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Sustaining Leadership

The issue of sustaining change in education has to do with more than


maintaining improvements over time. Drawing on their work with six schools
involved in improvement ef forts, the authors explore the crucial role that school
leaders play in supporting and sustaining those aspects of teaching and
lear ning that are themselves sustaining.

BY ANDY HARGREAVES AND DEAN FINK

DUCATIONAL CHANGE is rarely easy, always hard to justify,

E
and almost impossible to sustain. Educational change that enhances
deep learning among students is particularly problematic, and
sustaining such change over time has presented severe challenges
for education reformers.1 Discussions of the sustainability of ed-
ucational change try to address these challenges, but they often
trivialize the idea of sustainability by equating it with maintain-
ability — with how to make change last. Here we develop deep-
er meanings of “sustainability” and examine the extent to which efforts to sus-
tain change are in tune with the ecological origins of the concept.

We live in a complex and fast-changing knowledge society.2 Meanwhile, teaching


and school leadership are in the midst of major demographic turnover. Such changes
are not easy to control. Indeed, they require different ways of thinking about change
in human and natural systems — ways that our conventional approaches to planned
change have not allowed. We seek to link our deeper senses of sustainable change to
significant leadership issues in education in order to develop key principles of what
we call “sustaining leadership.” Our work draws on a five-year program of school im-
provement involving six secondary schools in an urban and suburban school district
in Ontario, as well as on Change Over Time? — a study funded by the Spencer Foun-
dation that included a look at leadership over time in eight high schools in Ontario
and New York State.

ANDY HARGREAVES holds the Thomas More Brennan chair in Education, Lynch School of Educa-
tion, Boston College. DEAN FINK is an independent consultant and an associate of the Ontario In-
stitute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

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A TRADITIONAL VIEW pace of change. It does not permit change to outrun its
For many years, change agents and theorists of edu- resource base and deplete the reserves that are needed
cational change have been concerned with how to move by others. Sustainable policies do not lavish resources
beyond the implementation phase of change, when new on computer hardware when long-term spending com-
ideas and practices are tried for the first time, to the mitments cannot support continuing maintenance or
institutionalization phase, when new practices are in- updates in software. Sustainable policies in education
tegrated effortlessly into teachers’ repertoires and can don’t squander all the resources on pilot projects, leav-
affect many teachers, not just a few.3 Many long-stand- ing little for everybody else, or invest improvement funds
ing practices — among them the graded school, the in coordinators who disappear once the money has dried
compartmentalized secondary school, tracking students up. Sustainable improvement requires investment in
by ability, and teacher-centered instruction — have been building long-term capacity for improvement, such as
institutionalized over long periods of time and have the development of teachers’ skills, which will stay with
become part of the “grammar of schooling.”4 The per- them forever, long after the project money has gone.
sistence of this grammar — and of everyone’s ideas of Finally, promoters of sustainability cultivate and re-
how schools should really work as institutions — has create an educational ecosystem that can stimulate on-
made it exceptionally difficult to institutionalize inno- going improvement on a broad front. They enable peo-
vations and reforms that challenge the grammar, that ple to adapt to and prosper in their increasingly com-
imply a different and deviant institutional appearance plex environment. A hyper-rational, highly standard-
and way of operating for schooling.5 ized approach to change that seeks efficiency above all
In the face of this traditional grammar of school- else is the enemy of healthy and creative diversity. It
ing, the vast majority of educational change that deep- produces overly simple systems that are too specialized
ens learning and allows everyone to benefit from it or standardized to allow the learning and cross-fertili-
neither spreads nor lasts. This long-standing problem zation that are necessary for healthy development. Stan-
of institutionalization is now coming to be understood dardized reform strategies make school systems less like
as the even more complex problem of sustainability. rich, biodiverse rain forests of cross-fertilizing influence
than like regimented tree farms.
The evidence from research we have undertaken with
THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
our colleagues on the long-term impact of education-
Sustainability is more than a matter of persistence al change in Canada and New York State is that stan-
over time. It concerns more than the life and death of dardized reform is destroying diversity and seriously
a change. As we have argued elsewhere: “Sustainabil- endangering the lives and futures of the weakest mem-
ity does not simply mean whether something can last. bers of the school communities — those who are poor,
It addresses how particular initiatives can be devel- who are learning through a new language, or who have
oped without compromising the development of oth- special educational needs. For example, there are dis-
ers in the surrounding environment, now and in the tricts in which severely disadvantaged students are be-
future.”6 ing denied the right to graduate because of failure to
This definition implies several things. First, sustain- meet the regimented standards.7 Similarly, improve-
able improvement is enduring, not evanescent. It does ments in test results in the short run are being bought
not put its investment dollars into the high-profile at the expense of the ability to recruit and retain teach-
launch of an initiative and then withdraw them when ers over the long term, since teaching driven by short-
the glamour has gone. Sustainable improvement de- term results is not the kind of teaching that teachers want
mands committed relationships, not fleeting infatua- to do.8
tions. It is change for keeps and change for good. Sus- In education, one important addition to our defi-
tainable improvement contributes to the growth and nition of sustainability is that not everything is worth
the good of everyone, instead of fostering the fortunes keeping. In education, it matters that what is sustained
of the few at the expense of the rest. It does not pro- is what, in terms of teaching and learning, is itself sus-
mote model schools or magnet schools that divert scarce taining. To sustain is to keep alive; sustenance is nour-
resources from the rest. ishment. And in education, good teaching and learn-
Second, sustainable improvement develops and draws ing that matter and last for life are inherently sus-
on resources and support at a rate that can match the taining processes. Supporting and maintaining those

