One reason that many educational leaders are leaving the field may be related to the emotional price that they have had to pay to be successful in their work (Beatty, 2000). Some studies have pointed out that the stress levels of many professional educators have increased significantly in recent years and are a continuing focus of major concern (Goldstein, 1992; Romana & Wahlstrom, 2000; Seldin, 1991).

Different Theories and studies

Although theories and studies related to emotionality and “emotional intelligence” have been popularized in recent literature (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; Beatty, 2000; Loader, 1997; Gardner, 1993; Goleman, 1995), they have yet to make an adequate impact on the valued knowledge base and skills needed for successful school leadership.

A few studies have looked at the relationship between emotionality and educational leadership. Beatty (2000), for example, examined the emotionality of educational leaders, looking deeply at the individual's philosophy of leadership and his/her experience of emotionality. Her findings bring strong support to the need for leaders to understand their emotional selves and how these insights shape their leadership behaviors and actions and foster strong collaborations and effective teams in schools (pp. 352-354).

Other studies have unleashed new understanding about emotional intelligence in leadership and how it can contribute to the vitality and overall performance of an organization and how, by repressing emotions, good judgment can be negatively affected (Combs, Miser, & Whitaker, 1999; Fullan, 1997; Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002). In spite of these ideas, the emotional skills and competencies required are just beginning to be given the needed attention in educational research and in leadership preparation.

Emotional Intelligence

In this article, we expand upon the recent studies related to emotional intelligence, and offer insights into how to build emotionally intelligent leaders and ...