Transition Leadership in a Shifting Policy Environment

Abstract

While transformational leadership has received much attention in recent years, the purpose of this article is to explicate the concept of transition leadership and its centrality to understanding policy implementation and school change through a case study of one district and its school principals, transitioning from court-ordered desegregation to unitary status. The article begins with a discussion of the concept of transition leadership and then examines school principals’ transitional leadership, that is, the process of helping to guide an organization’s response to a very significant change in citywide policy. Data reported in this article are based on a series of open-ended, in-depth interviews with a sample of the district’s elementary and middle school principals. Analyses suggest that transition leadership entails an unmaking of past policy while simultaneously remaking new policies and a heavy reliance on establishing a social fabric and sense of community. The conclusion calls for added attention to the balancing of continuity and change that may be necessary to the leadership of a policy transition.