What does it take to lead people through school change? Who can do it, and how? What responsibilities fall to school leaders in pressing the conversation about hard issues, creating a sense of urgency, yet not discouraging those for whom change means loss, risk, and uncertainty? What was the best way to serve the needs of the Spanish-speaking students at
Rather than focusing on what an individual leader does “to” or “for” others with a particular intent, Linda Lambert describes leadership in schools as happening in the relationships among everyone in the community: administrators, teachers, students, and parents. These “reciprocal processes,” she says, “enable participants in an educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose of schooling.”
Inequities of race and ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, or position in the social structure of schools have much to do with whether every child is learning well, most Essential School educators acknowledge. Do school leaders have a responsibility to raise such power issues as part of school change? And should they take precedence over other pressing issues that face a
Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991. Robert Evans, The Human Side of School Change, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. Michael Fullan, Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. London: Falmer Press, 1993. John P. Kotter, Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1996. Linda Lambert et al., Who Will Save
Leaders tend to act in different “frames” that reflect their personal styles and that focus on different aspects of any particular problem, suggest Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, who have written widely about organizational change. Some are especially sensitive to the needs of people in the organization and gravitate toward human resources. Some see structure as the key to most
In dealing with the natural human reactions inherent in school change, says Robert Evans, a Massachusetts psychologist who has helped train many of the Coalition’s National Faculty, leaders would benefit from orienting their efforts not around techniques but around a few key predispositions or biases: 1. Clarity and focus. Concentrate on one or two big and achievable changes at a
What do we look for in a change leader, and how do we know it when we see it? The question comes from Phillip Schlechty, who heads the Center for Leadership in School Reform in Louisville, Kentucky and has written much about the particular problems school leaders face in a time of change. He lays out the following suggestions, which