Qualitative Analysis of Creative Potential of Educational Leaders

Abstract

The research study was carried out in a private university with course participants of Masters of Education (MEd) having a major in the specialization of Educational Leadership and Management. The purpose of the study was to enhance the creative potentials of educational leaders. Creativity provokes diverse thinking to make something novel which can improve the standards of living of an individual with the changing times. Striving for effectiveness, efficiency and quality in every aspect of life draws imagination towards the need for creativity in an educational leadership role because leaders influence minds and act as change agents (Kaufman, 2005). According to Lagari (2010) the former chairman of Higher Education Commission Pakistan, all leaders need to enhance creativity to facilitate 'out of the box' solutions. In order to enhance this emerging need of creativity for educational leaders the study was conducted with action learning as the methodology to enrich the creativity of educational leaders (as education is the key to progress). The tools to collect the relevant data were semi-structured interviews, exercises on creativity and focus group discussions. The process of data collection had three phases. In the first phase semi-structured interviews took place on the basis of which the participants were given some worksheets to enhance their creative potentials. The worksheets included activities for idea generation, lateral thinking, re-layering, etc. The second phase included focus group discussions (action learning phase) in which all three participants shared their professional life problems and explored alternative solutions. In the last phase semi-structured interviews were conducted, once again, to ascertain the application of participants' learning. The findings and analyses revealed that in order to face the challenges of the 21st century, educational leaders need to equip themselves with creative thinking skills. It also emerged from the interviews that the educational system by which participants have studied, has hindered their creativity. Therefore, educational leaders need to enhance their own creative potential which has proved to be beneficial for organizational growth and development by practicing creative thinking exercises and creating action learning groups.