Opportunities and Challenges for taking a Distributed Perspective: Novice School Principals’ Emerging Sense of their New Position

Abstract

This article examines how novice principals think about and understand their new leadership role, exploring the ways in which their understanding enables or constrains taking a distributed perspective to school leadership. The article analyses the work of the school principal through the eyes of the novice principal, identifying aspects of their emerging sense of the job that appear to enable and constrain them taking a distributed approach to leadership. The analysis shows that a novice school principal's work involves certain tensions, which are not only a function of the individual choices of those who assume the principal position, but also are inherent in the principal's position itself. The article concludes by showing that novice principals experience the nature and intensity of these tensions differently depending on how the school in which novices assume their leadership posts is situated in the institutional sector.

Vol 6, No 3 (2016)

“…The distributed perspective contributes to the analysis that shows that the tensions connected to the leadership are not just a function of the choices of individuals, but rather they are inherent to the principal's job in general. In this way, Spillane et al (2015) demonstrate how the school principal's choices are constrained by their school's positioning in the broader institutional sector. Thus much management research, from a distributed leadership perspective, focus on the principals and teachers as individuals.…”

“…In the perspective of distributed leadership, it has been possible to attend to the way institutional environment enters sense making when for instance novice school principals make sense of their new occupation that seems to encompass contradictions (Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2001;Spillane & Anderson 2014;Spillane, Harris, Jones, & Mertz, 2015). The distributed perspective contributes to the analysis that shows that the tensions connected to the leadership are not just a function of the choices of individuals, but rather they are inherent to the principal's job in general.…”

“…We have constructed at research perspective and position emphasizing the complexity and the generation of rich empirical material at the expense of generalizations, normative categories and causality. Thus we contribute to the literature on shared and dispersed forms of management in school settings by shedding light on tensions and paradoxes related to school management (Bolden, 2011;Helstad & Møller, 2013;Spillane et al, 2015;Vennebo & Ottesen, 2012). The analysis specifies the content of what primus inter pares management is struggling with when interacting with professionals and it specifies how the interactive work processes unfold.…”

Teacher Leadership and Teacher Professional Learning in Schools of Maldives

“…Teacher leadership is situated within distributed leadership theory (Harris, 2003;York-Barr & Duke, 2004). In this study teacher leadership school is viewed from the distributed leadership lens "as a product of the interactions of school leaders, followers and aspects of their situation" (Spillane, Harris, Jones, & Mertz, 2015, p. 1071. The aspects of the situation can be tools and school routines (Spillane, 2006).…”

Distributed leadership for equity and excellence in mathematics: An elementary school case study

“…To lead, manage, and improve schools in the current era of high stakes accountability while taking into account diversity involves multiple individuals, including those without formal leadership positions like teachers, parents, community members or even students who influence an organization's core work (McKenzie & Locke, 2009;Spillane, Harris, Jones, & Mertz, 2015). When taking such a distributed perspective to mathematics leadership practice, it becomes necessary to learn more about how "the practice is stretched over leaders, followers, and aspects of their situations" (Spillane et.…”