This nationwide qualitative study investigated how 25 school leaders serving in schools with varying resources, perceive the practices they use to support teacher learning. The study discusses how these leaders understand the human resource challenges they face in supporting teacher learning and highlights their creative responses to these challenges across school contexts. Although the principals experience similar challenges, the challenges manifest themselves differently, and the strategies devised to overcome them are tied to the specific contexts of the leaders’ schools.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarthR. S. (1990). Improving schools from within: Teachers, parents, and principals can make the difference.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2.
BlaseJ., & BlaseJ. (2001). Empowering teachers: What successful principals do (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
3.
BlaseJ., & BlaseJ. (1999a). Effective instructional leadership through the teachers’ eyes. High School Magazine, 7(1), 16–20.
BolmanL. G., & DealT. (1995). Leading with soul: An uncommon journey of spirit.San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
6.
Boston Plan for Excellence and the Boston Public Schools. (1999, December). Professional development spending in the Boston Public Schools.Boston: Boston Public Schools.
7.
BrookfieldS. D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
8.
BrookfieldS. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
ChaseB. (2001, April 15). To hire and to hold: The quality of teaching must be a school district's top priority. Education Week, 20(32), 48.
10.
DalozL. (1983). Mentors: Teachers who make a difference. Change, 15(6), 24–27.
11.
DalozL. (1986). Effective teaching and mentoring: Realizing the transformational power of adult learning experiences.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
DanielsonC. (1996). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching.Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
14.
Darling-HammondL. (1999). Target time towards teachers. Journal of Staff Development, 20, 31–36.
15.
Darling-HammondL., & SclanE. M. (1996). Who teaches and why: Dilemmas of building a profession for twenty-first century schools. In SikulaJ., ButteryT. J., & GuytonE. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 67–101). New York: Simon & Schuster.
16.
DayC., HarrisA., HadfieldM., & BeresfordJ. (2000). Leading schools in times of change.Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
17.
DirkxJ. M. (2001). The power of feelings: Emotions, imagination, and the construction of meaning in adult learning. In MerriamS. (Ed.), The new update on adult learning theory (pp. 63–72). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
18.
DonaldsonG. A. (2001). Cultivating leadership in schools: Connecting people, purpose, and practice.New York: Teachers College Press.
19.
Drago-SeversonE. (1994). What does “staff development” develop?: How the staff development literature conceives adult growth. Unpublished qualifying paper, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University
20.
Drago-SeversonE. (1996). Head-of-school as principal adult developer: An account of one leader's efforts to support transformational learning among the adults in her school. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Cambridge: Harvard Graduate School of Education.
21.
Drago-SeversonE. (2002, April). School leadership in support of teachers’ transformational learning: The dramatic differences resources make. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans.
22.
Drago-SeversonE. (2004a). Becoming adult learners: Principles and practices for effective development.New York: Teachers College Press.
23.
Drago-SeversonE. (2004b). Helping teachers learn: Principal leadership for adult growth and development.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
24.
DuckJ. D. (1998). Managing change: The art of balancing. In Harvard Business Review of Change (pp. 55–82). Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
25.
ElmoreR. F. (2002). The limits of “change.”Harvard Education Letter, 18(1), 7–8.
26.
ElmoreR. F., & BurneyD. (1999). Investing in teacher learning: Staff development and instructional improvement. In Darling-HammondL. & SykesG. (Eds.), Teaching as the learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice (pp. 236–291). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
27.
EvansR. (1996). The human side of change: Reform, resistance, and the real-life problems of innovation.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
28.
FinserT. M. (1994). School as a journey: The eight-year odyssey of a Waldorf teacher and his class.Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press.
29.
FullanM. (2001). Leading in a culture of change.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
30.
FullanM., & HargravesA. (1992). Teacher development and educational change. In FullanM. & HargravesA. (Eds.), Teacher development and educational change (pp. 1–9). Washington, DC: Falmer.
31.
GeertzC. (1974). “From the native's point of view”: On the nature of anthropological understanding. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 28, 221–237.
32.
GlaserB. G., & StraussA. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research.Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
33.
GlickmanC. G. (1990). Supervision of instruction: A developmental approach (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
34.
GuskeyT. R. (1999). Apply time with wisdom. Journal of Staff Development, 20, 10–15.
35.
HansmanC. A. (2001). Context-based adult learning. In MerriamS. (Ed.), The new update on adult learning theory (pp. 43–52). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
36.
HeifetzR. (1994). Leadership without easy answers.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
HillP. T., & HarveyJ. R. (2002). Superintendents’ “coach speak”: Helping school leaders get beyond misleading platitudes to confront real problems. Education Week, 21(30), 34 & 48.
38.
HubermanM. (1988). Teacher careers and school improvement. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 20(2), 119–132.
39.
JohnsonS. M. (1990). Teaching at work: Achieving success in our schools.New York: Basic Books.
