256 K-12 LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
decisions. Twenty-first century leaders will have to make decisions within a framework of
instant, often simplistic communication requiring flexibility and the ability to maintain an
uncluttered, focused mind that can discern the big picture. These leaders must deal with
nationalistic and fundamentalist reactions. They must also deal with an increasing absence of
privacy; and with ever more technical expertise, that is, taking expert knowledge, judging its
importance, and conveying it to non-specialists. This last trend requires an inquiring, probing
mind and demeanor to gather the best information and make quality decisions based on that
information, and then to present that information in a simplified way (Gardner, 2006).
The need to maintain bureaucratic rigor, therefore, is giving way to the need for school
reform; bureaucratic authority will shift to moral authority; leadership will, of necessity,
become complexly transformational. Therefore, as the need for a bureaucratic administrator is
giving way to the need for an interpretivist administrator, an effective leader in contexts of
complexity, understanding values will be vital to future school leaders as the management
pyramid is flattened (Barbour, 2006).
One way to help administrators develop a reflective understanding of their values is to
begin in preparation programs with future school leaders. Because an instructor plays a major
role in helping future leaders reflect upon and understand their value system, it seems
reasonable, therefore, that educators of future leaders ought to know the values of the future
leaders they teach in order to discern how best to grow these leaders.
THEORETICAL GROUNDING
Anthropologists suggest values are intrinsic qualities one stands for, what one considers
good and important. Values are intangible, less clearly defined, and frequently expressed in
abstract symbols or metaphorical stories; they can be interpreted in a variety of ways, giving
values a certain amount of elasticity and flexibility. “Values are the deeply held conceptions
of the desirable within every individual and society.... Values merge affect and concept....
serve as criteria for selection in action.... become criteria for judgment, preference, and
choice” (Rokeach, 1979, p. 16). A human value is an "enduring belief that a specific mode of
conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence" (Rokeach, 1973, p. 5). Human values are
prescriptive and form the core around which other less enduring beliefs are organized. As
such, they are important in other processes; for example, the formation of specific attitudes is
theoretically predicated upon more general values (Wilson, paragraph 2).
Values are communicated in everything a school leader does, writes and speaks (Deal &
Peterson, 1994). Future school leaders “must be directed by a powerful portfolio of beliefs
and values anchored in issues such as justice, community, and schools that function for all
children and youth” (Murphy, 2002, p. 75). Additionally, leaders “must maintain a critical
capacity and foster a sense of possibilities,” (Murphy, p. 75).
The need to maintain a stable organization is giving way to the need to make change;
school improvement, human action, aligning people, and the value of that change will be
important. Educational situations are marked by great complexity in politics, economics,
finance, accountability, demographics, and staffing. Three prominent and interconnected
features seem to dominate: a shifting of the national economy from “muscle-work” to “mind-
work” and the concurrent demand for a highly educated labor force; greater state funding and
regulating of education; and accountability through testing (Lugg, Bulkley, Firestone, &
Garner, 2002). The values required of principals faced with the challenges noted above are
many and include buffering staffs from overreacting to demands for policy implementation