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By Alanna Jacoby Eacott, S. (2007). // Strategy and the practicing educational leader. //ACU Fourth International Conference on Catholic Educational Leadership. Sydney, 29 July – 1 August. P3)       Strategic actions are purposeful, deliberate and meaningful, with the desired goal of linking the present with a desired future state.. …strategic leadership is not a new categorization of leadership, but a key dimension of any leadership activity.        P4) …leading strategically is essential for the effective management of education institutions. P5)       Schools are traditionally viewed as under-led and under-managed organisations characterized by their core business of teaching and learning.        P7) However, one of the greatest challenges is the preservation and strengthening of Catholic identity in schools so that a school’s Catholic identity and spiritual capital is evident and transmits the Catholic culture to the entire school community. It is unquestioned that the strategic role of the principal (Cranston, 2006) is pivotal to successfully achieving identity creation. A school leader’s task is to see that the entire school community does not lose sight of the need to develop all aspects of the school’s purpose. P8)       ..…an educational leader needs to build a Catholic faith community identity within the entire school community to work in partnership with parents, the parish and the wider community and to foster an environment built on student-centred learning and the professional development of staff. To be successful in meeting these challenges, the educational leader must initiate purposeful, deliberate and meaningful actions with the goal of linking the daily operations of the school with the moral purpose of the organisation.         Envisioning requires the principal and school community to think about the future of the school….key personnel within the school should be able to articulate what the school is striving for and what parents can expect throughout their child’s time at the school.        To undertake the process of envisioning requires critical reflection and reflective dialogue. This reflection needs to form the foundations of strategic thinking, moving the debates from the day-to-day to the future of the school and in time, to discuss and debate where the school is heading. P9)       Research on effective schools has shown that parental involvement in decision-making and activities positively correlates with increased satisfaction and support for the school. Similarly, staff participation is linked to job satisfaction, morale and building trust and confidence in leadership.        Engaging requires the school community to have strategic conversations, often led by the principal, but this does not have to be the case. These conversations build on critical reflection, establish purpose for actions and encourage a culture of reflection and dialogue on strategic matters and the future direction of the school. Involving as wide a group as possible provides richer sources of data on the school to inform discussion and debate.        Oral articulation involves not only articulating the institutional vision/direction, but also bringing it to life through conversations and dialogue. Written articulation involves distinguishing between daily operations and strategic operations and articulating in writing, a small set of deliverable objectives that the institution can achieve and on which it can focus its efforts. P10)       Implementation is primarily concerned with how the school’s strategy can be witnessed. Its central aspect is translating strategy into action, establishing frameworks and ensuring that they become actions.        …monitoring and evaluation are two crucial elements for effective implementation. ….Where are we now? Where to next? How will we get there? How will we know when we get there?        P11) Having moved beyond the strategic leader or strategic manager construct, is it possible to see the role of the school principal as one of educational strategist, where leadership behaviours and management processes are targeted towards the enhancement of the school’s educational programs and most importantly towards student development. This suggests that the principal can draw on knowledge, understandings and skills from anywhere (including the corporate sector) as long as they are implemented in a manner that is consistent with the purpose and core values of the school. This is where a principal can have the most significant influence on the development of students. P12)       The integration of the organisation’s strategic direction into operational aspects assists in building a strategically-focused culture at all levels of the organisation.        Central to the success of any strategy is the implementation of strategic leadership. ....While the majority of the sources discuss strategic leadership within the domain of the ‘leader’, the leader and that leadership role is not restricted to the head of the organisation. Any individual within an organisation can act as a strategic leader and the school’s leadership can change through the course of time.        Through purposeful and deliberate actions, a strategic leader can affect school design, by structuring the organisation in a manner that is consistent with the strategic direction.        P13) ….effective leadership, particularly through school design and environmental influence, can have a positive effect on school performance and vice versa. P14)       Through the development of strategic responsibility in others, the leader is building the capability of the entire organisation. This reflects a proactive approach to strategy implementation, monitoring and evaluation.