Connecting Distributed Leadership and Networking: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?

• In Event: A Focus on the Educational Practice

Abstract

Contemporary education reform in many countries is focused on greater collaboration between teachers and schools. However, evidence for the forms of leadership enacted in such networks remains limited. The paper explores how a model of distributed leadership can offer both a theoretical and empirical reference point for explaining and illuminating collaborative practice across different contexts and organizations. The paper argues that leadership is a key condition for effective networking and that coherent professional collaboration necessitates some external facilitation. It is concluded, therefore, that leadership across different school sites is inevitably distributed but argues that it is the nature, type and quality of the distribution that contributes to the success and ultimately, the impact of the network.

Authors

• Cecilia Azorin, University of Murcia

• Alma Harris, Swansea Metropolitan University

• Michelle Suzette Jones, University of Swansea