Session Information
26 SES 14 A, Questioning and Advancing Knowledge on Educational Leadership
Paper Session
Contribution
From the 6th century BCE, when Heraclitus said that the only constant is change itself, educators have wrestled with how to deal with change—changing fiscal environments, increased demands for accountability, changing demographics, new policies, difficult personnel issues, and so forth. As the call for this year’s ECER conference acknowledges, the current educational context is that of a VUCA world—a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (Lawrence, 2013). The term originated in the military in the late 1990s, and has more recently come to refer to the need for strategic leadership in many fields, including education. It reminds us that approaches that may have worked when we (incorrectly) saw the world as a giant clock—predominantly clear, certain, stable, and predictable, will not be effective in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. Too often, educational leadership is still conceptualized in rational, technical, or prescriptive terms and comprises a series of prescriptive interventions rather than a holistic set of principles that can promote equity and excellence, inclusion and social justice.
It is not an exaggeration to suggest that educational leaders are complicit (often unintentionally) in the perpetuation of today’s educational shortcomings. Educators in Europe and elsewhere, despite legitimate concerns about working in systems of increasing diversity, high accountability, and disparate resources have a responsibility to ensure that students are adequately prepared, not simply to pass mandated standardized tests, but to take their places as well-informed, caring, and engaged citizens. Yet, often, educators and educational leaders are not adequately prepared to take up this challenge. Too often our administrator preparation courses still focus on the traditional components of policy, law, finance and budgeting, human resource management and supervision, ignoring the important issues related to the changing nature of the social, cultural, and political contexts of schooling and their implications for teaching and learning.
Purpose of Paper, Research Questions, and Theoretical Framework
The purpose of this paper is to posit transformative leadership as a way forward, as a leadership theory that includes consideration of traditional managerial issues but within a framework, and through a lens that accounts for the need for deeply equitable transformation of our educational institutions. To do so, I will draw on a study focused on the experiences of this researcher conducting professional development for all teachers in a small suburban school district in a mid-western state. Hence, the paper will address the following questions:
- · Why are new knowledge frameworks and mindsets necessary?
- · What kinds of knowledge frameworks and mindsets are needed?
- · How will changing knowledge frameworks and mindsets address today’s educational challenges?
- · What is unique about transformative leadership that ensures its success?
The theoretical framework for this paper begins with the work of Burns (1978, 2003) who advocated transforming leadership. The concept was expanded by Foster (1986), Quantz, Rogers, and Dantley (1991), Weiner (2003) and Shields (2011, 2012, 2016) and others. In 2013, van Oord wrote that Shields (2010, 2012) had “successfully endeavoured to define and theorize transformative leadership as distinctively separate from the transformational approach” (p. 421). Shields argues that transformative leadership “begins with questions of justice and democracy; it critiques inequitable practices and offers the promise not only of greater individual achievement but of a better life lived in common with others.” Similarly, from Ecuador, Anello, Hernandez, and Khadem (2014) state that “Transformative learning challenges our ways of thinking and helps us to critically examine the fundamental assumptions underlying our worldview or mental models, resulting in life-changing insights” (p. 3). This paper posits that challenging our assumptions is an essential leadership task if we are to address today’s VUCA educational challenges.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Anello, E., Hernandez, J., & Khadem, M. (2014), Transformative leadership: Developing the hidden dimension, Houston, TX: Harmony Equity Press. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. Burns, J. M. (2003), Transforming leadership, New York: Grove. Evers, C. W., & Wu, E. H. (2006). On generalising from single case studies: Epistemological reflections. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 40(4), 511–526. Foster, W. (1986). Paradigms and promises, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Lawrence, K. (2013), Developing leaders in a VUCA environment, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flager Business School. Loewen, J. W. (2006). Sundown towns: A hidden dimension of American racism. New York: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone. Mertens, D. M. (2010). Transformative mixed methods research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(6), 469-474. Quantz, R. A., Rogers, J. & Dantley, M. (1991). Rethinking transformative leadership: Toward democratic reform of schools. Journal of Education, 173(3), 96-118. Shields, C. M., (2011), Transformative leadership: An introduction, In C. M. Shields (Ed.), Transformative leadership: A reader, New York: Peter Lang. pp.1-17. Shields, C. M., (2012), Transformative leadership in education: Equitable change in an uncertain and complex world, New York: Routledge Shields, C. M., (2016), Transformative leadership: Primer, New York: Peter Lang. van Oord, L. (2013). Towards transformative leadership in education. International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, 16(4), 419-434. Weiner, E. J. (2003). Secretary Paulo Freire and the democratization of power: Toward a theory of transformative leadership, Educational Philosophy and theory, 35(1), 89-106.
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