Distributed Leadership: A Qualitative Case Study

Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.

Collective leadership’s influence on students is mainly related to the teacher’s work setting and motivation, however, it has a weaker effect on a teacher’s capacity.

Currently, I am not an employee of any learning organization, school district or educational system. However, I am involved and Chair the School Advisory Council (SAC) of Greenland Pines Elementary. This opportunity granted me a unique opportunity to observe the management of two different principals with their individual leadership styles. Furthermore, I contrasted my business practices from my own company and military service to coincide with this case study. The purpose of this paper is a comprehensive written outlining the processes presented by the educational leadership at Greenland Pines Elementary. With this in mind, we need to understand the concept of educational leadership.

Teacher leaders and administrators play a vital role in the overall organizational structure of a school. As discussed in Educational Leadership, there are ten roles that teacher leaders tend to gravitate towards. The roles of teacher leaders vary according to duties and responsibilities placed on the teacher leader, they include the following: resource provider, instructional specialist, curriculum specialist, classroom supporter, learning facilitator, mentor, school leader, data coach, catalyst for change, and learner (Harrison & Killion, 2007, pg. 74-77). As a teacher leadership at Lake Oconee Academy, I personally see my duties and responsibilities covering several of these roles. Since the beginning of my employment at Lake Oconee

Leadership has been examined and defined by several theorists through the generations. The Webster dictionary defines the word as followed, “a guide, conductor; a person who directs a military force or unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence…” This paper will provide other viewpoints summarized by various theorists. The main purpose is to review the interview conducted with Dr. Marilyn Roseman, the head of the education department of Mount Aloysius College, and analyze what leadership model she seems to follow.

This paper explores numerous published articles discussing research on implications of different leadership techniques and effective school systems. Discussions of various leadership strategies and their real-world applications within school systems are implemented throughout this paper along with considerations of teacher retention and multiculturalism. Personal experience is also a key element of discussion in this paper. With all faculty and staff of school systems considered and being represented.

One of my primary leadership responsibilities as the Principal of West Shore Middle School is to developed a shared leadership model whereby professional development and major building based decisions are created and vetted through different members of the leadership team before it is introduced to the staff as a whole. For example, administration, curriculum leaders, and the reading coach meet to create professional development experience to support our School Continuous Improvement Plan. We then meet with the team leaders to present what is created. Finally, the presentation is announced to the staff. Utilizing this process fosters a sense of collaboration to provide meaningful professional learning and building based instructional decisions.

The study of leadership in higher education brings with it a multitude of concepts, theories, and topics to learn, and as a novice researcher, it is important to explore as many of these concepts as possible during your degree program in order to gain a better understanding of the magnitude the study of leadership in higher education covers. Throughout a doctoral program on leadership in higher education, candidates will encounter hundreds of scholarly articles and empirical studies that fall in the purview of postsecondary leadership. When reviewing these articles, it is important to analyze and synthesize each piece of research to determine the methodologies used by scholar-practitioners and identify best practices in educational

stressed the feeling of being uncomfortable with ordering the students about. This would suggest it is something they are not used to (Field notes, 4th June, 2014).

This paper reviews three leadership theories; moral leadership, servant leadership, and situational leadership. I will discuss each theory as a single entity to demonstrate how the theory depicts the leader in relation to the community. I will further examine the roles and characteristics of the teacher leader within each model. Last, this review will identify how I believe these theories are a blended part of my school’s leadership perspectives.

Throughout my teaching career, I often found myself in various leadership roles. The ones that most matched my leadership style included opportunities for me to practice the characteristics of a Transformational Leader. I believe instructional success for all students surfaces through a deep and sustained commitment by each and every staff member. This type of commitment and dedication occurs through empowerment. I've assisted with developing Professional Learning Communities in the past and this has assisted with fostering a culture of collaboration and accountability. My experience with PLC’s has led to the practice of Shared Leadership. Through Shared Leadership, staff was encouraged to assume greater responsibility and influence while

Reitzug, West and Angel (2008) discuss four dominant conceptions of instructional leadership—relational, linear, organic and prophetic. In a relational instructional leadership, increased learning and improvement in instruction does not occur as a result of working directly with the instructional program but rather as a byproduct of relationship building—principal with students, staff, community, etc. Linear instructional leadership assumes that systems can be designed so that one action, structure, or procedure will lead to a desired outcome, which will then cause a chain of desired outcomes. Organic instructional leadership asserts that instructional components cannot be addressed in isolation but as a whole. Prophetic instructional leadership

In the field of education, there is a tremendous amount of classroom theory that is applied during student teaching. The newly inducted teacher has time to develop strong practices. During this phase, the teacher is observed, mentored, and coached. Valuable insight, feedback, and guidance is provided from staff to assist with the development of the new teacher. On the other hand, when an assistant principal becomes a newly named principal, there is minimal direction about next steps. Becoming an effective principal is a true example of on-the-job training. Possessing strong leadership abilities is a far greater feat that takes time to develop.

Organisational learning can be seen as the goal of knowledge management and may be obtained by good knowledge management strategies and processes. By motivating the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge, KM initiatives pay off by helping the organization embed knowledge into organisational processes so that it can continuously improve its practices and behaviours and pursue the achievement of its goals.

Hewlett Packard (HP) is a leading multinational organization providing products and services in many IT related technologies such as computer hardware and software, printers, scanners, storage devices etc. In 1995, the company decided to introduce knowledge management in its organization that will make its systems, processes, outcomes superior with organized and systematic knowledge handling and storage. HP faces severe competition and thus has to be ahead of the market using many strategies, one of which is application of Knowledge Management (KM). With over 600 business units located