Ethical School Leadership Studies

With the development of global economy and information technology, manyethical scandals have been exposed. No matter the enterprise, commercial or publicinstitutions, the crisis of confidence, fraud, prevarication and ethical issues existseverywhere. These problems also occur on campus, the phenomena of contemningand trampling life, destructing of the value of life has risen. It leads the school leadersin reflecting on the realty that there are so many pretty and alive lives which theyface everyday, and the urgent task which is need to be resolved is what kind of theway of idea and behavior of leadership can save and further promote the value of lifein a high degree? This should be the primary task for school leaders to think aboutand put the theory into the practice."Good is preservation and promotion of life, to let the value of life get thehighest value. Evil is destruction and damage of life, to suppress the development oflife. All of these are inevitable, universal, absolute ethical principle."This is coreconcept of theory of “Reverence for Life”, which is put forward by Albert Schweitzer,it is also the gist of the ethical idea and ethical behavior which should be put intopractice by school leaders. School is viewed as the carrier which can realize thehighest development of value of life. The school leaders are viewed as the linkbetween the value of individual life in schools and their own the leadership, theiridea and behavior of ethics will influence the value of individual life which is underthe semi-open education ecosystem continually. Even to some degree, their idea andbehavior of ethics will decide value of individual life, it specifies the idea andbehavior of ethics which the ethical school leaders should have. As organic andinorganic environment of school, as well as the main body of education ecosystem:the people constitute a community of life, and the ethical idea of "Reverence for Life"is supposed to injected into the leadership idea of school leaders in order to furtherguide their leadership behavior, so as to get leadership system which has real“Reverence for Life”. It is not only a challenge of traditional leadership for schoolleaders, but also an important way to enhance their own leadership. As the old saying goes,"The principal is the soul of the school. That means different kinds ofprincipals can create the corresponding different kinds of schools, as well as differentkinds of teachers and students." A good school leader leads a group of good teachers,can create a good school, and the good school is also bound to the leadership ofschool leaders.In this thesis, the author tries to put the schools into the semi-open ecologicaleducation system, and further construct a community of life. The school leaders willbuild and meliorate the ethical idea which is on the base of information andsubstance exchange in the education ecosystem in the view of “Reverence for Life”,guiding their ethical leadership behavior through the completed ethical idea, in orderto promote better development of the value of individual alive life and enhance theirown ability to be school leaders. Moreover, in order to maintain health andstabilization of the education ecosystem and promote its development, the schoolleaders must do some energetic and corresponding activities.The author believes that pouring the theory of “Reverence for Life” into the ideaof school educational leadership, as good as the call for the ethical concept andbehavior of school leaders, at the same time, it plays an important role for thefurther development of educational leadership disciplines. Starting research ofethical school leadership which is in the view of "reverence for life" has threemeanings: first, on the one hand, to ensure that the value of individual life in theschool community to get the pure and high development, to protect the rights andfreedoms of individual life for developing. Second, it is able to promote the principalsto enhance their own ability to be leaders; in the meantime, it will have a vital impacton the traditional concept of the school leadership. If we want to break with tradition,what we must do is to dismantle the fence, namely to break down the rampart,which was built out of traditional concept of school leadership, and sweep allobstacles. Third, the development of Education can not be separated from otherassociated and crossed disciplines. In order to enrich the educational leadershipdiscipline, it is necessary to integrate into other disciplines which have mature andperfect systems. Integrating Ethics, sociology, leadership, pedagogy into education, it will also have a certain referential significance on the rapid development ofEducational leadership.