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aspects of teaching and learning that are deep and that We will now look at three particular aspects of sus-
foster sophisticated understanding and lifelong learn- tainable leadership — that is, leadership that promotes
ing define the core of sustainable education. Merely the five different components of sustainability in ed-
maintaining practices that raise test scores or that pro- ucational change that we have outlined. The schools
duce easily measurable re- we worked with provide ex-
sults does not sustain these amples of both sustainable
deeper aspects of teaching High-stakes testing and nonsustainable leader-
and learning. ship.
In sum, sustainability in
educational change consists
can push teachers to Leading learning. The
primary responsibility of all
of five key and interrelated
characteristics:
deliver improved school leaders is to sustain
learning. Leaders of learning
• improvement that fosters
learning, not merely change
results, but it does put learning at the center of
everything they do. They
that alters schooling;
• improvement that en-
not necessarily cause put student learning first,
and everyone else’s learning
dures over time;
• improvement that can them to produce is directed toward support-
ing student learning.10 The
be supported by available or principal’s role as a leader of
obtainable resources; better learning. learning is put to the strong-
• improvement that does est test when his or her school
not affect negatively the surrounding environment of faces demanding policies that seem to undermine true
other schools and systems; and learning or to pull people’s energies and attention away
• improvement that promotes ecological diversity and from it.
capacity throughout the educational and community High-stakes testing can push teachers to deliver im-
environment. proved results, but it does not necessarily cause them
This fivefold definition of sustainability raises ques- to produce better learning. What educators do in this
tions not only about the endurance of educational and situation depends on their commitment to student
organizational change over time, but also about its ar- learning and on their attitudes toward their own learn-
rangement and articulation through space. ing. In 2001 Ontario introduced a high-stakes litera-
cy test in grade 10. It was required of virtually all stu-
dents, who needed to pass it in order to graduate. High
SUSTAINABILITY AND NONSUSTAINABILITY stakes, high pressure!
IN LEADERSHIP Ivor Megson was the new principal at Talisman Park
Sustainability involves a way of thinking that is in- Secondary School.11 Promoted from being assistant
tegrative, holistic, and ecological. It is an intellectual principal at the school, Megson was dedicated to his
world view that takes the complexity of human and work as a leader, but he did not like to rock the boat
natural systems as a given, and it is crucial to address- too much. Most of his staff had been at the school a
ing the complexities of the knowledge society.9 long time. They liked being innovative in their own
What contribution can leaders make to the kind of academic subjects, but they were skeptical and often
sustainable improvement we have described? In our cynical about reform on a larger scale. A coffee circle
view, leaders develop sustainability by the way in which of embittered staff members met every morning be-
they approach, commit to, and protect deep learning fore school to complain about the government’s lat-
in their schools; by the way they sustain others in their est initiatives and announcements, which appeared al-
efforts to promote and support that learning; by the most daily. Like many principals, Megson saw his re-
way they sustain themselves in their work, so that they sponsibility as being to protect his staff from the del-
can persist with their vision and avoid burning out; uge of reforms that descended on the school. This, he
and by the way they try to ensure that the improve- felt, was the best way he could help them.
ments they bring about will last over time, especially With his staff, Megson therefore figured out how
after they themselves have gone. the school could respond to the grade-10 test in a way

