Empowering Lives
Artifact 1: Freedom Writers Movie Analysis
Course: EDUC 5201G Foundations of Leadership
Description: The movie Freedom Writers (DeVito, Shamberg, Sher, & LaGravenese, 2007) was explored to understand the theme of leadership. Here the leadership role of the central character of the movie, Erin Gruwell's, challenges working with “at-risk” also known as “unteachable” students in her class was explored. In this movie, Ms. Gruwell was proved to be an authentic (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), charismatic (House, 1977), and transformational (Burns, 1978) leader who had a positive influence on the lives of her students.
Reflection: Leadership is an interpersonal influence that is exercised in situations and directed through the communication process, towards the attainment of a specific goal. (Tannenbaum, Weschler & Massarik, 1961) It can be described as an influencing process that has resultant outcomes that occurs between a leader and followers. In short, leadership depends on the leader as a person (dispositional characteristics), leader behavior, the interaction process between a leader and follower(s), and the context in which leadership is exercised (Bass & Bass, 2008).
The definition of leadership can be applied to understand the theme of the movie "Freedom Writers" (DeVito, Shamberg, Sher, & LaGravenese, 2007) where I observed that leadership of a person is influenced by the environment and the characteristics of the leader.
According to (Fairholm, 2009) the Situational Theory argues that the situation determines what leaders do and what their behavior is linked to – be congruent with - the specific environment at hand. In this movie, I observed that at Woodrow Wilson High School after the integration has taken place the leadership perspective and behavior of the department head changed, where she displayed bias towards students using new books based on their racial background. The Fiedler’s (1997) Classic Contingency Model can be used to observe how leadership is dependent upon the demands imposed by the situation where task-oriented leaders are more effective in easy and very difficult situation and relationship focused leaders do better in moderate demands. In this school, after the integration program had taken place the teachers became more task-oriented rather than relationship focused leaders who would go beyond what is expected by a classroom teacher.
In this movie, Ms. Gruwell, the protagonist displayed empowering leadership where she inspired and energized her students to become the best of themselves and shared the vision of success to change the lives of her students. Ms. Gruwell can be described as a transformational leader (Burns, 1978) who is engaged in the moral uplifting of her students and shares a mutually rewarding vision of success and power to transform those into realities. Ms. Gruwell can be also considered a charismatic leader where she is the reason why her class had become united and everyone understood each other and showed respect. A charismatic leader can be described as someone who is a strong role model, articulates ideological goals, encourage task-oriented motives of followers with the help of power or appreciation. (House, 1977) Every event that took place in her class involved her trying to help her students become better and provided them with a safe environment. In addition, we can also call Ms. Gruwell an authentic leader (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) who understood the purpose of her leadership, had consistent values, courage, empathy and self-discipline. She created a positive environment in her class where all her students came together around a shared mission and values to change their lives. It can be interpreted that inside the school Ms. Gruwell faced many external pressures which would have made her detour from her goal of transforming the lives of her students. It is clear that her true north (George, 2003), or who she is at her deepest level gave her the direction to continue working hard and gave her the courage to change the lives of her students.
This artifact enabled me to continue to strive to be a transformational leader, where it would be my duty to assist my students to discover their strength and passion for leading a meaningful life in the future. Since, each student has their own learning style I would strive to give my students the opportunity to construct their own knowledge through exploration and discussion. I believe each student needs a safe, caring and positive atmosphere to grow and mature intellectually and socially. It is my desire as an educator to provide my students with a secure and supportive environment where they have every opportunity to succeed.
Course: EDUC 5201G Foundations of Leadership
Description: The movie Freedom Writers (DeVito, Shamberg, Sher, & LaGravenese, 2007) was explored to understand the theme of leadership. Here the leadership role of the central character of the movie, Erin Gruwell's, challenges working with “at-risk” also known as “unteachable” students in her class was explored. In this movie, Ms. Gruwell was proved to be an authentic (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), charismatic (House, 1977), and transformational (Burns, 1978) leader who had a positive influence on the lives of her students.
Reflection: Leadership is an interpersonal influence that is exercised in situations and directed through the communication process, towards the attainment of a specific goal. (Tannenbaum, Weschler & Massarik, 1961) It can be described as an influencing process that has resultant outcomes that occurs between a leader and followers. In short, leadership depends on the leader as a person (dispositional characteristics), leader behavior, the interaction process between a leader and follower(s), and the context in which leadership is exercised (Bass & Bass, 2008).
The definition of leadership can be applied to understand the theme of the movie "Freedom Writers" (DeVito, Shamberg, Sher, & LaGravenese, 2007) where I observed that leadership of a person is influenced by the environment and the characteristics of the leader.
According to (Fairholm, 2009) the Situational Theory argues that the situation determines what leaders do and what their behavior is linked to – be congruent with - the specific environment at hand. In this movie, I observed that at Woodrow Wilson High School after the integration has taken place the leadership perspective and behavior of the department head changed, where she displayed bias towards students using new books based on their racial background. The Fiedler’s (1997) Classic Contingency Model can be used to observe how leadership is dependent upon the demands imposed by the situation where task-oriented leaders are more effective in easy and very difficult situation and relationship focused leaders do better in moderate demands. In this school, after the integration program had taken place the teachers became more task-oriented rather than relationship focused leaders who would go beyond what is expected by a classroom teacher.
In this movie, Ms. Gruwell, the protagonist displayed empowering leadership where she inspired and energized her students to become the best of themselves and shared the vision of success to change the lives of her students. Ms. Gruwell can be described as a transformational leader (Burns, 1978) who is engaged in the moral uplifting of her students and shares a mutually rewarding vision of success and power to transform those into realities. Ms. Gruwell can be also considered a charismatic leader where she is the reason why her class had become united and everyone understood each other and showed respect. A charismatic leader can be described as someone who is a strong role model, articulates ideological goals, encourage task-oriented motives of followers with the help of power or appreciation. (House, 1977) Every event that took place in her class involved her trying to help her students become better and provided them with a safe environment. In addition, we can also call Ms. Gruwell an authentic leader (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) who understood the purpose of her leadership, had consistent values, courage, empathy and self-discipline. She created a positive environment in her class where all her students came together around a shared mission and values to change their lives. It can be interpreted that inside the school Ms. Gruwell faced many external pressures which would have made her detour from her goal of transforming the lives of her students. It is clear that her true north (George, 2003), or who she is at her deepest level gave her the direction to continue working hard and gave her the courage to change the lives of her students.
This artifact enabled me to continue to strive to be a transformational leader, where it would be my duty to assist my students to discover their strength and passion for leading a meaningful life in the future. Since, each student has their own learning style I would strive to give my students the opportunity to construct their own knowledge through exploration and discussion. I believe each student needs a safe, caring and positive atmosphere to grow and mature intellectually and socially. It is my desire as an educator to provide my students with a secure and supportive environment where they have every opportunity to succeed.
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