Conceptualizing School
Leadership &
Management from a
Distributed Perspective
An Exploration of Some Study Operations & Measures
What is a distributed perspective of
leadership?
A conceptual framework
"Distributed leadership" is the latest educational buzz word, but what
does it mean? HGSE Associate Professor John Diamond, former
director of a major 4-year study on distributed leadership
John Diamond sheds insight:
What it IS
analytical frame for understanding
What it’s NOT
something that you do or don't do
A way of thinking / conceptualizing a type of leadership or a style of
about the situation as an integral part leadership. It's not a model of
of the leadership context
leadership.
it is an integrated view of leaders'
thinking, their activity and behaviors,
and the situation
It's not something you place on top of
a school and say, 'Now you are doing
distributed leadership.
It is not the leadership activity but the conceptualization of it:
"think about the constellation of people who are involved, how the context
shapes what happens with that activity, and how artifacts might be an integral
part of that activity. The distributed perspective is integrative thinking about all
of those pieces and on leadership activity itself."
Distributive perspective is about the
interactions within the system, but Healey
and Spillane urge caution by arguing for more
attention to research fundamentals in the
form of study operations and research
measures before seeking causal inferences.
There are 2 Aspects to the
Framework
1.
1. Leadership-plus Aspect
○ Who leads and manages and,
○ How these individuals as a collective are
arranged in carrying out work of leading and
managing
2. Practice Aspect
○ Formal & Informal Designation
○ Practice is fundamentally about interactions (not
actions)
Abstract
A distributed perspective on school leadership and management has garnered
considerable attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers in
many countries over the past decade.
However, we should be skeptical of its appeal as a measure of worth. While
optimism is high with respect to taking a distributed perspective, we urge
caution by arguing for more attention to research fundamentals in the
form of study operations and research measures before seeking causal
inferences.
The question is not, does distributed leadership work? but rather, how are
leadership and management related to school and classroom conditions and
school outcomes? To answer this question from a distributed perspective, we
need to engage study operations and measures when taking a distributed
perspective in school leadership and management research. This article
attempts to extend that conversation.
What’s the goal?
to more effectively & reliably seek causal
inferences and evidences of effectiveness
between leadership and school outcomes
● to extend dialogue (among scholars)
● to develop solid study operations and reliable
and valid measures to frame investigations of
school leadership and management
Methodology
Site & Sample
Research
Instruments
1. Principal questionnaire
2. School staff questionnaire
Sample Schools
1. Taylor
2. Hancock
3. Chase
Data Analysis
Primary Unit of
Analysis
The School
Variables
Data aggregated from individual school
staff members
To borrow from Activity Theory and
Distributed Cognition:
Distributed cognition suggests that people's
thinking and actions don't happen in a
vacuum. Thinking happens through social
interaction and interaction with the
environment. These impact how the
leadership activity happens.
Operationalizing and Measuring
Leadership & Management:
Formal and Informal
Aspects of the School
Organization
The Formal Organization
There are a few dimensions & ways of
operationalizing leadership and management
from a distributed perspective, and they reveal
tremendous variation between schools
1. Leader to staff ratio
2. Position focus
3. Formally designated leadership team diversity
4. Strengths and limitations
Factoring in the Informal
Organization
Relations between formal and informal can
inform our understanding of school
leadership and its influence on valued school
conditions and outcomes.
1. Leader to staff ratio reconsidered
2. Leadership team diversity: compensation
3. Formal and informal congruence
(informal as key advice givers)
4. Strengths & Limitations
Formal-Informal
Aspects, Relations & Composition
Afterthoughts
Do you think that this is a “commonsense” way of conceptualizing
leadership?
I definitely do not think this is a “commonsense” way of conceptualizing
leadership, this is an extremely intensive, exhaustive, and ‘empirical’
way of understanding school leadership and management. It is not a
matter of what is leadership, nor is it a matter of whether or not
leadership impacts school outcome, but rather an “extended
conversation” to perpetuate research methodology regarding how
leadership impacts school outcome. Though it isn’t a
“commonsense” way that non-researchers conceptualize the matter,
it is definitely a more reliable and viable method to reach causal
inferences between the two variables at hand.
Afterthoughts
What do you think are the most important role of leadership?
Influenced by the (interactive) framework introduced in this essay as
well as inferred from previous knowledge and past experiences, one
of the most important role of leadership is the notion that it is
scalable within the learning community and educational ecosystem.
If every stakeholder including management level, to classroom
teachers, to students feel a sense of engagement to contribute and
support those around us as “leaders” do, that will have a great
impact on school outcome in many different aspects.
