Fulbright researcher Solomon presents findings at national conference

A La Sierra administration and leadership professor with 39 years’ experience teaching and leading various grade levels, she believes changes in educational methods and leadership styles is pivotal toward helping the poorest and youngest of India’s vast population better their lives. Her work has garnered two Fulbright Scholarships and media publicity, and this year resulted in a research paper which she presented in April during the American Education Research Association annual meeting in Toronto. The organization is described as the largest gathering of education researchers in the world attended by more than 14,000 members, scholars, policy experts and practitioners.

“It was a very high experience to talk about the research on the effect of my leadership training because the data analysis showed that in general there was no significant change in the thinking or leadership practice of the participants,” Solomon said. “However, there was a significant change among the women leaders who participated and the Christian leaders who took the training.  That became an area of interest for those who attended our session.” 

Solomon’s paper titled “The Challenges in Teaching Western Conceptualization of Transformational Leadership to Eastern Educators” was presented during a Special Interest Group Teaching Leadership session on the second day of the conference. Her presentation drew from an analysis of two-day leadership seminars she conducted at 13 universities and colleges in India in and involving 500 participants including school principals and college leaders. Study results showed the difficulty Indian educators grapple with in transitioning from deeply ingrained Eastern leadership styles that value collective thinking, hierarchy and status, to the western cultural emphasis on personal perceptions.

Solomon’s analysis, which is ongoing, is based on a mixed study design of the training seminars’ participants which involved interviews, a questionnaire and written responses to two session activities. 

While interviews and field data showed broad acceptance of the new leadership concepts, the study indicated that “the transformational leadership training did not make any significant change among majority of the participants,” Solomon wrote, with the exception of females, Christians and undergraduates who "appeared to have the highest post-score leadership level.” Her research further suggested that females were more “open and willing to change their leadership behavior” than males.

While the seminar participants understood and accepted as good the transformational leadership concepts they learned, they found implementation of change problematic. “This study shows clearly that the participants were in a locked up management system that was inflexible and resistant to change,” Solomon concluded.

Solomon’s work to transform the way educational institutions are led and the ways education is carried out derives from past research and experiences. She noted in her 2017 Fulbright proposal the country’s low student performance figures and the work of a consultant from Hyderabad who studied the dearth of leadership development programs in India’s educational institutions. Solomon wrote, “I personally witnessed ineffective leadership and poor quality of education in the rural and urban government schools I visited in the past five years. …The intent of this teaching project is to provide a blueprint for higher education institutions to train effective educational leaders to lead schools that would teach all children to succeed.”

Solomon, who hails from the southern portion of India, was awarded a first Fulbright Scholarship in 2010. “That project was about the education of poor children in the slums and emphasizing teacher preparation to meet their needs,” she said. She conducted additional research in four schools in India’s slums during sabbaticals and while on personal visits to India to find methods of improving the students’ cultural capital which is measured by self-esteem, locus of control, and sense of hope. 

“During these times, I recognized the need for good school leadership in the schools and did more research on that,” Solomon said.