School Leaders' Problem Framing: A Sense-Making Approach to Problem-Solving Processes of Beginning School Leaders

Abstract

In addition to cognitive research on school leaders' problem solving, this study focuses on the situated and personal nature of problem framing by combining insights from cognitive research on problem solving and sense-making theory. The study reports the results of a case study of two school leaders solving problems in their daily context by using a sense-making approach. Detailed analysis of school leaders' problem-solving processes shows how the way school leaders frame the problems they are dealing with is embedded in their professional biographies. It is argued that a sense-making approach, which takes into account how school leader problem solving is situated both in their current circumstances and their professional biographies, is a useful additional approach for future research on school leaders' problem solving.

We would like to thank Jim Spillane of Northwestern University for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.