Hybridity: Turnaround Principal Leadership Approaches

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Leading for School Improvement

Abstract

In recent years there has been a strong emphasis on school turnaround, both in the federal government’s investment in turnaround efforts, as well as in a burgeoning body of scholarship on the topic. Both the federal government and existing literature emphasize the importance of leadership in turnaround efforts. However, research has yet to address what type of leadership approach turnaround leaders should employ. There is tension between federal turnaround policy, which emphasizes the importance of the principal, the literature on turnaround leadership which emphasizes distributed leadership, and general leadership literature which often privileges democratic leadership. This qualitative study examined the leadership approach of a successful turnaround principal to determine how her leadership approach reflected directive, distributive, and democratic leadership.

Authors

• Kimberly Kappler Hewitt, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Ulrich C. Reitzug, University of North Carolina - Greensboro