Swinnerton, Juli Anna2009-10-062009-10-062006b5771087986072275Thesis 56525http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7896Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006.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."vii, 223 p.en-USCopyright is held by the individual authors.Theses--EducationThesis