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that would produce the best results with the least ers were convinced that in the years to come, test scores
amount of disruption. Quickly, he and his staff began would increase as genuine reflections of learning and
identifying a group of students who, according to their achievement, rather than because of cynical manipu-
pretests, would fall just be- lations of the testing proc-
low the passing mark. The ess. Indeed, by the second
school then coached or
“prepped” these students in- In a complex, fast- year, the scores at Wayvern
registered well above the
tensively in literacy learn- district mean.
ing so that they would per- paced world, leadership One reform; two prin-
form acceptably when the cipals; two schools; differ-
real test came around. Tech- cannot rest on the ent outcomes. Especially in
nically, the strategy worked. the most adverse circum-
The results for the school shoulders of the few. stances, it is those principals
looked good. But teachers’ who are leaders of learning
energies are finite, and as who make the most lasting
staff members concentrated on those students near the and inclusive improvements for their students and their
cutoff point, the ones who really needed help with liter- schools.
acy and had little chance of making the passing thresh- Distributed leadership. Outstanding leadership is
old were cast by the wayside. At Talisman Park, authen- not just the province of individual icons and heroes.12
tic literacy and learning for all — especially for the In a complex, fast-paced world, leadership cannot rest
most needy — were sacrificed to appearances and re- on the shoulders of the few. The burden is too great. In
sults. highly complex, knowledge-based organizations, every-
Charmaine Williams was the principal of Wayvern one’s intelligence is needed to help the organization
High School, just up the road from Talisman Park. flex, respond, regroup, and retool in the face of unpre-
Wayvern was a culturally and ethnically diverse school dictable and sometimes overwhelming demands. Lock-
and had a high number of students for whom English ing intelligence up in the individual leader creates in-
was their second language. Wayvern had a lot to lose flexibility and increases the likelihood of mistakes and
on the literacy test. Yet Williams’ school made litera- errors.
cy, not the literacy test, one of its key improvement But when we draw on what Phillip Brown and Hugh
goals. Williams engaged her staff in inquiry about how Lauder call “collective intelligence” — intelligence that
to improve literacy so it would benefit all students in is infinite rather than fixed, multifaceted rather than
the long term, instead of focusing on how to manip- singular, and belongs to everyone, not just a few —
ulate the short-term scores on the test. Working with the capacity for learning and improvement is magni-
large staff teams, across disciplines, and with work- fied many times over.13 For these reasons, more and
shop training support, Wayvern undertook an audit more efforts are being made to replace individual lead-
of existing literacy practices in classrooms, researched ers with more distributed leadership. This kind of lead-
effective literacy strategies that might be helpful, and ership comprises a network of relationships of people,
undertook a “gap analysis” to see what improvements structures, and cultures (both within and across orga-
would be necessary. Teachers shared their literacy strat- nizational boundaries). It is not just a role assigned to,
egies across subjects. Then they dedicated a whole month or acquired by, a person in an organization. Distributed
to a high-profile focus on literacy learning in the school leadership is an organic activity, dependent on inter-
and in the community. They also continued a success- relationships and connections.14
ful literacy initiative they had already launched in which Mark Warne was the principal of North Ridge High
everyone in the school read together for 15 minutes a School. Three years from retirement, he had a keen
day. Williams harnessed her staff ’s learning in support intellect and a deep knowledge about imposed change
of student learning. and its effects. Warne valued and was skilled at seeing
The immediate test results for Wayvern were not the “big picture” of reform. When legislated reforms
spectacular (as is usual with more sustainable change). were announced, he produced detailed and thought-
But together the staff and parents were confident that ful written and projected time lines for implementa-
long-term improvement mattered most. Wayvern teach- tion that he circulated to his staff for comment.

