Political Leadership Tool #1: Fieldbook for Communities of Practice

• In Event: Developing Political Leadership among K-12 Public School Leaders: Imagining a Future of Research-Based Tools

Abstract

Development of The Superintendent’s Political Leadership Fieldbook (2025) started with a series of “safe space focus group” meetings with a group of eight superintendents from a variety of backgrounds. In monthly meetings, superintendents shared political problems of practice for feedback from peers in a community of practice (Wenger, et. al, 2002) with attention to psychological safety (Edmonson, 1999; Carmeli, 2007; Carmeli & Gittell, 2009). When we surveyed the superintendents on their experience in the “safe space focus group,” the results were strong. On a scale of 1-5, all participants felt safe (avg 5) and supported (avg 4.88). Superintendents rated all of the activities highly, particularly sharing (avg 4.14) and providing feedback on successes/dilemmas (avg 4.12). The community of practice model was so powerful that the group encouraged the creation of a resource that could serve as an anchor for future communities of practice.

The Fieldbook, developed with ongoing input from these superintendents, is aligned to the Framework on Political Leadership in the Superintendency which outlines a set of five proactive political leadership skills: visioning, communicating, political mapping, mobilizing, and relationship building (CPLS, 2024). Each section begins with a scenario that depicts one of the five leadership skills in action, drawn from the stories shared in the “safe space focus group.” What follows is a series of reflective exercises to support superintendents in utilizing each proactive political skill to strengthen local strategies for making equity-focused change. Each section ends with strategies, tips and useful resources sourced from our work with superintendents and our review of the literature on political leadership in education. The appendix of the Fieldbook includes a suggested protocol for superintendents to use in their own communities of practice.

As we created the Fieldbook, multiple implementation challenges emerged. We wanted to anchor each section to a story or scenario as a way to demonstrate the practice in action. This required culling through the many stories we had heard during the “safe space focus group” for examples that 1) demonstrated the focus skill, 2) were relatable to an audience of superintendents working in a variety of contexts, including political contexts, and 3) could be made anonymous with minimal risk of exposing superintendent participants. We also wanted to make sure that the Fieldbook was a tool for helping superintendents make progress on a critical goal or strategy, not simply a tool to help them solve the day’s political problems.

We are now working on collecting feedback on the Fieldbook’s usefulness as an anchor for superintendent communities of practice. Specifically, we will collect feedback from participating superintendents in a new 3-day HGSE institute where the Fieldbook will be used to support participants during the institute and in six monthly community of practice meetings to follow. By AERA 2026, we will have gathered and engaged in qualitative analysis of the feedback.

Author

• Jennifer Cheatham, Harvard University