![]() This can be seen when she teaches through music, poetry and games. Williams (2006) echoes this idea by stating that transformational leaders “make fun a priority” (Williams 2006:29). Thirdly, ‘stimulating’, also known as ‘intellectual stimulation’ (Bass 1985 cited in Northouse 2013:193), where “the leader arouses interest in new ideas and approaches and enables (followers) to think about problems in new ways” (Boehnke and DiStefano, 1997:2). Bass (1985) identifies this as inspirational motivation where the leader inspires through motivation (Northouse 2013:193). An example of this can be seen when Erin gave the “toast for change”, which inspired them to breakthrough their barriers and follow their dreams no matter what other people say or do to them. In the same way, leaders who inspire can encourage followers to achieve more than they thought possible (Williams 2006:29). Through this behaviour the leader has the ability to create excitement about their vision and “express their dreams in highly motivational language” (Boehnke and DiStefano, 1997:2). This may also be identified as ‘idealised influence’ as presented through the model of transformational leadership by Bass (1985) (cited in Northouse 2013:190). ![]() Daft (2011) states that, “It is the vision that launches people into action” (Daft 2011:321), therefore visioning is an important characteristic of a transformational leader. Despite all these barriers that were bringing her down, she remained optimistic and hopeful. Added to that the principle of the school did not believe that she could do it and did not support her with the material she needed. The student’s did not respect her they made fun of her and she had to deal with violence in class. Erin had to face many barriers whilst the integration is what attracted Erin to this school, she was not prepared for the nature of her class, with students who were uninvolved and uninterested. Through this behaviour “the leader expresses optimism about the future, with strong expressions of personal confidence and enthusiasm” (Boehnke and DiStefano, 1997:2). In this case Erin wanted “her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school” (IMDb 2007). When it comes to visioning the leader has a clear vision and communicates this to followers (Boehnke and DiStefano, 1997:2). We will apply these behaviours to analyse Erin’s leadership behaviours. They are, visioning, inspiring, stimulating, coaching, and team building. We see a total contrast of the behavior of the students from the beginning of the film to the end of the film, and this is due to the influence that Erin had on them.īoehnke and DiStefano (1997) identify five behaviours seen in transformational leaders. “Transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms people… (it) involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is expected of them” (Northouse 2013). According to a definition by Northouse (2013): However, prior to that we need to understand what transformational leadership is. Among the many leadership approaches we can focus on, we will look at transformational leadership because Erin can be seen as a transformational leader, because by the end of the movie, she transformed the performance of her students completely. We will focus on the leadership behaviour of the teacher Erin Gruwell. At this time Long Beach California had a high rate of gang violence, and Woodrow Wilson High School implemented a voluntary integration program. The story is based in Long Beach, California in 1994. Freedom Writer’s is a film based on a true story about Erin Gruwell, a first time teacher who is assigned to a class of underperforming students who have experienced racial and gang violence all their lives. We will look at the film ‘Freedom Writers’ with this leadership lens. ![]() ![]() “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purposes” (Rost 1993 cited in Daft 2011:5). ![]() For the sake of this post we will explore leadership as defined by Joseph. Leadership is an extremely complex topic with many definitions and many approaches. ![]()
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