Balancing a Complex System: Transformative Change in a Catholic School

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

Abstract

Objectives
This paper presents research from a case study of St. Catherine’s School (SCS), examining how its principal, Helen Matthews, a Leadership Academy (LA) graduate, worked to create a common school culture (Bryk & Schneider, 2002) and distribute leadership (Spillane, 2005) as means to engender instructional change. This study addresses the following questions:
• What were key features of Matthew’s leadership?
• How did her leadership influence developments at SCS?
• What changes did teachers, parents, and students experience in the practices and culture of the school? How did they respond to these changes?

Theoretical framework
To understand change at SCS I created a multi-participant case study (Stake, 2006) informed by systems thinking and complexity theory (Davis & Sumara 2006; Després, 2008; Jackson, 2000). From this perspective, all social practices, including school leadership, are informed by ideals, beliefs, principles, and values (Gee, 1996; Geertz, 1973) that serve as “attractors” that influence system behavior (Meadows, 2008). This study documents initial conditions in the social system of SCS, system interventions that occurred over two years, and changes that emerged in the process—emphasizing the importance of balancing system elements while enacting change.

Methods & data sources
This study utilizes quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data include SCS demographic information; school climate surveys completed by teachers, parents, and students; and a self-evaluation Helen completed. Qualitatively, this study draws on interviews with Helen, SCS teachers, students, and parents, as well as field notes from classroom observations, school assemblies, and faculty meetings.

Results
In this study, Helen’s ability to balance challenge with support for faculty proved crucial to success with this reform (Opfer & Pedder, 2011). The emotional and relational aspects of Helen’s leadership, set in a culture of positive reinforcement and support, worked in service of teachers assuming leadership roles (Bryk & Driscoll, 1988). Yet, aspects of these changes emerged in a top-down manner, suggesting that effective leadership for change is not an either-or phenomenon: top-down, authoritative leadership appropriately balanced with inclusive, democratic processes can engender substantive change. At SCS, the congruence between authoritative and inclusive leadership was facilitated by relational trust: broad-scale change was initiated amidst relationships of trust and support, and the character of those relationships appeared crucial to the emergence of system change (Bryk & Schneider, 2002).

Significance of the study
Recent studies maintain that shared leadership positively correlates with school improvement (Hallinger, 2011; Harris, 2008; Wallace Foundation, 2011); but this should not be interpreted as a simple critique of top-down leadership. As this case reveals, a constructive balance between distributed authority and top-down leadership, facilitated by the presence of relational trust (Bryk & Schneider, 2002), can work in concert to promote positive change. And such balancing of autonomy and authority seems crucial to reform success. As the Wallace Foundation (2011) observed, “[L]eaders in . . . all kinds of organizations . . . need to depend on others to accomplish the group’s purpose and need to encourage the development of leadership across the organization” (p. 6).

Author

• Brad Kershner, Boston College