The pressing problems school leaders name as crucial in their work and difficult to resolve.
Published in Chapter:
Learning to Lead in the Midst of Complex Times: A Window into the Nature of School Leaders’ Work Challenges
Patricia Maslin-Ostrowski (Florida Atlantic University, USA) and Eleanor Drago-Severson (Columbia University, USA)
Copyright: © 2013
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4249-2.ch003
Abstract
The authors interviewed and surveyed principals from Bermuda and four regions of the US about what they name as their more pressing challenges and how they manage them. The challenges they named are composed of both adaptive and technical work (Heifetz, 1994), which required leaders, teachers, and community members to change. More specifically, regardless of how principals interpreted their challenges, i.e., technical, adaptive, or mixed, a common part of their response was to foster professional growth and development—or learning—as part of the solution. Leaders typically focused on caring for the learning of others, yet at times they needed to stretch their own learning curves. Leaders supported faculty and staff by developing informational, transformational, and mixed learning experiences as tools to help faculty and staff work through their part of these complex challenges. Leadership preparation programs are encouraged to address managing phases of adaptive, technical, and mixed challenges.