40.
JohnsonS. M. (1996). Leading to change: The challenge of the new superintendency.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
41.
JohnsonS. M., BirkelandS., KardosS. M., KauffmanD., LiuE., & PeskeH. G. (2001, July-August). Retaining the next generation of teachers: The importance of school-based support. Harvard Education Letter, 17(4), 6, 8.
42.
JohnsonS. M., & LandmanJ. (2000). “Sometimes bureaucracy has its charms”: The working conditions of teachers in deregulated schools. Teachers College Record, 102(1), 85–124.
43.
KeganR. (1982). The evolving self: Problems and process in human development.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
KeganR. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
45.
KeganR., & LaheyL. L. (1984). Adult leadership and adult development: A constructivist view In KellermanB. (Ed.), Leadership (pp. 199–230). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
46.
KeganR., & LaheyL. (2001). How the way we talk can change the way we work.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
KillionJ. (2000a, March). Explore research to identify best instructional strategies. Results, 3.
49.
KotterJ. P. (1998). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. In Harvard Business Review of Change (pp. 1–20). Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
50.
LeithwoodK., JantziD., RyanS., & SteinbachR. (1997, March). Distributed leadership in secondary schools. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
51.
LevineS. (1997). Making time, a matter of values. Independent School, 57(1), 62–71.
52.
LevineS. L. (1989). Promoting adult development in schools: The promise of professional development.Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
53.
LevineS. L. (1993). Reflections on school leadership: Perspectives on change. Independent School, 15, 25–28.
54.
LiebermanA., & MillerL. (1992). Teachers—their world and their work: Implications for school improvement.New York: Teachers College Press.
55.
LiebermanA., & MillerL. (Eds.). (2001). Teachers caught in the action: Professional development that matters.New York: Teachers College Press.
56.
LightfootS. L. (1983). The good high school: Portraits of character and culture.New York: Basic Books.
57.
MannL. (2000). Finding time to collaborate. Education Update, 42(2), 1, 3, 8.
58.
MaxwellJ. A. (1996). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
59.
MaxwellJ., & MillerB. (1998). Categorization and contextualization as components of qualitative data analysis. Unpublished manuscript.
60.
MayberryM., & ReesM. N. (1999). Feminist pedagogy, interdisciplinary praxis, and science education. In MayberryM. & RoseE. C. (Eds.), Meeting the challenge: Innovative feminist pedagogies in action (pp. 193–214). New York: Routledge.
61.
McLaughlinM., & TalbertJ. (2001). Professional communities and the work of high school teaching.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
62.
MezirowJ. (2000). Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformation theory. In J. Mezirow and Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3–33). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
63.
MilesM., & HubermanA. M. (1994). An expanded sourcebook: Qualitative data analysis.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
64.
OjaS. N. (1991). Adult development: Insights on staff development. In LiebermanA. & MillerL. (Eds.), Staff development for education in the ‘90s: New demands, new realities, new perspectives (pp. 37–60). New York: Teachers College Press.
OstermanK. F., & KottkampR. B. (1993a). Change and continuity in supervision and leadership. In CaweltyG. (Ed.), Challenges and achievements of American education (pp. 158–186). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
67.
OstermanK. F., & KottkampR. B. (1993b). Reflective practice for educators.Newbury Park, CA: Corwin.
68.
PappanoL. (2001, May 13). When two teachers = one job. Boston Sunday Globe, L5–6.
69.
PetersonK. D., & DealT.E. (1998). How leaders influence the culture of schools. Educational Leadership, 56, 28–30.
70.
RenyiJ. (1996). Teachers take charge of their learning: Transforming professional development for student success.Washington, DC: National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.
71.
RossiterM. (1999). A narrative approach to development: Implications for adult education. Adult education quarterly, 50(1), 56–71.
72.
SarasonS. (1995). School change: The personal development of a point of view.New York: Teachers College Press.
73.
SeidmanI. E. (1998). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences.New York: Teachers College Press.
74.
SergiovanniT.J. (1995). The principalship: A reflective practice perspective.Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
75.
SparksD. (2000, December-January). Winning schools demonstrate value of staff development. Results, 2.
76.
SteinerR. (1982). Balance in teaching.Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press.
77.
StrebelP. (1998). Why do employees resist change? In Harvard Business Review of Change (pp. 139–158). Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
78.
SykesG. (1996). Reform of and as professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 77, 465–467.
79.
VaillP. B. (1989). Managing as a performing art: New ideas for a world of chaotic change.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
80.
ViaderoD. (2001). Smaller classes in L. A. seen lifting test scores, especially among poor. Education Week, 20(32), 8.
81.
WoodC. (2002). Changing the pace of school: Slowing down the day to improve the quality of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 7(83), 545–550.
82.
York-BarrJ., SommersW.A., GhereG. S., & MontieJ. (2001). Reflective practice to improve schools.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
