Leadership and the theory of distributed leadership

Spillane defines leadership as an influence relationship. Leaders influence followers by motivating actions, enhancing knowledge and potentially shaping the practice of followers.

These influences are connected to the core work of the organization – teaching and learning in classrooms through teachers. Distinguishing between leaders and followers – at least

analytically – helps build a deeper understanding of the nature of these influences and how leadership connects to classroom practice through followers (Spillane, 2007).

We wish to use the distributed leadership theory from Spillane to explore and explain why initiatives from the school leaders are so important for the work with students in schools. That motivating the teachers and showing them how to use ICT tools in class is the best way to succeed in implementing ICT and ensuring that it is used pedagogically. The leaders have in most cases few ways to connect to the classrooms and to know what is going on there. It is useful to reflect on how the leaders will influence the teachers, here by Spillane called the followers, and by that also influencing what goes on in the classroom.

Current reform efforts seek fundamental changes in teachers’ instructional practices in terms of both the content they teach and the pedagogic practices they use. Understanding the link between leadership and instruction as it plays out daily in school is a critical component of understanding this change process (Spillane, 2007, p. 161).

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Defining leadership and management as an activity allows for the possibility that people in various positions in an organization might take on the work (Spillane, 2007, p. 3).

Distributed leadership is an activity in which the leaders participated in interaction with each other. In this perspective the day to day administrative management is not included. The leadership activity involves influencing others to achieve new, hopefully desirable ends. It means to transform existing ways, upsetting business as usual in schools and classrooms (Spillane, 2007).

This project is an example on how a policy by the principal might help to distribute the different leadership areas among the other leaders in the group. The day to day administration of a school with 850 students and a staff with over 100 teachers is complex and divers. It is impossible that all the leaders have the same knowledge and skills in all the different areas of management. The specialized tasks vary from ICT technical, exams, student management, budget, personnel administration and so on. In this particular project we are talking about implementing OneNote as a teaching strategy in the school. As we will see later in the leadership strategy meeting only one of the leaders was responsible for instigating,

implementing and seeing the project through. It is not the number of individuals but what they contribute to the task and especially how the expertise for carrying out the task is distributed among them. Hence, if one person has the expertise to perform a particular routine effectively, involving more individuals may be a waste of time (Spillane, 2007, p. 152). This is an

important part of the discussion and not only because it is important to establish if this is a rational way to organize our work, but also if it leaves us vulnerable. By that we mean if too much responsibility is put on one person only, sickness or leaving the organization might mean the end of the project.

Spillane stresses the importance of being connected to the classroom. Sometimes that can be done by carefully monitoring classroom activity. Or by assessing student work or reviewing teachers’ lesson plans as in the case of “Spanning the Boundary at Hillside Elementary School” (Spillane, 2007, p. 31). In that particular example the principal managed to gain insight in what was done in the classroom by different initiatives like correcting students work or organizing staff development meetings where pedagogy was discussed. Hence, the ability to influence the work that is done in the classroom is an important part of the leadership role.

One way of doing it is participating in class as an active observer. Another way can be by

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teaching. In Norway many school leaders also teach, in fact this is among teachers looked on as a form of legitimacy. Teaching students when they are using OneNote is a way to get a feel of how the students use it in their learning and to explore the many possibilities it has and how it is used.

A distributed perspective acknowledges that the work of leading and managing schools involving multiple individuals (Spillane, 2007, p. 7). As one might expect human capital development is also critical for a school to run effectively. This development happens through functions such as summative and formative monitoring of instruction and its improvement, support for individual and collective staff development and growth, and recognition for individual success for school leaders (Spillane, 2007, p. 3).

The reform in Norway has emphasized the use of ICT in all subject areas. They way this is done is mostly by including it in curriculum topics and providing net resources for use in class. Little has been done to show how the school leaders can help the teachers in this aspect.

Current reform efforts seek fundamental changes in teachers’ instructional practices in terms of both the content they teach and the pedagogic practices they use. Understanding the link between leadership and instruction as it plays out daily in schools is a critical component of understanding this change process (Spillane, 2007, p. 161).

The role played by the leaders in helping the teachers with their instructional practices is in our opinion vital. Just as we assume that the students know more than they do, it is easy to assume that the teachers know more about technology than they do. It is also easy to assume that new ways of teaching and learning are being implemented in the classroom. However, few have actually taken the measures required to find out.

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