Adaptive Leadership in Catholic Schools: There Is No Choice

• In Event: Catholic Schools: A Focus on Leadership, Data-Driven Decision Making, and Partnerships

Abstract

Urban Catholic school leaders face many specific challenges and enacting genuine reform in this context requires leadership for adaptive change. This study examines the experiences of two Catholic school principals and explores how distributed leadership and a shared school culture serves as means to initiate adaptive change linked to broader instructional reforms. To conceptualize the work of the Catholic principals we draw on the notion of leadership for adaptive change. Further, we utilize complexity theory to understand the principals’ efforts at adaptive change. The experiences of the two principals in this study reveal many common developments. Changes in school values and beliefs are found to be an important precursor to long-term structural change.

Authors

• Anna Noble, Boston College

• Patrick J. McQuillan, Boston College