Distributed Leadership: : School Improvement Through Collaboration

Citation

Ross Thomas, A. (1998), "Distributed Leadership: : School Improvement Through Collaboration", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 94-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea.1998.36.1.94.1

Distributed Leadership is Volume 4 in JAI Press’s Advances in Educational Administration series. It was published in early 1996.

The Advances series was launched by JAI Press in 1990. Volume 1 appeared in two parts, each contributing to what was envisaged as “an annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews”. This prescription for the series was subsequently discarded ‐ a provision that made way for the current volume which is, substantially, a collection of case studies.

The key focus of the book is leadership ‐ leadership in schools. By no means can the general theme be seen as unique ‐ the cynic may in fact bemoan the destruction of even more forests in order to satisfy the whims of yet more explorers investigating this tantalising theme. As with any further contribution to the library of leadership, even the non‐cynical are justified in asking where this book will lead and what (if anything) it will reveal.

Leadership has acquired many accompanying descriptors in recent years. “Transactional” and “transformational” continue to be of current scholarly focus. Likewise, leadership and its enabling counterpart, followership, are subjected to analysis and comparison and all the while the “older” terms such as “autocratic”, “democratic”, “shared” and “delegated” continue to occupy places in our administrative lexicon.

But as its title suggests, Distributed Leadership investigates another theme or, perhaps more accurately, another variation on a theme. Based on their belief that leadership is not confined in monopolistic fashion to the principal’s office, the editors acknowledge the complexity of the process. They pick up on several studies “that suggest leadership is a process that is distributed among many individuals who work in classrooms, in administrative offices, and in communities” (p. 2). In particular, the place of school culture vis‐à‐vis distributed leadership is acknowledged.

Bases for the case studies reported in Distributed Leadership were four public schools in the USA that had made commitments to reform and had made progress in implementing the principles so espoused. Each of the schools (two elementary, one middle and one high) was dedicated to serving the needs of students from economically‐disadvantaged communities. As such the schools, especially their teachers and students, had to face the ordeal of stigmatisation and its numerous, concomitant ills.

Each case study reveals a fascinating story of endeavour as the schools strive to succeed. Success may be identified in each but commonality thereafter is difficult to find so different is each school’s setting. There are so many similarities ‐ the role of the principalship is important, for example, but not uniformly so; likewise central offices and local communities. Pervading the activities of each school is the notion of leadership that has been distributed ‐ not formally by a super‐ordinate in an hierarchy ‐ but through the identification of leadership roles by those involved at all levels and through the acceptance of such by and informed, supportive followership.

The reader of Distributed Leadership will thus encounter a variety of case studies in which a productive approach to leadership is described. There is a freshness and degree of excitement as the tale of each school unfolds. There is no purpose to be served in reading only one case ‐ all must be read. Most readers, particularly principals and teachers in schools in indigent locations, will gain insights that are of value and, in some cases no doubt, they will gain inspiration as well.