Leading the Leader: Positive and Resilient Leadership (PRL) in Urban Public Schools through Filipino Public-School Teachers’ Metaphorical Perspectives

Abstract

Positive leadership and resilient leadership are two types of leadership that share several commonalities, both of which seemingly respond and offer suitability to the unpredictable and volatile landscape and requirements of the times. While separately, there has been substantial empirical work on positivity and resilience in leadership, no study has been undertaken to combine both so that one type of leadership, i.e. Positive and Resilient Leadership (PRL), can emerge. Further, positivity and resilience in leadership have so far remained understudied among public organizations, particularly in urban public schools, a sector that considers ineffective leadership as among the major problems that hinder the quality of public education. Also, while previous studies have focused on such leadership from the perspective of school leaders, there remains a dearth of literature on understanding it from the standpoint of those being led, such as the teachers. To fill these gaps, this study examined the possible nature and characteristics of PRL by employing qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis in an attempt to (a) determine the metaphors Filipino teachers in urban schools use to describe leadership that is both positive and resilient, (b) identify how these metaphors capture the traits of positive and resilient school leaders in these schools, and (c) explore various situational practices of PRL in the Philippine urban public school sector. Findings showed five (5) categorizations of metaphors that were drawn from the responses of the public school teachers, indicating how PRL can provide them P.O.W.E.R., i.e. positivity, opportunity, wisdom, empathy, and reinforcement in six (6) aspects of school management, namely: (a) planning and implementation of school policies, programs, activities, and projects, (b) decision-making, (c) personnel management, (d) implementation of innovation and change, (e) resource generation and utilization, and (f) communication within and outside the organization that could improve urban public school teachers performance and well-being.