Transformational Leadership in Practice

Learning about the history of leadership studies and how recent history has affected school systems today brought a new perspective to my understanding of educational leadership and specifically the potential impact of transformational leadership. Especially interesting were studies in the 1970s by Burns and Bass that showed success in a variety of organizations from private corporations to the military, colleges and families where leadership considered the personal goals of colleagues, employees or other family members (Leithwood, 2007). For me, this type of historical importance grounds the study of leadership and connects it in a way that I haven’t experienced so far.

The description I preferred from the readings was Leithwood’s (2007) three categories of practice, which include:
1.Setting Directions (vision, goals, high expectations)
2.Developing People (intellectual challenge, modeling, individual support)
3.Redesigning the Organization (collaborative culture, fostering participation, community involvement)

Besides the use of an active verb that energizes the action happening to the noun, I appreciate the simple and direct language. This list encompasses the ideas in Bass’s version of transformational leadership (Leithwood, 2007), but in language that removes the theoretical language. To me, it makes it feel more real and accessible. I could easily imagine a leader speaking to employees or community members about “Setting Directions” far more than announcing “Inspirational Leadership.”

The one trait of Bass’s list not included in this list is “charisma.” (Leithwood, 2007) I was glad to see this show up on a list for leadership, as I do believe that the personality of those in charge has an effect especially in combination with transformational leadership. While I believe those without a charismatic personality can make changes with the right leadership, the addition of this element helps greatly and can urge others to change. I’ve watched this happen with leaders in our school, town and nationally.

Once trust is developed using the model of transformational leadership, the key for encouraging a flourishing learning environment is enabling others to be challenged and use their unique qualities for the purpose of solving problems while also staying focused on the vision for the organization. Because I like to get out of theory and into real examples, look at the history of how the Flipped Classroom came into being. Bergmann (2011) shared this story recently in his blog. While he doesn’t speak of what type of leadership he had at his school, I imagine that a school that supported this type of initiative would be transformational in nature. Bergman describes how the idea came around to solve a problem that he was having with students missing classes and then needing to use his time to make up the missed learning. While looking at a technology magazine, the ideas co-founder, Aaron Sams read about software that allowed him to record PowerPoint presentations. This was in 2007, near the emergence of YouTube, and the two used the tools to record and upload their lessons. They didn’t expect that so many students, not only in their own classroom, but other teachers and students around the world would also use their lessons.

This, for me, is a perfect example of enabling teachers to have the space to solve problems for themselves and then using this to share with others (a key piece for me). Now, the Flipped Classroom is well known and popular (it certainly was at ISTE) and a legitimate model for education. This type of innovation couldn’t happen without a positive school culture that encouraged innovation, problem-solving and allowed teachers to take up the role of being leaders.

Transformational leadership can have a lasting impact on how principals create a culture of innovation and lead to integrate technology in the instruction. Certainly, the idea of the Flipped Classroom exhibits how integrating technology was used creatively to solve a real problem. But there is little in this story about how actively the principal or administrator encouraged this. However, a story by Chris Wejr (2011) shows beautifully how a transformational leader can impacts the way a school is led. This example also shows this leadership as it applies to technology integration.

Wejr is an elementary school principal in Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada who blogged recently about a project at his school called“FedEx Prep” based on ideas from Daniel Pink’s book Drive. The idea was to increase innovation by offering something that all teachers need – time. He told his staff at the beginning of the year that he would provide extra prep time per week for 6 weeks to do anything they wanted as long as they would deliver their ideas in the end. Out of 16 teachers, 3 applied for the opportunity of which 2 decided to use their time to explore technology and one wanted to spend time discovering how to embed their garden in the curriculum. One teacher wanted to get her student’s blogging – at the time none of the students in the school had ever blogged. She spent the time researching what to do, taking the time to find out good topics to write on, how best to integrate it, and then helped her kids set up their blogs. The students were so excited about blogging that they spoke to other teachers about how they loved it, so by the end of the year, 4 of the 5 classes were blogging. The other teacher who spent time learning about technology researched and implemented tools like Glogster, ComicLife, VoiceThread and Flickr then showcased her students’ work to the Board of Education. She was promoted and will be in charge next year of transforming their library and modernizing the role of teacher-librarian.

This wonderful example of transformational leadership started with an idea from the leader who cared deeply about his staff and understood what they needed to thrive. He gave the teachers an opportunity to expand their learning and enabling them to innovate and problem solve.

If I were a leader in a school, I would like to use this FedEx Prep idea as it seems like a way to scale up independent learning in technology by giving the teacher time to explore and integrate effectively. For me, the problem of scaling up learning in technology is real. I am one person doing technology integration. Imagine the effect if we enabled many others to become technology integrators as well.


References
Bergmann, J. (2011, May 5). The history of the flipped class: How the flipped class was born. Retrieved July 25, 2011 from http://blendedclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/05/history-of-flipped-class.html

Leithwood, K.A. (2007). Transformation school leadership in a transactional world. In Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (pp. 183-196). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The Transformational Leadership Project. (2007). The transformational leadership report. Retrieved July 25, 2011 from transformationalleadership.net/products/products.php

Wejr, Chris. (2011, July 13). FedEx prep: A reflection. In Connected Principals. Retrieved July 25, 2011 from http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/4034