Learning to share: a vision of leadership practice

Abstract

This article aims at providing insight into ways of constructing leadership for learning within a Norwegian context. The focus is on how a Norwegian principal talks about educational leadership and learning. The principal's story is juxtaposed with references to how her deputies and a group of teachers frame their experiences about leadership for learning at this particular school. In this instance, the sharing of leadership is considered successful because those wishing to share in the leadership of the school have learned first to share in the leader's vision of leading. A main argument is that in constructing her story about leadership for learning the principal is also negotiating who she is for others as well as for herself, and her identity construction is work in progress.

Notes

1. All the transcripts used in this article were translated by the author from Norwegian into English. In the process important nuances might have been lost in translation. However, the author listened carefully to the taped conversations, to the rhythm and pitch of the story, before translation and has tried to catch the meaning as carefully as possible.

2. Key principles for the ‘Leadership for Learning’ project involve maintaining a focus on learning as activity, creating conditions favourable to Learning as an activity, creating a dialogue about leadership for learning, the sharing of leadership and fostering a shared sense of accountability. The principles were developed as the project progressed through data collection and analysis across the international research sites (cf. Dempster and Johnson 2006: 32–37).

3. These core practices include setting the direction (i.e. helping develop a set of shared goals that encourage a sense of common purpose), developing people (i.e. influencing behaviour for the achievement of shared goals through the provision of intellectual stimulation and individual and collective support) and redesigning the organization (i.e. facilitating the work of the school community in achieving shared goals that may require a leader to reshape a school's culture and structure) (Leithwood and Riehl 2005: 20–22).