AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP FOR AUTHENTIC

LEARNING

PATRICK A. DUIGNAN

Foundation Chair in Educational Leadership

Director Flagship for Creative & Authentic Leadership
Australian Catholic University

Paper developed

for

ACEL TRAVELLING SCHOLAR 2004

Introduction

In this brief paper, I argue for an authentic approach to educational

leadership. I also argue that while authentic leadership focuses on
ethics and morality in actions and interactions, it also must promote
and support the core values of schooling, that is, educative and
authentic teaching and learning. First, the nature of authentic
leadership and of educative leadership will be explored. Then the need
for authentic teaching and learning in schools will be discussed with
reference to authentic leadership and, especially, to Starratt’s (2004)
leadership framework, which derives its purpose and direction from
three ethics - those of authenticity, responsibility and presence.

Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership is centrally concerned with ethics and morality

and with deciding what is significant, what is right and what is
worthwhile. (Duignan and Macpherson, 1992; Starratt, 1994;
Sergiovanni, 1992) Such leadership elevates the actions of the leader
above mere pragmatics or expediency. (Hodgkinson, 1991) The focus
of authentic leadership is on "elevating leaders' moral reasoning"
(Terry, 1993:46) which is central to Burns' (1978) seminal distinction
between leadership that is transactional and that which is
transformational. Burns (1978:20) stated that transforming leadership
"occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way
that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of
motivation and morality [and it] ultimately becomes moral in that it
raises the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both leader
and led, and thus it has a transforming effect on both."

Authentic educational leaders engage with key stakeholders to infuse

educational practice with a higher purpose and meaning. (Duignan &
Bhindi, 1997; Bhindi & Duignan, 1997) Such leadership should help
everybody within an educational organisation, such as a school, to be
somebody. It should help reduce feelings of anonymity and impotence
and help develop a sense of the possible. In schools, educational
leaders, for example, pay close attention to the quality of teaching and
students’ learning. They help create the conditions within which
teachers and students take considerable responsibility for the quality of
their own teaching.

Authentic educational leaders are therefore, primarily, educative in their

intentions and outcomes. They challenges others to participate in the
visionary activity of identifying in curriculum, teaching and learning
what is worthwhile, what is worth doing and preferred ways of doing
and acting together. Such leaders encourage others to commit
themselves to educational and professional practices that are, by their
nature, educative.

Educative leaders are well aware that reflective teaching is the key to
quality improvement in teaching and learning. They encourage
teachers to reflect on the quality and effectiveness of their teaching and
they provide them with opportunities for such reflection (‘free’ time in
the timetable). They also support teachers, especially through the
development of teams for innovative teaching approaches, and they
provide resources to enhance collaborative teaching and learning
planning and practices.

They encourage teachers to strive for quality in their teaching and

facilitate this through such critical success norms as sharing,
teamwork, as well as with collaborative planning and preparation for
teaching. Educative leaders promote, support and celebrate the efforts
of staff and others whose performances reflect, in a positive way,
activities that are valued in their school’s culture, for example, reflective
teaching and authentic learning processes.

Authentic education and learning, like authentic leadership, is a moral

activity (Hodgkinson, 1991) because it engages students in a deeper
understanding of the nature and purpose of their lives (Starratt, 2004)
and in determining how they can best contribute to the greater good of
the community and society. Authentic learning is not just about taking
new knowledge and skills for oneself but is more about giving of one’s
unique humanity to others and to the community. It involves making a
difference in the lives of all those we touch.
Starratt (2004) identifies a number of characteristics of authentic
learning for students. These include:
1. the development of personal meaning through their
learning;awareness of relationships between the self and the
subject/object of study;respect for the integrity of the
subject/object of study;an appreciation of the implications of
their learning for the trajectory of their lives;pply their rich
understanding of the subject/object of study in practice; and
6. ransformation into more fully human individuals.

Starratt (2004) points out that while authentic educational leaders want
authentic learning opportunities and experiences for students in their
schools, too frequently, many students are subjected to ‘inauthentic
learning’. Inauthentic learning, he suggests, is characterised by:

1. impersonal appropriation of information by students;

2. learners who are disconnected from the subject/object of
study;
3. little or no concern from teachers or students for or with the
integrity of the subject/object of study;
4. an undue concern for right answers to the teacher’s
questions in order to get a passing grade (or job);
5. performance at superficial levels based on formulaic
understanding of the subject/object of study; and
6. individual students left fundamentally unchanged as human
beings.

