Making leadership development stick

Leadership in a changing world: developing managers through a teaching and learning programme

“…Leadership training professionals have suggested that to increase their impact, learning objectives should be tailored to specific needs of an organization (Collins and Holton, 2004). Further, recent research suggests that aligning leadership development with business strategy (Curry, 2012) and linking new leadership behaviours to company goals (and personal experience) will make leadership development persist (Thomas et al, 2012). This has the advantage of embedding teaching and practise in the daily environmentbut the disadvantage of presuming a rigidness and preservation of strategies and goals, which rarely exists in businesses of today.…”

Learning by Doing: A Daily Life Study of Principal Interns’ Leadership Activities During the School Year

“…The relatively little contact that interns had with principals and assistant principals, along with the few reported instances in which they were engaged in an activity at the request of their principal, suggests that interns were relatively autonomous. Importantly, while the internship provides a critical experience for interns to enact the role of leader in a real-world environment, the research literature on action learning argues that experience is not enough; rather, interns need opportunities to be mentored and engage with others in processing their experiences for growth and development (Reyes-Guerra & Barnett, 2016;Skipton Leonard & Lang, 2010;Thomas et al, 2012). These results suggest that this type of mentoring exists more often in the form of personal professional development (i.e., classwork, meeting with peers) than through the school-based leadership team (i.e., principals, assistant principals).…”

“…Action learning can be described as learning by doing-a process that includes an intentional focus on leveraging leaders' lived experiences for leadership development and growth. Furthermore, effective leadership development through action learning not only moves beyond lectures, video recordings, or other traditional forms of instruction to engage the learner in the real-world setting in which they will work but also provides a space for learners to reflect upon their leadership practice, often in communities of practice or with a coach (Ashford & DeRue, 2012;Thomas et al, 2012). Accordingly, many scholars argue that field experiences (i.e., internships, practica, or apprenticeships) are among the most important high-leverage components of principal preparation, because they can provide students with the opportunity to engage in the real work of school leaders, often in a setting where students can reflect upon their own practices with others (Anderson & Reynolds, 2015;Hammond et al, 2010;Havard et al, 2010;Milstein et al, 1990).…”

Principal Candidates’ Reflective Learning During a Full-Time Internship

“…This finding may be partially attributable to the way in which a full- or part-time internship allowed candidates the opportunity to become socialized into a new leadership community of practice, experiencing the same discomfort, urgency, and responsibility that principals experience (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003; Perez et al, 2011). Certainly, all field experiences draw upon a model of action learning (Skipton Leonard & Lang, 2010), where candidates engage in the work in a real-world setting with opportunities to reflect upon their leadership practices in communities of practice or in the presence of mentors and coaches (Ashford & DeRue, 2012; Thomas et al, 2012). Yet there seems to be something unique about the opportunity to experience the work of an administrator within the context of a full-time internship, not least of which is the opportunity to engage in a similar set of activities as principals, often with a relatively high degree of autonomy and authority (Drake, 2020).…”