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D1_S4_4.1: Case studies for School Leadership
CASE 1: DEVSAR NO.2 PRATHMIK SHALA, NAVSARI
Moving through the streets of Devsar village at 08:00am, I found children
getting ready for school and by 08:15am children were moving towards
school. In curiosity I asked them the reason for being so early. To my
surprise they told me that everyday their head teacher comes at 8:30am
and those who wish to learn Drawing, Music, or Mathematics or something
that they have not understood in regular class may go at 8:30am. I made
a visit to the school with children and found the head teacher seated with
a group of children. The classroom walls were painted black to a height of
three feet to give children space for their creativity. There was a group of
children drawing on those black boards as per the direction of the head
teacher another group of students was practicing on harmonium and other
musical instruments and the teacher enthusiastically instructed them. I
joined the children for prayer at 10:00am. I saw students from each class
getting up and questioning their fellow classmates, if any one of them was
unable to answer, the senior students would answer or else teacher would
clear the doubt. Unlike other primary schools the school has subject wise
distribution of time table from 1-7 standards so as to provide change as
well as expertise to the students. The school had developed a huge stage
with community funds, it has a water cooler, television set, microphone
system and computers and students comfortable with Microsoft word.
An interaction with the members on different committees and the
principal revealed the coordination, cooperation and the harmony of
thoughts and deeds amongst all the members.
Discuss

Discuss the multiple roles played by Mangubhai?

Identify any three leadership practices used by Mangu bhai?
What were the strategies used by Mangu bhai for ensuring
community participation?
What lessons could be learnt from this case which could be replicated
in your school?

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CASE 2 JOBANTEKRI PRATHMIK SHALA

Jobantekri Prathmik Shala situated at a distance of twenty kilometres from
Vadodara has two small rooms, a student strength of fifty three with three
female teachers. Its all women team which includes the teachers, the mid
day meal coordinator, the cook, the sarpanch. The road to the school got
constructed six months back otherwise it was travelling through eight to
ten kilometres of muddy patch with a huge trench. There was high rate of
absenteeism, children would keep playing outside, or accompany parents
to fields, and even those who came would come very shabbily dressed.
There is a hand pump in the school compound and people fill water from
there and would abuse each other while chitchatting. The school corridors
were earlier used by villagers to drink and eat meat, the remains of which
lied till morning and the school staff had to do with the cleaning.
One of the lady teachers Ms. Bhadraben started with her persistent efforts
in improving the children and through them reaching the community. She
would teach children integers, letters, and good manners and while the
parents return from fields during lunch time she would take children
outside and make them say whatever they have learnt. The parents
passing by would stop to hear their children say and would stop other
chitchatting and usual abusive language. This became a regular affair and
gradually the gossips and abusive language being used while fetching
water stopped. Parents also saw their children cleaning the school
compound which they littered last night hence they stopped. Once in
monsoon season this lady teacher came to school wading through waters
up till knee level. The villagers stopped her near the trench and asked her
to get back since crossing the trench with the bike was impossible and
rest of the path had to be walked through the muddy roads. They asked
her to come after monsoons. In response to this she asked them will you
stop working in monsoons. How will you cross this trench? You may teach
me this instead of asking me to get back. The villagers were touched by
this honesty and love for teaching, since then there is no looking back
discloses the teacher gladly. Cooperation for all little tasks has been
flowing from the community. In her interaction she mentions that I do not
go to meet the community only in terms of need or for meeting but come
an hour or two prior to the school timings and move around the village to
each house, greet them ask whether the children are ready in this manner
a regular contact helps me to establish cordial relationship with them.
The most unique factor of the school is the child centred teaching. All
students from 1st to 5th standard are taught integers, tables by singing and
dancing, using drum beats, exercises, yogic postures. They recite the
names of the months of Gujarati and English calendar with rhythmic claps.
Mannerisms are taught through small stories, puppetry, teaching aids are
prepared keeping the psychology of students in mind. Puppets with
different material like cloth, cardboard, chart paper, mat paper and of
different insects, animals, birds are made to give students an idea of

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these animals and at the same time teach culture, new words, sentences,
counting is taught through beads. The enthusiasm and ideas of this great
teacher have simply made the community bow down to her.

Discuss

While bhadraben is not a head teacher, what kind of leadership has

she shown?
Identify any three leadership qualities of Bhadraben?
What were the strategies used by bhadraben for ensuring community
participation and improving teaching learning?
Do you think teacher leadership is as important as school leadership?
What lessons could be learnt from this case which could be replicated
in your school?

