Political Leadership Tool #3: Case Study

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

Abstract

Our final research-based tool is a set of five cases (2500-3000 words), accompanied by lesson plans, which engage participants in analysis and deliberative dialogue on superintendents operating in challenging situations as they promote educational equity in their districts. Nitin Nohria (2021), former dean of the Harvard Business School, concluded that the case discussion method developed the capacity for critical analysis, judgment, decision making, and action. Education scholars found that cases are compelling when protagonists confront difficult dilemmas of practice or policy that involve competing values and goals (Richert, 2012), and that short normative cases that deal with educational justice dilemmas in practice and/or policy contexts generate critical analysis and deliberative dialogue (Levinson & Fay, 2016, 2019). We decided to create our own version of cases focused on contemporary challenges of the superintendency. They are based on individual interviews with superintendents in the Network of Distinguished Educators, sponsored by the AASA and PDK International, and slightly fictionalized to protect anonymity.

Levinson’s Ed Ethics/Justice in Schools website (https://www.justiceinschools.org/), provides a generic protocol to facilitate analysis and discussion of dilemma cases. We developed discussion protocols embedded within lesson plans, including goals, activities, and graphic organizers, that are part-generic and part-specific to each case. To date, two cases were presented to the Distinguished Educators’ Network at their March 2025 meeting and evaluated through informal feedback. Case study lessons have been piloted in professional development institutes and meetings of educational leaders at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and University of Southern California and another pilot is planned for October with a cohort of superintendents enrolled in AASA’s superintendent certification program. Feedback on the cases and lesson plans will be collected from students. Video of a case study discussion will be shown to a group of critical friends for evaluation.

One challenge has been figuring out the “gradient of controversy” (Pace, 2025) in the cases – that is, how politically charged and/or sensitive should the issues presented in the case be? Other questions include the following: How relevant do the issues need to be for all participants? Can cases be told solely through the voice and perspective of a single superintendent, or should they be told through the multiple voices and perspectives of different stakeholders? To what extent should cases reflect models of wisdom (Wineburg & Wilson, 1988), and how much room should they leave for critique of practice? How should the cases be distributed for use? We have learned that short cases of challenging situations faced by superintendents resonate powerfully with diverse groups of educational leaders. Engaging participants in small group analytic exercises structured with graphic organizers work well before launching into whole group discussion. Collection of feedback this year will address our questions.

Author

• Judy L. Pace, University of San Francisco