Postmodern Conceptions of Power for Educational Leadership

“… no uniform expression of the phenomenon [of postmodernism] is found in the literature … For the sake of convenience, we define “postmodernity” as an historic era and a human social condition, and postmodernism as a set of critical ideologies that reject, in whole or in part, ancient, medieval and modern/enlightenment world views” (Sackney, Walker & Mitchell, 1999, p. 35).

“Just as there is no one view of postmodernism, there is no consensus on the notions of power as espoused by postmodernists” (Sackney et al., 1999, p. 42).

Sackney et al.(1999) join Furman (1998) in the unenviable task of trying to reconcile postmodernism with the reality of educational administration. What they finally manage to do is apply some concepts related to postmodernist thought without insisting on the ultimate nihilist outcomes of postmodern theory. They espouse postmodernity, however their practice reveals them to be modernists. They do battle with the power structure of the mechanistic, bureaucratic monolith (Morgan, 1986; Darling-Hammond, 1997) and end up conceding that they require the power of existing leaders to make the changes that they want.

Sackney et al. (1999) tell us that power is a relationship, to some extent deliberately agreed upon by those in it. They get into DePree’s (1989) ideas about roving leadership, in which whoever is best qualified to lead a problem-solving exercise does so, regardless of formal positional power relationships. Sackney et al. and DePree are working on the assumption that the putative roving leader is willing to take on the job. This can be problematic. As Starratt (1996) points out, “… many teachers have resisted such a move on the grounds that they do not want the responsibility of running the school, saying that they simply want to teach with minimum interference from administrators” (p. 107).

Empowerment by decree is not a guaranteed thing.

Empowerment requires the cooperation of the to-be-empowered. There must be a willingness and an ability, however nascent, to take on leadership.

Effective leading requires a certain inner balance and strength, a certain integrity, a certain authenticity (Taylor, 1994; O'Toole, 1995). How is this balance, strength, integrity, authenticity, to be attained? Now we’re into the realm of personal growth and development. As Kouzes and Posner (1997) say, “The quest for leadership is first an inner quest to discover who you are” (p. 336).

Those who would empower others need a process for encouraging personal growth in those to-be-empowered.

Helminiak (1996, 1998) makes a strong case for the inter-relatedness, even near-equivalence, of psychological growth and spiritual growth. Many other psychologists, philosophers and theologians (Buber, 1923/1958; Frankl, 1959; Peck, 1978; Campbell & McMahon, 1985; Dreher, 1990; Kurtz, 1990; Kornfield, 1993; Reed, 1996; Richardson, 1996; Hinterkopf, 1998; Emmons, 1999) support the notion. Wolman (2001) considers the drive for spiritual self-improvement to be the same thing as the desire for self-actualization. Self-actualizing people provide Maslow (1987) with his benchmark for psychological health.

Spirituality isn’t a territory that postmodernists explore in our readings. Nonetheless, I

believe it to be an essential component of empowerment.

Perhaps the most basic of spiritual practices is mindfulness. One need not espouse any particular creed or belief to practice it, and its benefits are profound (Hanh, 1976, 1991; Kurtz, 1990; Johansen & Kurtz, 1994). A practice such as this might be a key to making the empowerment desired by the PM’s possible, by building the nascent capacity of potential roving leaders.

Heron stands in the blue estuary,

Solitary, white, unmoving for hours.

A fish! Quick avian darting;

The prey captured.

(Ming-Dao, 1992, p.14)

References

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