Making sense of leadership development: developing a community of education leaders

Abstract

In education literature there is a distinct lack of scholarly work on issues of leadership other than on functional leadership at lower levels or high level individual activity which dominates existing studies. This empirical research is based on the result of a merger of education providers within the North East of England which resulted in a new collaborative organisational form. A crucial aspiration of the newly merged organisation was to provide an overarching innovative leadership structure to facilitate integrated leadership. The specific focus of the paper is participants of a bespoke post graduate learning intervention with the aim of understanding how the participants make sense of their learning and their role within the wider context of an integrated leadership structure. The application of sensemaking to empirical studies is under-researched and of particular importance to this study. We identify five key defining sensemaking characteristics which assisted student-leaders in making sense of a leadership development intervention and assisted in developing a community of education leaders. The reflective accounts of the student-leaders indicated a combined approach of distributed, shared and collaborative leadership. Whilst the study was conducted in the UK the concepts and ideas are likely to have international application.

Narrative Pedagogy for Leadership Education: Stories of Leadership Efficacy, Self‐Identity, and Leadership Development

“…Brungardt (1996) explained leadership development theory brings together the human developmental process (i.e., growth from childhood to adulthood) and leadership learning theory to help educators understand best practices for teaching leadership development. McCaulty‐Smith, Williams, Gillon, and Braganza (2015) described sense‐making as the ongoing process of looking back at past experiences and reflecting on the meaning of those experiences. Baxter Magolda (2001) defined self‐authorship as “the internal capacity to define one's beliefs, identity, and social relations” (p. 269), which was supported by Sharon Parks's (2000) assertion that young adults make meaning through “(1) becoming critically aware of one's own composing of reality, (2) self‐consciously participating in an ongoing dialogue toward truth, and (3) cultivating a capacity to respond—to act—in ways that are satisfying and just” (p. 6).…”

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“…Meaning, that regulations are prescribed through recording in documents thus can be seen within the authorising duties, financial guidelines designed to support the duties and then the IT environment used to report the activities. Also, these practises are felt through authorisation prescribed verbally, and in practise and can be recognised, and finally can be felt through the process of carrying out the activities (McCauley-Smith et al, 2013). Themes were narrated in a manner which generated codes from views related to topics of preven-tive control and their impact on revenue indicator for quality education (Baxter & Jack, 2010).…”

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