Conclusion / Key Findings
1. variation across schools
2. positive and significant correlation between
the two measures of formal-informal
congruence
a.
b.
the proportion of formally designated leaders who
are also key advice givers
the proportion of advice-seeking ties directed toward
formally designated leaders
Design for Scalability: A
Case Study of the River
City Curriculum
Main content
This paper presents a framework on how to
design educational innovations for
scalability through enhancing their
adaptability for effective usage in a wide
variety of settings.
Dimensions Important for Scalability
Key Definitions:
Activities to achieve scale along
each dimension:
• Depth: evaluation and research (design-based research)
to understand and enhance causes of effectiveness
• Sustainability: ‘‘robust design’’ to enable adapting to
inhospitable contexts
• Spread: modifying to retain effectiveness while reducing
resources and expertise required
• Shift: moving beyond ‘‘brand’’ to support users as coevaluators, co-designers, and co-scalers
• Evolution: learning from users’ adaptations to rethink the
innovation’s design model
Case Study
The River City multi-user virtual environment
(MUVE):
1. a technology-based curriculum designed to
enhance engagement and learning in middle
school science
2. over 250 teachers and 15,000 students
throughout the United States and Canada
have participated
Introduction
River City
River City is a technology-based middle school science curriculum designed
around national content standards and assessments in biology, ecology,
epidemiology, and scientific inquiry.
Interface Design
The technological infrastructure that delivers the curriculum is a (MUVE).
MUVEs are online digital contexts where multiple participants can
communicate, navigate, and share experiences.
Depicting a Nineteenth Century Virtual City
The River City virtual ‘‘world’’ is an industrial nineteenth century city with a river
running through it.
The storyline of the curriculum
students have been commissioned by the mayor of River City to travel back in
time to 1878 and help her figure out why the residents of the town have fallen
ill.
Using Robust Design to Develop River City
• Depth: The River City research team employs design-based research
methods in order to understand what conditions are more flexible and
adaptable to meet needs of students and teachers in various conditions.
• Sustainability: Through design-based research, the River City research team
develops different strategies to meet needs for different types of learners.
• Spread: The River City research team automate as many processes as
possible through creating an online dashboard for teachers and automated
reports.
• Shift: The River City research team and teachers have been co-evaluators
and co-designers at every stage of implementation.
• Evolution: The River City research team not only provides teachers with
ownership, but also incorporate their ownership into the evolution of the
curriculum.
Conclusion and Implications for
Further Research
Bringing a technology innovation to scale in education
requires a design that is flexible enough to be used in a
variety of contexts and robust enough to retain
effectiveness in settings that lack its conditions for
success; this may involve developing variants that are
the equivalent of hybrid plants designed for inhospitable
locales.
Is there a theory of change that underpins the theory of
scalability put forward in this paper?
The Theory of Diffusion:
The main elements in the diffusion of new ideas
are: (1) an innovation, (2) which is communicated
through certain channels, (3) over time, (4) among the
members of a social system.
Diffusion is a special type of communication
concerned with the spread of messages that are
perceived as new ideas.
Is there a theory of change that underpins the theory of
scalability put forward in this paper?
The Theory of Scalability:
“Depth” refers to deep and consequential change in classroom
practice, altering teachers’ beliefs, norms of social interaction, and
pedagogical principles as enacted in the curriculum.
“Sustainability” involves maintaining over substantial periods of time
the consequential changes in classroom practice enabled by an innovation’s
depth.
“Spread” involves the diffusion of the innovation to large numbers of
classrooms and schools.
During ‘‘shift,’’ districts, schools, and teachers assume ownership of
the innovation, deepening, sustaining, and spreading its impacts.
“Evolution” is when the adopters of an innovation revise it and adapt it
in such a way that it is influential in reshaping the thinking of its
designers.