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CASE 3: VARTOL PRATHMIK SHALA, SABARKANTHA

Vartol Prathmik Shala, is a school in the interior of Khedbrahma in
Sabarkantha district of Gujarat. When we entered the school premises a
team of students immediately came to welcome us. This was an
uninformed visit, purely for personal research purpose and this young
team took me by surprise. The head teacher briefing me told this is our
welcome team when any outsider comes to the school they welcome
them with flowers and they know of their job. The school further had a
cleanliness maintenance team, a cultural team, sports team, academic
team, school beautification team and a school panchayat taking care of
the functioning of different teams, the exchange of duties and rotation of
the tasks. There was an honesty corner in the school where things like
pen, pencil, sharpener, book etc which are lost by students are put and
whosoever owns them may take. Khedbrahma experiences shortage of
water, and is in the border of Gujarat in the Sabarkantha district and
shares border with Rajasthan. The soil there is rocky and uneven it is too
hard to level such unfertile land. The children with the support of the
villagers have tilled the land hard to break down the rocks and through
funds fertile soil is imported from outside, it is with these hard efforts that
you see few trees, flowers, vegetables and some greenery around the
school and in fact in the entire area. The interaction with the children
revealed their confidence, knowledge and their love for learning. This was
expressed in a question a young girl posed Where do we study after 8 th
standard there is no high school in the village and transportation to the
nearest town place Khedbrahma which is approximately thirty kilometres
is not so frequent and we cannot afford staying there.
Discuss

Identify any three leadership practices of the Head teacher?

What were the strategies used for improving organization of school
and giving maximum opportunities for childrens holistic
development?
Did the school give a feel of the common vision and teamwork?
What lessons could be learnt from this case which could be replicated
in your school?

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CASE 4: NAVKALLIKA PRATHMIK SHALA, SABARKANTHA

Navkallika Prathmik Shala, Nandoj, Bhiloda is a school amongst the bheel
community where girls usually are not sent to school and the females
outside the residence or fields was considered to be bad. This school with
two lady teachers had a tough time in regularizing student attendance
especially girl child, so talking to the villagers, convincing them to send
their girl child to school was a problem. It was surprising for me to see
during lunch hours one of the teachers rushing to the common village
hand pump with few children and some teaching learning material and
teach girls who came to fetch water, the basic household things, good
manners and then invite them for the mid day meals. I asked about this
exercise and she said this is my daily routine, in the afternoon when
people return from field for meal, they come to the village hand-pump to
fetch water, and it is here when I display the learning and confidence of
the girls coming to school. I invite these parents to at least send their girl
child for the mid-day meal and in this manner I try to establish cordiality
with them. The students especially girl child who had joined school were
all confident in their interactions and these were then taken along for
household visit for promoting education of girl child.
Geometrical shapes were taught by making pits with different shapes like
square, triangle, rectangle, oval etc. for giving children the idea of shapes
at the same time helping them learn basics in agriculture which otherwise
is their profession. It is a primary school from 1 to 4 standards and as the
student moves out of school he/she is given a farewell in a small function
by inviting the parents and asking them to gift him education in future
too. Thus parents are invited on all small occasions to give them a feel of
being involved and their children having learnt something at school.
Discuss

Identify any three leadership qualities of the Head teacher?

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What were the strategies used for improving enrolment, retention and
quality in learning?
How did the school head challenge the beliefs of the community
members?
What lessons could be learnt from this case which could be replicated
in your school?

CASE: 5 KOHLI PRATHMIK SHALA, SURAT

Shri Chandubhai is the principal of Kohli Prathmik shala. The school does
not have a boundary wall it is bounded by the flower creepers and
mehandi plant on all four sides. The community has owned up the school
to such an extent that they take care of it and the principal does not have
to bother about its maintenance. The school has a huge volley ball and
kho-kho court used and maintained by the village youths and subject-wise
class rooms. The walls, trees, drinking water tank, toilets all are painted
and educative messages are written so that students learn minimum
mannerisms while in school without forcing or preaching these habits to
them.
There are letters and integers carved out of tins and hung on trees so
other than school hours also the students can study. When Chandu bhai
had joined the school the school had only one class room and village
youth used to throw filth around the school compound, today there are
seven class rooms, a mid-day meal shed medicinal plants garden, huge
lawn and good teaching learning material. The students at each level are
fluent in different subjects. There are subject wise classrooms and
Chandubhai does not complain of the problem of multigrade teaching in
his school because he has subject-wise classrooms and students are free
to decide what subject they wish to study, subject teachers take care of
their subject rooms and when children from different grades come to learn
a specific subject; grade-wise grouping is done and tasks allotted. There is
peer teaching learning without really harming any students progress, in
fact giving enough scope for self development and confidence building.

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Discuss

Identify any three leadership practices of the Head teacher?

What were the strategies used for teaching-learning, community
participation and for childrens holistic development?
How did Chandubhai strategize for the development of all in the
village?
What lessons could be learnt from this case which could be replicated
in your school?

