IBSE Final

168 NaTIoNal SCIENCE TEaChERS aSSoCIaTIoN

Epilogue Science Teachers as 21st-Century leaders

• establishing policies and standards for the classroom,

• coordinating work procedures among students and groups,

• improving the classroom climate through cooperative problem solving,

and

• modifying physical conditions in the classroom.

As leaders, science teachers neither coerce nor persuade; rather, they facil-

itate classroom unity by setting policies, procedures, and conditions through

cooperative interaction with the student group. This cooperation has a tremen-

dous positive influence on individual behavior. When the classroom group has

the ability to resolve problems and make decisions, many of the everyday prob-

lems of organization and management are avoided.

Even though the classroom group works together and continues to fulfill

education goals, there are inevitably times when management problems will

arise. Schedule changes, all-school activities, and unplanned custodial work

can all cause changes in the physical environment, classroom climate, or group

composition. Such situations often require fast action by the teacher to maintain

the classroom group. Some maintenance functions of leadership include

• sustaining morale,

• resolving conflicts,

• restructuring groups changed due to outside factors, and

• reducing students’ anxiety and fear.

Maintaining the classroom group in the face of changing and sometimes

adverse conditions requires flexibility and adaptability by the science teacher.

A second and essential dimension of leadership is in the school and commu-

nity. There are different qualities of leadership at this level. I return to the idea

of a vision, in this case a vision of what science education can and should be.

The leader of science education works to effect change and improvement. Effec-

tive leadership develops hope, builds confidence, and generates new attitudes

about the possibilities of science education. Leaders bring people together and

develop plans that will overcome the costs, constraints, and risks that attend

the reform of school science programs. Leadership by science teachers involves

getting colleagues, administrators, and school boards to do something they are

reluctant to do—change.

Science teachers who lead don’t expect leadership to emerge from others

such as administrators. There is a long history of change that originates not in

official policies, but by individuals who have dreams of a better world. Only

later are the dreams written into policies, laws, and programs. The civil rights

movement, for example, originated with individuals such as Rosa Parks, was

taken up by Martin Luther King, and only later became the law of the land.