Coming to See the World Differently: A Three-Sector Experience

• In Event: Conceptualizing Educational Change Through the Lens of the Complex Adaptive System: An Exploration in Quantifying the Metaphor

Abstract

Objectives
This paper describes the experience of early-career principals from three educational sectors (district, charter, and Catholic) who worked collaboratively in Leadership Academy (LA). The study examines the collective behavior of a “system” in response to adverse situations, yielding adaptive change that is unpredictable and nonlinear (Davis & Sumara, 2006; Meadows, 2008). Although principals welcomed the opportunity to collaborate, the experience initially surfaced concern, frustration, and misconceptions—thereby generating disequilibrium, “an internal conflict that provides motivation for personal change” (Nadler, 1993, p. 59). Indeed, collaborating in the context of challenges they regularly encountered, these principals negotiated a bond of shared moral purpose (Fullan, 2007) which reshaped existing perceptions, forged new relationships, and created a productive, professional learning community. To understand these developments, this paper examines the following questions:
• What happens when urban principals from three sectors collaborate to strengthen their leadership capacity?
• What tensions emerge? Where do principals find common ground?
• How does this experience shape leadership practice?

Theoretical Framework
For change to occur, something must perturb a system. As Wheatley (1999) observed: “[G]rowth appears from disequilibrium, not balance” (p. 21). Here, disequilibrium emerged from an opportunity tension—“a condition that leads the entrepreneur to engage, plan, pursue, and capitalize on the potential" (Goldstein, Hazy, & Lichtenstein, 2010, p. 83). Further, one can intensify disequilibrium “by integrating a high degree of diversity and . . . informational differences, into a single program” (Goldstein, et al., 2010, p. 83). In summary, within a complex adaptive system, an effective perturbation readies the system to question the taken-for-granted, thereby promoting adaptive change that has the potential to lead a system from disequilibrium to transformation.

Methods & Data Sources
Data for this paper derived from interviews with 19 of 20 LA principals: eleven from district schools; five from Catholic schools; and four from public charter schools. Data analysis employed a modified form of “consensual qualitative analysis” (Hill, Thompson & Williams, 1997).

Conclusions
Utilizing Goldstein et al.’s (2010) “Four Phases of Emergence,” I conceptualize three-sector transformation as comprising: disequilibrium conditions; amplifying actions; recombinations; and stabilizing feedback. Specifically, opportunity tensions and prior misconceptions generated disequilibrium. Amplifying actions led principals to cross into the “cusp of change,” no longer relying on traditional routines to address challenges. Rather, principals intensified interactions and discovered common interests, recombining ideas while enriching their capacity to operate adaptively. Building networks and exploring differences in perspectives stabilized their transformation. Thus, the three-sector structure generated disequilibrium by creating new networks that encouraged principals to think differently about their work yet they also provided support to help them do so.

Scholarly Significance
While school leaders typically want to pursue change, transformation requires disequilibrium. Few welcome this state. Yet urban principals are besieged with challenges: improving student performance, increasing teacher capacity, and developing skills to serve their diverse populations. As this study reveals, doing so requires more than technical fixes; it requires an adaptive strategy where principals come to see the world differently and guide schools through disequilibrium to transformation.

Author

• Valerie Spencer, Boston College