What is Expanding Learning

The authors propose the necessity to consider educational leadership as a process within complex, unexpected, and continuous changes of 21st century society. They suggest that the source of the educational leadership process consists of expanding learning and personal authority. The process is situated and develops within human relationships, and its main elements are synergy, shared power in terms of empowerment and shared responsibility, and transformation. They studied two long-term educational leadership processes within two large Western educational organizations through qualitative content analysis. They determined that the most influential factor between the educational leadership process and the societal change process is tensions which result in either blocks or solutions. The kind of educational leadership process that is capable of producing solutions was found to entail reciprocity of expanding learning and personal authority. Importantly, within a successful educational leadership process, there is a tight interconnection between synergy, shared power, and transformation.