Leading Adult Learning on the Ground: Three Longitudinal Cases of School Leaders Supporting Adult Development

• In Event: 61.073 - Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs

Abstract

This paper presents findings from longitudinal, mixed-methods research investigating how a university leadership preparation course on leadership for adult development (LTL) influenced graduates’ actual leadership practice many years later. Drawing from our most recent round of interviews, we present in-depth cases that highlight how three school leaders introduced, adapted, and sustained developmentally-oriented practices over multiple years. Leaders’ stories illustrate the importance of nurturing trust, respect, and mutual understanding as essential preconditions to leadership initiatives, and detail the ways they employed teaming, collegial inquiry, mentoring, and providing leadership roles in the field as interconnected and intentional growth-enhancing practices that build teachers’ capacities. We conclude with implications for professional learning opportunities (in preparation and practice), educational leaders, and policy.

Authors

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

• Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Teachers College, Columbia University