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The response was disappointing, however, and Warne the “curriculum gap” or having them share successful
confided that his staff was generally apathetic about experiences in classroom assessment by seating them at
getting involved with change. Warne’s strength was cross-disciplinary tables at the staff picnic, where they
that he possessed great intellectual clarity, but he could scribbled their ideas as graffiti on paper tablecloths.
not develop the capacity in his staff to share it with Meanwhile, Bill Johnson, the other assistant principal,
him. The big picture of change belonged to him, not to drew on his counseling skills to develop effective com-
everyone. His office was packed with policy statements, munication and relationships with and among the staff
resources, and materials that might better have been dis- members.
tributed around the school. He controlled the school’s As a team, these new assistants were able to set a
directions through the line management of the depart- common vision for the school and to adopt a more
ment heads. The department heads were quite auton- open style of communication. In this new style, the
omous in their areas, and staff involvement depended staff focused on collaborative learning, inquiry, and
on the leadership style of each head. problem solving. Warne’s strength was in having the
Warne delegated work to his subordinate depart- good sense to “distribute” the leadership of important
ment heads and accepted their advice in areas where classroom-related changes to his assistants, who in turn
they were more expert than he. The heads of depart- redistributed much of the leadership to other staff mem-
ments generally described him as “supportive, com- bers so that they could learn to be critical filters for
passionate, and well intentioned.” Yet the wider staff government mandates rather than mere pipelines for
felt excluded from decisions and ill informed on im- implementing them.
portant issues. They considered him to be “indecisive, Leadership succession. Sustainable leadership out-
inconsistent, and lacking a personal vision.” Of the lives particular individuals. It does not disappear when
six schools we worked with, North Ridge was the on- leaders leave. The departure of the initiating principal
ly one whose staff members identified themselves as or even of the critical mass of early leaders from mod-
“cruising”: their mainly affluent students were getting el or magnet schools is often the first symptom of de-
good results, but the school lacked purpose and direc- cline.16 Robert Macmillan has observed that the prac-
tion.15 At a school improvement workshop we ran with tice in some school districts of regularly rotating lead-
the whole staff, the chief problem the participants chose ers between schools can harden teachers against change
to address was “communications with the administra - because they come to see the principalship as little more
tion.” than a revolving door in a building where they are the
Soon afterward, the school began to change dra- permanent residents. 17 Whether principal rotation is
matically, but not through a change of principal. One formalized or not, changes in leadership always pose
of Warne’s assistant principals was close to retirement a threat to sustainable improvement.
and performed traditional disciplinary and adminis- Bill Mathews was the son of a policeman — a tall,
trative roles. The other was battling with what sadly commanding figure who brought vision, energy, and
turned out to be a terminal illness. In 1998 two new intellectual rigor to his role. Mathews believed strong-
assistant principals were appointed. Together, they in- ly that students came first, and he pursued this belief
fused the school’s administration with renewed en- with a sense of clear expectation and relentless deter-
thusiasm, optimism, and focus. With her athletic bear- mination. Some staff members respected his commit-
ing and infectiously energetic style, Diane Grant brought ment to children and his willingness to take action and
a sophisticated knowledge of curriculum and classroom put himself on the line for their sake. Prior experience
assessment to the problem of reform. Before long she of the principalship buttressed his self-confidence, and
was skillfully leading the staff members in analyzing in a teacher culture that reveled in argument and de-

