Learning to lead what you "don't (yet) know": district leaders engaged in instructional reform

Abstract

This qualitative case study examined the emerging instructional leadership practice, and related learning, of five central office leaders in a midsize urban school district. These leaders were actively engaged with each other and with external consultants as they developed their capacity to lead system-wide instructional reform. Learning for these leaders was not an individual activity, rather, it occurred in the midst of social interactions with fellow district-level leaders, school-based staff, and external consultants. For these leaders, learning and leading took place concurrently; in essence they were "learning-while-leading." Using an analytic frame informed by both cognitive and situated perspectives of learning, this study illustrated how leaders' thinking and practice changed over time, in the midst of a district-wide instructional reform initiative. In addition, the study explored questions about how leaders managed issues related to leading ambitious instructional reform models that they themselves "did not yet know."