Towards a Mapping
Framework of ICT-enabled
Innovation for Learning
Objectives of this report & Background
Up-scaling Creative Classroom in Europe
----SCALE CCR
● define and classify
● concept of CCR and reference parameters
● identify and analyse
● propose
Objectives of this report
● define and classify
● provides the basis for an in-depth analysis
Setting the context-Definition of
innovation
●
●
●
●
●
intentional activity
address unsolved problems and benefit
change and novelty
a dynamic and unpredictable social process
occurs in a specific context
Setting the context-Definition of
educational innovation
According to OECD/CERI(2010,p.14):
“...any dynamic change intended to add value
to the educational process and resulting in
measurable outcomes, be that in terms of
stakeholders satisfaction or educational
performance”
OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
CERI : Center for Educational Research and Innovation
Setting the context
-Definition of ICT-enabled innovation for learning
the profoundly new ways of using and creating
information and knowledge made possible by
the use of ICT
● a new culture of learning
● flexibility, personalisation and different
learning styles
● peer-to-peer informal interactions
● open, collaborative, free and characterised
as ‘with’ those involved
Classifications of (ICT-enabled)
innovation for learning
Three major dimensions
● product-process
● radical-incremental
● technological-administrative
ICT-supported pedagogical innovation
●
●
●
●
●
learning objectives
teachers’ roles
learners’ roles
ICT used
connectedness
A proposal for a mapping framework
of ICT-enabled innovation for learning
Aim:
● a further understanding of the nature of ICTenabled innovation for learning
● map the impact of ICT in E&T context
Five trajectories(the path followed by an object moving through space):
●
●
●
●
Nature of innovation
Implementation phase
Access level
Impact area
A proposal for a mapping framework of
ICT-enabled innovation for learning
Using the mapping framework
Innovating Learning:
Key Elements for
Developing Creative
Classrooms in Europe
Objectives & Background
● conceptualization of ‘Creative Classrooms’
● reference parameters
● up-scaling
Setting the scene
● What are Creative Classrooms
Innovative learning environments that fully embed the potential of ICT to
innovate and modernise learning and teaching practices.
● Innovative teaching and creative learning
T: any kind of teaching which addresses creativity and applies it to
methods and content
L: the possibility for learner to develop their thinking skill and learn in a new,
creative way
● Innovative pedagogies and ICT
Innovative forms of pedagogical practice with ICT encourage learnercentred approaches, group work and participative learning and promote
inquiry- based learning, learning-by-doing, problem-solving and creativity.
Creative Classrooms: a multidimensional concept
● The rationale
● The key dimensions of Creative Classrooms
Reference parameters for Creative
Classrooms
Aim:
● most innovative elements
● sustainable implementation and progressive
up-scaling
CCR reference parameters
Reference parameters for Creative
Classrooms
Applying the CCR multidimensional concept: an example
The Seven Principles of
Sustainable Leadership
The definition of sustainable
leadership
❖ Sustainability: nourish particular initiatives
be developed without compromising now
and in the future.(Hargreaves & Fink 2000)
❖ Sustainable leadership: a share
responsibility, not deplete resources, avoid
damage on surrounding
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 1: creates and preserves sustaining
learning - depth
1.Learning to know
2.Learning to do
3.Learning to be
4.Learning to live together
UNESCO 1996
5.Learning to live sustainably
Hargreaves & Fink, 2006
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 2: secures over time - endurance
Few things succeed less than leadership
succession (Hargreaves & Fink, 2006)
How to get succession?
Approach to succession
The public sector
1.Seeks replacement for
existing roles
2.Selects in relation to
current competencies
3.lets candidates
emerge
The private sector
1.Defines future
leadership skills and
aptitudes
2.Emphasises flexibility
and lifelong learning in
the face of changing
needs
3.•recruits and
encourages potential
leaders
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 3: sustains the leadership of others breadth “授人以渔”
Collaboration
Learning and
teaching focus
Achievement and
Engagement
Learning and
reflection
Use of evidence
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 4: addresses issues of social justice
● do not steal your neighbour’s capacity
● use multiple indicators of accountability
● emphasize collective accountability
● coach a less successful partner school
● make a definable contribution to the
community your school is in
● pair with a school in a different social or natural
environment
● collaborate with your competitors
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 5: develops rather than depletes
human and material resourcesresourcefulness
Energy
Exchange
Renewal
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 6: develops environmental diversity
and capacity
You learn more from people who are different from
you, than ones who are the same (Hargreaves
1988)
Short-term strategies
Long-term strategies
1.Exam strategies
1.Restructuring
2.Revision sessions
2.Student-centered
3.Tutoring
3.Continuous
improvement
4.Recognition of
achievements
5.Pupil-teacher
conference
4.Teaching and
learning
The seven principles of sustainable
leadership
Principle 7: undertakes activist engagement
with the environment- conservation
❖ Respect and build on the past
STOP
What is less
valuable
START
What is more
valuable
CONTINUE
What remains
highly valuable
Compatible with seven principles
Theory of change
Compatible elements with seven
principles
Diffusion
communication & principle 3
Social system & principle 3
Education
Epidemic
collaborative and competitive &
principle 5
self-organized & principle 1
Ecological
Diversity & principle 5
Connectedness & principle 3
Indepedence & principle 7