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bate, Mathews’ somewhat adversarial style, which en- pectations played an important role. With their con-
couraged and entertained well-reasoned and support- trasting styles, they too fostered greater teacher par-
ed opposition to his ideas, suited a sizable number of ticipation in the work of the school.
staff members very well. It also stimulated some lively Bill Mathews felt it had been a struggle to change
staff meetings, including one at which student recom- the school culture to provide “a service to kids and the
mendations for improving school climate occasioned community.” Yet, when he presented staff members
teacher protests about bad- with survey data showing
ly expressed student opin- that 95% of them were sat-
ions. Mathews led Stewart Blue Mountain’s isfied with the school while
Heights School with firm only 35% of students and
expectations and by clear founding principal 25% of parents were satis-
example, accompanied by fied, this created a com-
lively argument and con-
siderable humor. The most
anticipated his own mon problem that the staff
then had to solve together.
outstanding instance of his
leading by example came
departure and worked With more time to help
staff members work through
when he personally solved
the scheduling problems of
hard to create a their doubts and difficul-
ties, Mathews and his team
80 students to demonstrate
to his staff that better serv-
school structure that might well have been able
to convert the temporary
ice for students was possi-
ble. would survive it. success of short-term inno-
vation into sustainable im-
In the wake of his ex- provement. They might have
ample and expectations, Mathews quickly got staff been able to complete the reculturing of the school.
members to analyze data consciously and to make ac- But by the end of Mathews’ third year, changing cir-
tion plans on the basis of what they learned. He inte- cumstances within the school system caused him to
grated several improvement teams to permit far greater be moved to a district administratorship. One of the
voice and participation for teachers in the work of the assistant principals moved to his first principalship,
school than had been possible when the department and the other assistant moved to her second assistant
heads’ council was dominant. In this culturally diverse principalship.
school, Mathews encouraged the staff to initiate a Stewart Heights’ new leader was new to the school
range of changes that made students feel more in- and to the principalship and had to feel his way care-
cluded and parents more welcome. Structures, plan- fully. The mandated reform agenda was also gather-
ning, and implementation, backed up by his own per- ing pace. The result of these converging forces was that
sonal interactions with people and his visibility around the staff and the new principal turned their attention
the school, were the ways that Mathews brought about more to implementation than to improvement. At school
change. Many staff members, including most of those climate meetings, student-centered policies gave way to
on the School Success Team, warmed to this decisive- conventional behavior-code initiatives. The early achieve-
ness and sense of direction. They referred to Mathews ments of school improvement at Stewart Heights quick-
as “a visionary, a change agent, and an efficient manager.” ly began to fade. If school improvement is to be sustain-
However, others, especially women, indicated that, while able, some continuity is essential.
they had respect for him, they questioned what they con- By comparison, Blue Mountain School, an innova-
strued to be a somewhat authoritarian style. tive school established in 1994, planned its own lead-
The assistant principals offered complementary ap- ership succession from the outset. The fate of most in-
proaches within the administrative team. One present- novative schools is to fade away once their first prin-
ed a quieter, more restrained, and procedural version cipals have left. Brad Curtis, Blue Mountain’s found-
of masculinity in leadership than his “up-front” prin- ing principal, anticipated his own departure and worked
cipal. The other took a more relationship-centered ap- hard to create a school structure that would survive it
proach to students, curriculum, and staff development, and “perpetuate what we are doing.” He was especially
in which caring coupled with hard work and high ex- alert to the threats posed by leadership succession when

