Leadership - random thoughts

Lots to do in terms of the assignment (due very soon - though not very far along) but thought i'd record some random thoughts that have come about while reading...

I've long been interested in the notion of the spaces in between things - the words unsaid or the gesture unrealised so when thinking about distributed leadership I felt drawn to the Youngs (2009) and the concept of the space that is required to allow leadership - not necessarily structural space but the ethos and personality of an organisation and the support (and trust/ openness) that is required to achieve this.
Likewise I appreciate the idea of leaders as navigating of expertise.

Have also been thinking of telling some bosses at work that leadership is more than management!

 Youngs, H. (2009). (Un)Critical times? Situating distributed leadership in the field . Journal of Educational Administration and History, 41(4), 377-389. Retrieved March 24, 2013, from Charles Sturt University website http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220620903211588

School leadership - initial reading

Have been doing lots of reading on organisational theory and leadership and its quite illuminating in terms of the leadership and follower behaviour in my own work environment. Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership (in Marzano, Walters and McNulty, 2005) was particularly interesting. In brief it describes the different leadership techniques you employ based on on the followers un/willingness and in/ability.

In brief:
Unable and Unwilling ---- telling
Unable but willing --------particpating
able but unwilling -------- selling
able and willing ---------- delegating

The other idea that has struck me this week was the notion of Instructional Leadership and Leadership for learning (Townsend, 2011). I appreciate the underlying philosophical difference in the terms and am inclined to favour the UK propensity to use leadership for learning which seems to sit much more comfortably with constructivist notions of learning and shifts in educational pedagogy. I also like the notion of distributed leadership in the sense that it alludes to the capacity for leadership in all members of the school.


Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). Some theories and theorists on leadership. School leadership that works: from research to results (pp. 13-27). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ;.Retrieved 27 January, 2013 from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/lib/csuau/docDetail.action?docID=10089219


Townsend, T. (2011). School leadership in the twenty-first century: different approaches to common problems?. School Leadership and Management, 31(2), 93-103. Retrieved January 28, 2013, from. http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/13632434.2011.572419 

TL as leader

In trying to get into this new subject, teacher-Librarian as leader i thought i might try and inspire myself with a wordle. Not my best effort but is passable. Now to try and catch up on the reading I failed to do last week.... sigh

creativity and leadership

Yesterday I attended a conference -  Creativity Project. Big Fat Smile. At the end of it I was struck by how important creativity and the creative process is to learning and expressing and to finding ones voice and consequently how creativity is probably an essential quality  for a dynamic leader to possess.

Richard Gill and John Marsden were standouts as was Margo Ward from kidsxpress. One of the speakers Glavin Scott Davis showed a lovely cartoon of the evolution of the tablet - not quite this one but i like this too!. Galvin spoke about his journey from app to printed book that has seen him develop an app and merchandise first with the ultimate aim of getting his book published. It is inspiring to think that we could all follow this pathway to print or an alternative way to get ours or a student's work published. Incidentally, his book "Dandelion" which is about bullying is released this week!

http://www.threadless.com/submission/252383/Evolution_of_Tablet