Annexure 1.2
Excerpts from Schools that Learn By Peter Senge
Personal mastery is the first discipline. For the organization to learn,
each individual member of an organization must continue to learn.
Without individual growth, the organization will stand still. Of course, this
does not assure the organization will continue learning just because each
member learns; however, the converse is true. An organization will not
continue learning if the individuals are not learning.
Personal mastery goes beyond competency and skills; it is about
deepening our personal visions, of focusing our energies, of developing
patience, and of seeing reality objectively (Smith, 2001). Observing and
trying to make sense of current realities is another aspect of personal
mastery. For example, educators might want to ponder why students are
failing or dropping out of school. Teachers might want to ponder the
isolation or connectedness they feel at work. According to Senge (1990),
personal mastery is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a
high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their
incompetence and their growth areas. Looking within oneself is not easy,
but is necessary for personal growth.

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Another discipline is mental models. Senge defines mental models as
deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and
images that influence how we understand the world and how we take
action (1990, p. 8). Mental models can be illustrated as two individuals
observing the exact same scenario. When asked to account what they
observed, each will provide a different explanation. Mental models tend to
hinder a persons ability to change. Assumptions are often made because
individuals have a predefined notion of how things ought to be. For
instance, a teacher might assume that students do not care about their
education because of their off task behavior during class. A parent might
assume the teacher does not care about his/her child because the teacher
does not call home when the child is off task during class. The practical
application of mental models dispels the often misperceived notion, in
both the world of business and education that people will not ask
questions unless they know the answers. Senge (2000) explains, People
ask questions in the practice of this discipline because they are trying to
learn more about their own, and each others, most deeply held attitudes
and beliefs (p. 68).
Creating a shared vision is another discipline that will keep
organizations learning. Many people still have the misconception that it is
the CEOs or principals job to create the vision. In other words, a person
with authority creates the vision; however Senge (2000) reminds us that a
vision created by a leader will not be sustained. All people have some idea
or vision about what they want to accomplish each day. Such as, teachers
have a vision of the best practices they wish to implement in the
classroom; students have aspirations of what they want to learn; parents
might have a vision that their child is able to read, and educational
leaders have a vision to meet state mandated standards.
According to Senge (2000), The discipline of shared vision is the set of
tools and techniques for bringing all of these disparate aspirations into
alignment around the things people have in common (p. 72).
Individuals bring to the establishment personal aspirations they wish to
have fulfilled, but then individuals will always have one thing in common:
the school or the organization. Without a shared vision, the organization
will be challenged to communicate its purpose. Shared visions are
uplifting and tend to encourage experimentation and creativity, plus they
can create enthusiasm that spreads throughout the organization (Smith,
2001).
Building on personal mastery and shared visions, team learning is a
discipline that will be good for both the individual and the organization.
Senge (1990) states, The discipline of team learning starts with
dialogue, the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions
and enter into a genuine thinking together (p. 10). Teaching teams
should dialogue about student assessments and instructional best
practices with the hopes of improving student achievement and their own
teaching methodologies. Unfortunately, some teaching teams come
together without an agenda and, at the conclusion of the meeting, have

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not accomplished anything that will improve themselves or their students.
This is not to say that teachers must think alike to be a member of a
productive functioning team. Teachers who think differently from one
another can enhance the team learning process. In an interview with Jane
Schultz (1999), Senge discusses learning organizations as diverse webs
of and teams who continually help one another, rely on one another, and
learn with and from one another, not individuals (p. 3).
Systems thinking is the fifth discipline that fuses and integrates the
other disciplines into one comprehensible body. One aspect of systems
thinking is focusing on the whole, as opposed to focusing on the individual
parts a practice not usually practiced. For example, a principals office is
a fast-paced area where problem solving occurs every minute. A parent
calls, a teacher comes to the office, a student is in the office, a counselor
needs assistance, or another administrator is requesting help each of
these situations requires an immediate response. The system that is in
place is to prioritize the problems and then begin putting out the fires,
so to speak. Instead of searching for solutions to why the problems are
occurring, the focus shifts to solving the problem and then moves on to
the next problem. Thus, a cycle of problem solving is set in motion. Senge
(2000), suggests that in the long run each quick fix will do more harm
than good: Moreover, reacting to each event quickly, and solving
problems as quickly as they come up, helps develop a kind of attentiondeficit culture in the school system (p. 77). Instead of discovering
methods for preventing each crisis, people become good at reacting to a
crisis. Senge has identified a number of systems thinking practices, each
with a different degree of rigor, approaches and views. Each systems
thinking form can be used for different purposes and in different
circumstances.
Creating an organization with an emphasis on developing personal
mastery, creating mental models building shared vision, improving team
learning, and understanding systems thinking will have the potential of
allowing organizations or schools to be more convivial and creative.