Complexity Theory and Educational Leadership in Schools: Towards a Systems Transformation Heuristic [Paperback]

This book draws on aspects of complexity theory and its integral link to systems performance, to propose a new method of combatting the longstanding opportunity gap and related underperformance of so many underserved students?in the American educational system.

1. The Challenges and Possibilities of School Leadership in the 21^st Century  2. Creating Transformational Leaders: A Complexity Perspective  3. A Complex Adaptive School in Action  4. We are crew, not passengers . . . at least some of us: Reform and Resistance at the Jeffrey Jackson Elementary School  5. School Leadership, Complex Emergence, and Relational Trust in Three School Contexts  6. Student Lives Matter . . . and Related Insights  7. Appendix A: Making It Real: Applying the Systems Transformation Heuristic

The research in this volume draws on aspects of complexity theory and its integral link to systems performance to propose a new method for combatting the longstanding opportunity gap and related underperformance of so many underserved students in the American educational system.

Through a longitudinal case study of the Lynch Leadership Academy at Boston College, this research considers the initial conditions and related disequilibrium principals experienced, the degree to which principals shared power and authority within their school context, and the extent to which they generated a shared school culture founded on collaboration and systematic reflection. From these data, the authors create a detailed picture of the Academy and its impact on the principals and their schools, using a new analytic tool called the systems transformation heuristic, designed by the authors to quantify the qualitative dimensions of a schools efforts to enact adaptive change consistent with the complex adaptlS)