School Leadership for Adult Development: The Dramatic Difference It Can Make

Abstract

Educators at every level go through different stages of development over the course of their lives and need different kinds of supports and challenges to grow. This chapter introduces a new model of Learning-oriented Leadership, in support to adult development that can help school and district leaders consciously cultivate teacher, principal, and superintendents’ internal capacities to meet the enormous challenges faced in the educational workplace. The model grew out of longitudinal mixed-methods research (Drago-Severson, E., What does “staff development” develop? How the staff development literature conceives adult growth. Unpublished qualifying paper, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1994; Drago-Severson, E., Head-of-school as principal adult developer: An account of one leader’s efforts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 Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, 1996; Drago-Severson, E., Becoming adult learners: Principles and practices for effective development. New York: Teachers College Press, 2004a; Drago-Severson, E., Helping teachers learn: Principal leadership for adult growth and development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2004b; Drago-Severson, E., Leading adult learning: Supporting adult development in our school. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin/Sage Publications, 2009). It is based on the works of Robert Kegan (The evolving self: Problems and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982; In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994; What “form” transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In J. Mezirow & Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation (pp. 35–70). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000) and constructive-developmental theory. The chapter shows school leaders can create the conditions and employ practices that foster growth and learning for individuals with different needs and developmental orientations.