698 PHI DELTA KAPPAN


an ensuing principal might import a different philos- leaders is the regular opportunity to meet and converse
ophy.18 Therefore, he “negotiated very strongly” with with other leaders, to talk openly about shared profes-
the district to have his assistant principal appointed to sional and sometimes personal concerns.19
replace him. After four years, the system moved Cur- 2. Education systems should see leadership as a verti-
tis to another school in the district and promoted his cal system that extends over time. The efforts of all lead-
assistant in his place. In the words of the new princi- ers are influenced by the impact of their predecessors
pal: and have implications for their successors. No leader
is an island in time. Principals and their systems tend
We talked about this move, and we talked about how to put all their energy into what Etienne Wenger calls
we could preserve the direction that the school is inbound knowledge — the knowledge needed to change
moving in, and we were afraid that if a new admin- a school, improve it, make one’s mark on it, turn it
istrator came in as principal that, if he or she had a around. Little or no attention is devoted to outbound
different philosophy, a different set of beliefs, then knowledge — the knowledge needed to preserve past
it would be quite easy to simply move things in that successes or keep initiatives going once the leader has
particular direction, and we didn’t want that to hap- left.20 The moment principals get new appointments,
pen. they start to focus on their new school and their next
challenge, not on how to ensure that their present
Blue Mountain is a rarity. In general, planned suc- achievements live on after their departure. Few things
cession is one of the most neglected aspects of leader- in education succeed less than leadership succession.
ship theory and practice in our schools. Indeed, it is Heroic principals do not plan for their own obsoles-
one of the most persistently missing pieces in the ef- cence. The emphasis on change has obliterated the im-
fort to secure the sustainability of school improve- portance of continuity.
ment. In urban schools, teachers see their principals come
and go as though they were passing through revolv-
ing doors. They learn quickly how to resist or ignore
IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP
the leader’s efforts. The result is that school improve-
Our definition and dimensions of sustainability in ment becomes like a set of bobbing corks, with schools
education and our case illustrations carry a number of rising under one set of leaders, only to sink under the
implications for what it might mean to develop sus- next. If we want sustainable leadership, we must pay
tainable leadership. serious attention to leadership succession. Leaders must
1. The future of leadership must be embedded in the be asked — and must ask themselves — what their
hearts and minds of the many and not rest on the shoul- legacy will be and how their influence will live on after
ders of a heroic few. School leadership is not the sum they have gone. The time to think about such matters
of its individual leaders. School leadership is a system, is when they start their leadership, not when they bring
a culture. Schools are places in which principals, teach- it to a close.
ers, students, and parents should all lead. To sustain The recruitment and development of leaders in pub-
high-quality leadership, school systems must apply sys- lic service in most developed countries has become a
tems thinking to all their initiatives. They must come major concern as the baby boomer generation moves
to see leadership as a culture of integrated qualities on. For example, by 2005, 70% of the senior man-
rather than as merely an aggregate of common charac- agers in public service in the U.S. will be eligible for
teristics. This is the essence of the holistic approach to retirement. This mass exodus will cause “unique chal-
sustainable leadership. lenges for numerous agencies in maintaining leader-
School jurisdictions should see leadership as a hor- ship continuity, institutional memory, and workforce
izontal system that extends across space, in which lead- experience.”21 In education, after years of top-down
ers can learn from one another within and across their reform, many current leaders are retiring at their first
schools through peer support groups, online dialogue, opportunity, thereby creating a crisis of recruitment
pairing of schools and their principals, joint research and retention.
and development projects, and so on. As we saw dem- The “best” private-sector organizations consider in-
onstrated in our school improvement project, one of vesting in the development of leaders as “assets” to the
the components most consistently valued by school organization. These forward-looking organizations look

