Autonomy
School leaders should be autonomous. This means owning oneself and being true to your real self . It does
not mean acting alone and separating from your community and society, because it is important that individual’s socialize
with others as part of our human condition. Autonomous means taking “responsibility for what one does” (Starratt, 2003,
p. 138). Starratt (1993) describes autonomous as not only standing by one’s decisions and accepting the consequences of
those decisions, but also as being a part of the solution to problems encountered. School leaders should be freethinkers who
are part of the community in which they find themselves. Duignan (2014) refers to the importance of a leader having
connections and interactions with individuals in a system as complex as an educational institution. These leaders need to
be autonomous unto themselves, but must also be part of the larger system. This means that school leaders need to be free
to make decisions, yet realize those decisions are part of a larger educational system that is being analyzed and studied by
the outside public. If a school leader is not confidence to make decisions, then stalling and stagnation of leadership occurs
when decisions are not made. Subordinates begin to lose faith in the ability of their leader, and the system is weakened with
cynicism.
