Cause maps and school leaders’ tacit knowledge

Abstract

The complexity of the work of school leaders has intensified in recent years. The basic assumption underlying this article is that school leaders should develop a coherent vision of the school to effectively cope with the increased complexity of their work. In order to develop such a coherent vision, integration at a cognitive level is needed. In order to gain insight into both the complexity and integrity of the visions of school leaders, their tacit knowledge is studied using cause maps. More specifically, a method to elicit and interpret cause maps is explored and the analysis of the tacit knowledge, as expressed in the structure and content of their cause maps, indeed shows them to differ with regard to the level of cognitive integrity and balance within their cognitive repertoires.

School Leaders' Problem Framing: A Sense-Making Approach to Problem-Solving Processes of Beginning School Leaders

“…More recently, researchers have focused on mental models and tacit understandings of school leaders in order to understand the knowledge and concepts they use to interpret information and solve problems at hand (Nestor-Baker & Hoy, 2001;Ruff & Shoho, 2005;Wassink, Sleegers, & Imants, 2003). These researchers have paid attention to the specific knowledge structures school leaders construct through the use of generic knowledge and the underlying assumptions used to organize their understanding of new information and repertoires of responses to experiences.…”

“…In contrast to research on problem solving and expertise, these studies do not focus on discrete cognitive categories and relatively static characteristics of problem solving only, but also on the dynamics of school leaders' frames of references as developed through their previous experiences and cycles of events, ideas, roles, etc. The results of the few studies conducted demonstrated the complex nature of the mental models of school leaders and the differing levels of integration and variation regarding the content of the models (Wassink, Sleegers, & Imants, 2003).…”

“…These studies have focused on differences in problem solving processes between "expert" school administrators and their "typical" colleagues (Leithwood & Stager, 1989;Leithwood Steinbach, & Raun, 1995). In addition, some researchers have used a cognitive perspective on leadership to investigate how school leaders use mental maps or cognitive frames to order their repertoire of responses to experience and understand new information (Bolman & Deal, 1991;Wassink, Sleegers, & Imants, 2003). Although these studies focus on different aspects of the cognitive processing of school leaders, knowledge and expertise is seen as an individual property mostly independent from context.…”

The impact of school leadership on school level factors: Validation of a causal model

“…This element is later elaborated in which could be called the cognitive perspective on educational leadership (Hallinger, Leithwood, & Murphy, 1993;Leithwood, 1995). The concepts of higher order thinking and vision have been conceptualized further, for instance in research into effective administrative problem-solving, based on cognitive perspectives on leadership Wassink, Sleegers, & Imants, 2003). In this research, vision is related to expertise on problem-solving and decisionmaking, and the results show that principals who engage in higher order thinking are better able to apply relevant knowledge about their school and the school's curriculum to solving problems.…”

An Exploratory Study on Principals' Conceptions about Their Role as School Leaders

“…So far, literature on the cognitive perspective of educational administration has mainly focused on principals' thinking about practical problems and how to solve them, and summarized findings on how expertise is developed and on how novices and experts display their knowledge in a school setting (Hallinger, Leithwood, & Murphy, 1993;Leithwood & Steinbach, 1992Stager & Leithwood, 1989). More recent studies (Wassink, Sleegers, & Imants, 2003;Krüger, Witziers, & Sleegers, 2007) have analyzed the impact of the principals' vision and tacit knowledge on their activities. These activities can play a salient role in shaping the school climate.…”