Starratt (2004) argues that by connecting learners’ search for

meaning and purpose in their lives to a variety of personal
connections to be found in the academic curriculum, authentic
educators enable their students as learners to continuously
transform (construct, deconstruct, reconstruct) their understanding
of themselves and to ‘place’ themselves within the challenges and
possibilities of their lives. This process of learning is what is often
referred to as ‘transformational learning.’

The point is not to denigrate academic learning but to allow it to

impregnate the learner with personal meaning and significance that
can be discovered in that learning, and thereby enrich the whole
learning process.
Linking Leadership to Learning

As stated earlier, the core focus for authentic educational leaders

needs to be on the enhancement of teaching and learning. This focus
challenges educational leaders to be more fully present to the
tranformative possibilities in student learning and to be more
proactively responsible for inviting teachers to cultivate those deeper
dimensions of learning.

The ‘bottom line’ for authentic educational leaders is that they help
create and support the conditions that promote authentic teaching and
learning in their schools. Leadership that promotes and supports
authentic learning, requires, according to Starratt (2004), a
commitment to three ethics:

1. Ethic of Authenticity;
2. Ethic of Responsibility; and
3. Ethic of Presence

Ethic of Authenticity

Authentic educational leaders bring their deepest principles, beliefs,

values and convictions to their work. The ethic of authenticity is
foundational to educational leadership as it points these leaders toward
more self-responsible form of relationships and leadership. The
authentic educational leader acts with the good of others (e.g.
students, teachers, parents) as a primary reference.

It is this engagement of the ‘self’ with the ‘other’ that provides the
authentic educational leader with a deep sense of responsibility for
what is happening to the other. In the school setting, this ‘ethic of
responsibility’ is focused, primarily, on the core people (teachers and
students) and the core business (authentic teaching/ learning).
Ethic of Responsibility

Authentic educational leaders feel deeply responsible for the

authenticity of the learning for students in their schools. They name,
challenge and change, if at all possible, inauthentic learning (e.g.
teaching narrowly to the test).

Responsible educational leaders, assume that due deliberation is given

to the circumstances, values and processes involved in learning, as
well as listening to and caring for the persons making the decisions
related to this learning. Responsible leaders have the courage of their
convictions and stand up for what is ethically and morally ‘right,’
especially with regard to the ways in which teachers and students are
engaged with learning content and processes. They get involved and
are present for others in the teaching/learning environment.

Ethic of Presence

Presence means ‘being there’, in numerous ways, for self and others. It
implies a level of attention and sensitivity to the signals others send
out. Are we really present to/for ourselves and others, or are we often
‘half present’ (Starratt, 2004) because of self interest or the distractions
of other events in our lives? Being present demands full engagement
with people, events, and things.

As educational leaders, we should ask what ‘being fully present’ means

in relation to teaching and learning of students in our schools? It
certainly means being present to injustice and to unfair expectations
and demands. It also means naming and challenging ‘inauthentic
teaching and learning’ and taking positive action to promote and
support ‘authentic learning’. Authentic educational leaders couldn’t ‘live
with themselves’ (ethic of authenticity) unless they took responsibility
for the quality of students’ learning (ethic of responsibility) by naming
and challenging inauthentic learning and then helping create the
conditions for authentic learning (ethic of presence). Their presence
activates a deep sense of their own authenticity and that of others.
Injustice offends their sense of authenticity and generates a ‘re-sponse’
that is consistent with “the person I am, the values I embrace, and my
commitment to others as a human being” (Starratt 2004).

Being present helps educational leaders to be authentic and

responsible. To be fully present, educational leaders must encourage
and support authentic teaching and learning and challenge inauthentic
teaching and learning paradigms and practices.

Concluding Remarks

Authenticity in leadership is centrally concerned with leadership

practice that is ethical and moral. Authentic educational leaders must
also focus on the core values of schooling – authentic teaching and
learning. Such leadership is educative in its intent and outcomes. It is
based on three ethics, namely: the ethic of authenticity; the ethic of
responsibility; and the ethic of presence. It is the ethic of presence that
brings authenticity and responsibility together in authentic leadership
for authentic learning.
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