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Understanding facilitative aspects of power is necessary for analyzing processes and outcomes in today's schools. Facilitative, interactive power has become commonplace when no single individual or role commands decision-making control without dependence on expert knowledge and cooperation of colleagues. Specific examples of such circumstances include the individualized educational program process in special education and current practices in clinical supervision. These demonstrate the limitations of traditional concepts of power and the usefulness of facilitative power for capturing the essential nature of professional interactions between principals, staff, and nonprofessionals in schools.

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This article explores how administrators and teachers in 16 schools used facilitative power to develop nonstandardized site-specific restructuring programs as part of a statewide school improvement effort. Legislatively mandated teacher leadership of site activities generated changes in the authority and accountability structures of the schools. Both principals and teachers exercised facilitative power including resource acquiring, synergy creating, monitoring, networking, information distributing, lobbying, and modeling behavior. At most sites, school visions or missions were developed collaboratively and gradually and provided collective guidance. Each of the schools had shown evidence of readiness to change before beginning its school improvement project.

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