MAY 2003 699


at the long term to determine the kinds of leadership cisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2001); Michael Fielding, ed., Taking Educa-
tion Really Seriously: Four Years’ Hard Labour (New York: Routledge-
skills and aptitudes that will be needed in the future.22 Falmer, 2001); and Kenneth A. Sirotnik, “Promoting Responsible Ac-
Education has much to learn from the private sector countability in Schools and Education,” Phi Delta Kappan, May 2002,
about planning for succession. pp. 662-73.
3. The promise of sustainable success in education lies 2. See Andy Hargreaves, Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education
in the Age of Insecurity (New York: Teachers College Press, 2003).
in creating cultures of distributed leadership throughout
3. Stephen Anderson and Susan Stiegelbauer, “Institutionalization and
the school community, not in training and developing a Renewal in a Restructured Secondary School,” School Organization, vol.
tiny leadership elite. In a world of high expectations, 14, 1994, pp. 279-93.
rapid change, and a youthful profession in the first 4. David Tyack and William Tobin, “The Grammar of Schooling: Why
decades of the 21st century, teachers cannot be mere- Has It Been So Hard to Change?,” American Educational Research Jour-
nal, vol. 31, 1994, pp. 453-80.
ly the targets of other people’s leadership. Instead, they 5. John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations:
must see themselves as being — and be encouraged to Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” American Journal of Sociol-
be — leaders of classrooms and of colleagues from the ogy, vol. 83, 1977, pp. 440-63.
moment they begin their careers. 6. Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink, “The Three Dimensions of Re-
form,” Educational Leadership, April 2000, pp. 30-34.
Distributed leadership means more than simple del-
7. Louise Stoll, “Realizing Our Potential: Understanding and Develop-
egation. Delegation involves passing on lesser and of- ing Capacity for Lasting Improvement,” School Effectiveness and School
ten unwanted tasks to others. The individual leader de- Improvement, vol. 10, 1999, pp. 503-32.
cides what will be delegated and to whom. Distributed 8. Hargreaves, op. cit.
leadership means creating a culture of initiative and 9. Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society (New York: HarperCollins,
1993); Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Black-
opportunity, in which teachers of all kinds propose well, 1996); and Schooling for Tomorrow: What Schools for the Future?
new directions and start innovations, perhaps even chal- (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2001).
lenging and creating difficulties for their principals in 10. Louise Stoll, Lorna Earl, and Dean Fink, It’s About Learning: It’s
the overall interests of the students and the school. In About Time (London: Routledge, 2002).
its fullest development, distributed leadership extends 11. All names are pseudonyms.
beyond the staff to the students and the parents. Dis- 12. John R. Saul, Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the
West (New York: Free Press, 1992).
tributed leadership gives depth and breadth to the idea 13. Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder, Capitalism and Social Progress: The
and practice of sustainable leadership. Future of Society in a Global Economy (New York: Palgrave, 2001).
14. Kathryn Riley, “Leadership, Learning, and Systemic Reform,” Jour-
Schools that sustain “deep” learning experiences for nal of Educational Change, vol. 1, 2000, pp. 29-55.
all students must address the breadth of school lead- 15. On the concept of “cruising schools,” see Louise Stoll and Dean
Fink, Changing Our Schools: Linking School Effectiveness and School Im-
ership in supporting and promoting the learning of provement (Buckingham, England: Open University Press, 1996).
present and future leaders. They should address the 16. Seymour Sarason, The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies
length and sustainability of school leadership over time, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1972); and Dean Fink, Good School/Real
helping leaders to plan for their own professional ob- School: The Life Cycle of an Innovative School (New York: Teachers Col-
lege Press, 2000).
solescence and to think about their schools’ needs for 17. Robert Macmillan, “The Relationship Between School Culture and
continuity as well as change. Principals’ Practices During Succession” (Doctoral dissertation, Uni-
School systems will have to acknowledge and cre- versity of Toronto, 1996); and idem, “Leadership Succession, Culture
ate conditions that distribute leadership far beyond of Teaching, and Educational Change,” in Nina Bascia and Andy Har-
greaves, eds., The Sharp Edge of Educational Change (London: Falmer
the principal’s office to the entire culture of the school Press, 2000), pp. 52-71.
— and even to the larger community. And they will 18. Hargreaves and Fink, op. cit.
need to concentrate on the leadership skills and qual- 19. For more evidence on the benefits of dialogue among principals, see
ities that will sustain the kind of deep learning and so- Brenda Beatty, “Emotion Matters in Educational Leadership” (Doctor-
al dissertation, University of Toronto, 2002).
phisticated teaching that we need in the future, rather
20. Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and
than merely seeking to survive in the present. Success- Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
ful leadership is sustainable leadership; nothing sim- 21. Financial Executives International (FEI), “Building Human Capi-
pler, nothing less. tal: The Public Sector’s 21st Century Challenge,” 2001, available at
www.fei.org (search on title).
22. Keith Jackson, “Building New Teams: The Next Generation,” pa-
1. Linda McNeil, Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of per presented at the conference on the Future of Work in the Public
Standardization (New York: Routledge, 2000); Andy Hargreaves et al., Sector, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, B.C.,
Learning to Change: Teaching Beyond Subjects and Standards (San Fran- 2000. K

700 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

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