FACTOR STRUCTURE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF FUTURE EDUCATORS’ LEADERSHIP POSITION

Abstract

The article emphasizes that leadership reflects the degree of influence on other people and is a particularly important competence for future educators, because only leaders can form leaders who have an active life position and are capable of distributed team leadership in various areas of social life.

Future educators’ leadership position is defined as a system of attitudes that is formed in future specialists in relation to the world, students, themselves, and professional activity. This position is manifested in a stable motivational and cognitive orientation, actions and behavior, readiness to feel, think and act as a leader, be an example for students, act as a coach and facilitator in the educational process, motivate and inspire the younger generation to consciously develop their own personality, achieve high results in learning and life.

The use of the B.M. Bass & B.J. Avolio Multidisciplinary Leadership Questionnaire to study the features of manifestations of transformational (influence, ability to inspire, intellectual stimulation, individual approach) and transactional (motivation, management, granting independence) leadership in the education system has been justified. It has been empirically confirmed that the most pronounced indicators of the leadership position of future educators are influence, ability to inspire and motivate students. The least pronounced one is the ability to provide independence to students, which indicates the orientation of future specialists towards the use of direct management methods in the educational process.

Comparison of average values for leadership indicators in the groups of “leaders” and “non-leaders” showed that future educators who are “leaders” are characterized by above-average and high indicators for most manifestations of transformational and transactional leadership. “Non-leaders” are distinguished by the predominance of average and below-average manifestations for most of the studied indicators. This confirms the need to strengthen work on forming a sustainable leadership position of future specialists in the field of education.

As a result of the empirical study, it was confirmed that the willingness to act in situations of risk, imagination, decision-making effectiveness, positive acceptance of uncertainty, developed cognitive, emotional and volitional self-control, healthy narcissism, event and existential self- possession, as well as self-esteem associated with the effectiveness of actions, successful social relations and appearance, are important psychological characteristics of a leader in conditions of uncertainty and risk. They are positively correlated with most manifestations of transformational and transactional leadership in education.

According to the results of factor analysis, four factors were identified in the structure of the leadership position of future educators. They are “Acceptance of uncertainty, self-possession and behavioral self-control”; “High creativity and decision-making efficiency”, “Self-esteem, conditioned by appearance and successful interaction with others” and “Reserved empathy”. The obtained results can be used in the development of a training program aimed at developing psychological constructs of leadership in higher pedagogical education students and establishing sustainable leadership in professional activities.