Jessica Blum-DeStefano

A new approach for new demands: the promise of learning-oriented school leadership

In response to the complexity and mounting adaptive challenges of teaching, learning and leadership today, this article presents an overview of a new learning-oriented model of school leadership, which is composed of four pillar practices—teaming, mentoring, collegial inquiry, and providing leadership roles—that support internal capacity building or adult development. This model draws from more than 20 years of research with school leaders and educators around the globe. After first underscoring the need to find more effective ways to build human capacity to better equip educators of all kinds to manage the growing adaptive challenges they face in schools, we next orient readers to Kegan’ constructive-developmental theory, since it undergirds this model and the practices composing it. Third, we introduce each of the four pillar practices and discuss how they support capacity building in adults who make sense of their learning experiences in developmentally different ways. Last, we discuss key implications for implementing the model in different contexts. In particular, we highlight that: • A developmental perspective can help us understand that adults will experience professional learning opportunities, leadership experiences, and engagement in the pillar practices in qualitatively different ways. • A developmental vocabulary helps us move from labelling adults (e.g. as ‘resisters’) based on behaviours toward a deeper understanding of our differing developmental capacities and the need to differentiate professional learning opportunities to support adults’ growth. • Learning about and attending to supporting other people’s and our own growth (i.e. internal capacity building) can help us to enhance student achievement and build schools and systems that are better equipped to meet the complex challenges of leading and teaching our modern world.

Conceptual Changes in Aspiring School Leaders: Lessons from a University Classroom

Scholars and practitioners recognize the significance of improving leadership preparation programs. This longitudinal study (surveys and interviews) investigates how course structure and curricula supports graduate students’ learning about content as well as how to attend and facilitate adult development. This paper describes: (a) changes in students’ conceptions of how to support adult development, including their new understanding that adults need challenge and support to grow; (b) how course experiences helped them understand theory and practices for supporting adult growth, and (c) how they planned to use practices in their future leadership. This investigation offers insight into how course structure, content, and instruction can support educators’ leadership development.

Leadership for Transformational Learning: A Developmental Approach to Supporting Leaders’ Thinking and Practice

Given the complexity of contemporary leadership, scholars and practitioners seek to improve preparation programs so that school leaders can more effectively support adult development. This article describes longitudinal research investigating how a university course on leadership for adult development (Leadership for Transformational Learning [LTL]) influenced graduates’ conceptions of leadership immediately after the course and years later. This article describes (a) course goals, structures, and curricula; (b) changes in thinking that leaders attributed to LTL; and (c) course ideas and practices that leaders named as essential to their current thinking and work. This investigation offers insight into how university courses can support leaders’ internal growth.