Thu Nguyen

The Politics of Distributing Leadership Reconsidering Leadership Distribution in Two Texas Elementary Schools

Recent work on distributed leadership extends an ongoing critique of conventional “heroic” leader portrayals. This article examines work in this area seeking implications for democratic school governance. With material from case studies of two Texas schools, it considers frameworks presented by Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond and by Firestone and Heller. Invoking critical perspectives, it problematizes a conventional managerial slant in the frameworks. The frameworks direct attention to a wider distribution of leadership than is often portrayed. Unfortunately, the frameworks attend primarily to administrative concerns, namely the steering of local actors and channeling of local activity and are largely silent about the politics of distributed leadership. Reconsidering the nature and dynamics of leadership in the two cases, we find broader notions of performance and attention to more deliberative community-building activity reveal the importance of distributed leadership in engendering responsiveness to and reciprocal accountability with local stakeholders.

Aqueous Ethylenediamine for CO2 Capture

Aqueous ethylenediamine (EDA) has been investigated as a solvent for CO(2) capture from flue gas. EDA can be used at 12 M (mol kg(-1) H(2)O) with an acceptable viscosity of 16 cP (1 cP=10(-3) Pa s) with 0.48 mol CO(2) per equivalent of EDA. Similar to monoethanolamine (MEA), EDA can be used up to 120 degrees C in a stripper without significant thermal degradation. Inhibitor A will effectively eliminate oxidative degradation. Above 120 degrees C, loaded EDA degrades with the production of its cyclic urea and other related compounds. Unlike piperazine, when exposed to oxidative degradation, EDA does not result in excessive foaming. Over much of the loading range, the CO(2) absorption rate with 12 M EDA is comparable to 7 M MEA. However, at typical rich loading, 12 M EDA absorbs CO(2) 2 times slower than 7 M MEA. The capacity of 12 M EDA is 0.72 mol CO(2)/(kg H(2)O+EDA) (for P(CO(2) )=0.5 to 5 kPa at 40 degrees C), which is about double that of MEA. The apparent heat of CO(2) desorption in EDA solution is 84 kJ mol(-1) CO(2); greater than most other amine systems.