Building Leadership Capacity to Renew Education and Develop Schools Amidst the Zone of Uncertainty

• In Event: Learning and Leading; Developing, Renewing, and Advancing School Community and Culture

Abstract

Policy trends toward evidence-based school development, “scientific” research, and increasingly centralized curriculum all occur amidst growing demographic changes resulting in increasingly pluralistic schools and communities. We contextualize school development amidst the tensions between contemporary policies and the educational needs of students. We conceptualize school development as a process that mediates among tensions that result in a Zone of Uncertainty. The application of school development in the Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research (AZiLDR) focuses on school development, including broader cultural aims and humanistic values of education for an increasingly multicultural society as reflected in the micro-organizational culture of schools and the sub-culture of the leadership team. The paper presents findings from the Arizona project as well as lessons learned.

Authors

• Lynnette A. Brunderman, University of Arizona

• Rose M. Ylimaki, Northern Arizona University