The 'Smart Story': The challenge of leadership in the urban school

Abstract

By focusing upon the 'lived experience' of nurturing a culture of democratic leadership within an urban primary school, the 'Smart Story' provides a narrative account of the development of a solutions-focused approach to school improvement. The paper describes the process whereby an urban school harnessed the collective energies of all staff (teachers and support staff) to bring about improvement, and considers the role of democratic leadership in re-conceptualising the school as a 'learning organisation'. The story is told in three chapters, 'Developing a Strategic View', 'Thinking Tactically' and 'Capacity Building'. In Chapter One, the development of a professional learning culture is considered and the concept of 'distributed leadership' addressed. Chapter Two, considers the process of team formation and in particular the process of establishing project-specific, creative, 'problem solving teams'. In Chapter Three, the encouragement of leadership capability and 'building capacity' for future learning and development are identified as significant features of the improvement process. The paper concludes by suggesting that individual and collective school improvement can be enhanced by a focus on the development of leadership across a learning network of schools.