Dr. Supatta Pinthapataya

Leadership and Change in Education

It is no doubt that our entire society is changing in a global context. Many institutions especially, educational institutions are seeking ways to restructure their organisations that will increase their flexibility and effectiveness in this climate of change. The change has put much pressure on to the leaders to perform their roles as change agents. It is pointed out that education is a key sector of society in preparing people to cope with the New World. All educational institutions must take a quick move. They cannot stay still and resist the change. Leaders of educational institutions are trying their best to promote some change in the positive way. Most of them have experienced difficulties in managing and facilitating change to occur.

Change Forces
There are at least 2 forces that can be the answer to the question of why education in Thailand needs change. First is globalisation which is the force that has its effect in every part of the world. It is the external force that comes in with new technology that creates great change in social and economic systems. Thailand as one small country of the world has been affected by these changes. For the people to be able to live in globalisation, Thailand as well as other countries in the world needs to change its educational system to provide new skills and knowledge of globalisation for its people because it is now becoming a part of their life.

The second force is the economic crisis of the country. This is the internal force that has brought hardship to everyone in the country for the last few years. In order to solve the problems of the country, Thailand has realised the need for some changes and called for nation to reform in all systems. Educational system is considered to be the most important system that needs urgent change. People need quality education. They need more education to develop themselves to the full competencies. They need education that can support them to become life long learners and self- reliance. It is hoped that their competencies to acquire knowledge and utilize it will help to redeem the economic status of the country. All of these are the answers the question of why Thailand needs reform in education.

In order to accelerate the achievement for the change in education, the government of Thailand issued the National Education Act B.E. 2542 (1999) as a master legislation on education of the country. The act states the important aspects of education that need to be done for the best of the people in the democratic country. Thai people must have equal right to learn and equal opportunity to be developed in a way that they become self-efficiency for life long learning. The act also leads to significant education reform in learning and teaching processes, educational administrative structure and legal measures. All educational institutions have to follow this National Education Act.

Factors Leading to Difficult Change in Education
The major change in higher education is the fundamental change in the system of teaching and learning processes towards the globalisation. Ramsden (1998) says that the shift from teaching and transmitting knowledge to learning requires an understanding of the concept of what education means. However, change requires environmental assessment as well as knowledge, skills and attitudes of the people who are involved with the change, (Pettigrew and Whipp, 1993) Beer and his colleagues state that collaboration and interpersonal skills are also important. They mention that change is not an easy task. Moreover, Fullan (1999) suggests that there is no single solution because a particular school specific situation needs a particular specific theory of change for success and it has to be worked out in one own team.

Another factor that makes change very difficult in any organisation is the culture of the people. There are two aspects that the culture is involved. The first is the culture that is formed by socialisation. People gain a particular set of unique characteristics by the culture of their society. The second is the culture of the organisation which respect to the ways of working in the organizations. They are usually mixed because people bring their own culture with them into the organisation and adapt it to the organisational culture.

Trice and Beyer (1993) say that human cultures emerge from people's struggles to manage uncertainties and create some degree of order in social life. For culture in the organisation, Schein (1991) says that it reserves the deep level of basic assumptions and that are shared by the members of an organization. Dimmock (1998) mentions that the current context of culture includes values, customs, traditions, and ways of life, which distinguish one group of people from another. He illustrates important dimensions in his study of cultural behaviors, which can interfere with the change in the organisation. These dimensions are the ways people behave in their own culture.

Power distance - distribution of power within society and its organisations
Uncertainty avoidance-how people react to, manage, cope with and tolerate with the uncertainty and ambiguity in their lives
Masculinity versus femininity - ways in which biological differences become perpetuated in differences in social and organisational roles played by men and women.
Individualism versus collectivism - the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups and to which there is closeness between persons in a relationship.
Short-term versus long-term orientation - values associated with cultural behaviors as in social obligations, folkways and traditions.

These dimensions are the basic assumption for a cultural study in order to gain deep understanding of the cultures that encourage the change to occur.

Every culture has their own ways of behaving in the organisations where they work. People bring in them their ways of thinking, valuing and communicating from the traditional culture derived from socialisation. However, what they expect to gain from their work and their colleagues is individual differences within that culture.

Strategic Leadership
There are many definitions of leadership. That is to say that the definition of leadership depends on which aspect of leadership that is appropriate at that time. However, in the situation of change, leadership is the capacity of leaders in establishing directions, aligning people, motivate and inspiring to achieve worthwhile change. (Caldwell, 2000).

Caldwell describes five elements of strategic leadership in the operative actions to promote change toward globalisation. These elements are essential for leaders to keep practice in order to achieve successful change in their organizations.

