Leading Change: A Longitudinal Exploration of School Leaders' Challenges, Strategies, and Internal Experiences

• In Event: 61.049 - Perspectives of and From School Leadership: Trust, Perceptions, and Role Definition

Abstract

This paper highlights key findings from our mixed-methods, longitudinal research focusing on 131 educational leaders, including a domestic and international interview study of 40 school leaders (2008–present) about their most pressing leadership challenges (adaptive and technical), how they make sense of them and help teachers manage change, and how they described and understood their internal experiences of leading and advocating for change, building professional and organizational capacity, and supporting student learning. Our findings shed light on the pressing challenges leaders face in our contemporary world as well as the social-emotional and developmental capacities needed to manage the complexity and ambiguity of leadership. Implications highlight vital needs for leadership preparation, curriculum, and workplace professional learning to sustain leaders.

Authors

• Eleanor E. Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Patricia Maslin-Ostrowski, Florida Atlantic University

• Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Bank Street College of Education