The first element is keeping abreast of trends and issues, threats and opportunities in the educational environment and in society at large, nationally and internationally; discerning the 'megatrends' and anticipate their impact on education generally and on the leader's organisation in particular.
The second element is sharing the knowledge with others in the organisation's community and encouraging other leaders to do the same in their areas of interest.
The third element is establishing structures and processes which enable the organisation to set priorities and formulate strategies which take account of likely and/or preferred futures; being a key source of expertise as these development occur.
The fourth element is ensuring that the attention of the organisation's community is focused on matters of strategic importance.
The fifth element is monitoring the implementation of strategies as well as emerging strategic issues in the wider environment; facilitating ongoing process of review.

In addition, Daft (1999) also describes strategic leadership that it concerns with seeing the big picture and excepting the implications of playing their roles as the leaders in their positions. Strategic leadership is responsible for the relationship of the external environment to choices about vision, mission, strategy and implementation.

Further more, it is significant to review leadership in the Thai concept as the cultural theory leading to successful change. Since Thailand is the land of Buddhism, this religious belief constitutes one of the strongest cultural determinants for Thai behaviours in all aspects of life. In leadership, there are Dhamma principles that Pra Medhidhammaporn (1994) introduced in Buddhist Morality which most Thai leaders take them as the ethics in performing their roles and duties. He states that leaders must practice Pancasila or five precepts for general ethics and Guna Dhamma or Virtues (Moral excellence) for the professional ethics. He proposed Dhamma- oriented leadership for leaders, which comprises of four virtues of power wisdom, effort, faultlessness and kindliness. To act kindliness, one must be generous to others (Dana); speak kind words (Piyavaca); do useful things for others (give service: Attacariya); give equal treatment and behave properly in one's position (Aamanattata).

Another Dhamma principle that is very important for leaders and for those who are in the better position than others to act kindliness called Brahmavihara or Virtues for life. They are Metta, the desire to make others happy; Karuna, the desire to give help to others who are suffering; Mudita, the desire to be happy with the success of friends and others; and Ubekkha, the ability to stay claim when it comes to an end. The person should take Ubekkha when the kindliness has been given to the best of his ability there is no need to feel guilty or unhappy about it because it is the way of life.

Change in the Thai Cultural Context
Thailand is a unique country that has owned the history of freedom for a long period of time. The country has been successfully ruled by a monarchy system. At present, Thailand is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that is ruled by the best Constitutional Monarchy. Behavioral manners of the Thai people reveal the ways of their living. The fundamental ways of the Thai social life shows the prospective behavioral dimensions, which influence ways of thinking. The cultural thoughts of Bun Khun, Kreng Chai, Mai Pen Rai, Kham Kou and etc. become the jugdement of what is right (good) and what is wrong (bad).

To study the change in education in the Thai context, it is recommended that one must take a deep understanding of the Thai behaviors within the Thai culture. Most of the Thai culture studies have been proposed by foreigners, whom we consider to be outsiders, who may not be able to gain the essence of the culture in reality. Even by natives, study of the culture affecting change is not easy but it is a challenge. There is also a need to review how leadership might develop to better reflect the forces of globalisation in education and their interaction with in their cultural context which can lead to successful change.

To lead people is a very hard task, but leading people to change is even harder. People in the organisation are human beings who have their own ways of how to act, react, and respond. The ways they do things around here arise from two levels: the cultural socialisation level and the cultural organisation level. In viewing from the cultural context, it is important that leaders should practice their strategic leadership in the way that it is effective in their culture. It is important that leaders should understand what culture is and is not, and that they should be 'experts' in their own culture.

Bibliography

Caldwell, B. J., (2000) Leadership in the Creation of World Class Schools beyond the Self-Management School.
http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/EPM/BOOKS/Beyond/LAUNCE/latest_press/

Dimmock, C., (1998) 'Restructuring Hong Kong's Schools: The Applicability of Western Theories, Policies and Practices to an Asian Culture', Educational Management and Administration, London, SAGE. Volume 26, (4) 363-377

Fullan, M., (1999) Change Forces: The Sequel. Philadelphia, PA: Falmer.

Pettigrew, A. and Whipp, R. (1993) 'Understanding the Environment,' Mabey, C.and Mayon-White, B. (Eds.) Managing Change. (2nd Ed.) The Open University, London, Paul Chapman.

Pra Medhidhammaporn: Mererk, Prayoon, (1994) Buddhist Morality. Wat Mahadhatu, Bangkok Mahachulalongkornrajvidyalaya University Press. (In honor of Pra Dhammapidok : Payutto, Prayudh UNESCO Peace Prize for Peace Education.)

Schein, E., (1991) Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, San Francisco, Jossy-Bass.

Office of the National Education Commission, (1999) National Act B.E. 2542 (1999), Office of the Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand.

Trice, H. M. and Beyer, J. M., (1993) The Cultures of Work Organizations, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.