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My last post got me thinking about leadership approaches. Leadership approaches, although easy to overlook or minimize, are essential because they communicate different values and beliefs (Northouse, 2021). Some leadership approaches may seem to establish restrictive parameters, while others can be seen as creating space where opportunities can be explored and growth can happen. Dominant leadership approaches reflect the values and beliefs of the organization and institution, but more importantly, they reflect the values and beliefs of the leadership and leaders. 

Different leadership approaches engage with leadership and leading change in different ways. I have gravitated towards Transformative and followership leadership as key, human-centred and social justice-driven approaches that move beyond the hope of change to realizing change in practice through a social justice lens. Both are complementary. For this post, I am going to focus on Transformative leadership (followership will follow), highlighting why I am drawn to this approach in leading change in education.

Transformative leadership has been deeply researched by Carolyn Shields (2004, 2010, 2018, 2022). Her identification of 8 tenets for transformative leadership has helped clarify the difference between transformative and transformational leadership. Although often used interchangeably, the two leadership approaches are significantly different. Transformative leadership seeks system-wide, equitable, social justice-driven change (Shields, 2022), while Transformational leadership focuses more on collective good direction-setting (Northouse, 2021). Both are important; however, my connection with Transformative leadership comes from its intentional focus on big, equitable change where existing systems and structures are interrogated, deconstructed, and changed for both individual and collective good. I want to focus on two elements of Transformative leadership: making deep change happen and a focus on emancipation, democracy, equity and justice. 

I constantly question and challenge the status quo, so the priority on making change happen aligns with my values. I’ve often shared with others that I can’t walk by a rock without turning it over, and I have to respond to whatever I see under that rock. More importantly, I have always sought to work with and support those for whom the system has historically failed and silenced. Unfortunately, discomfort with change often leads to, at best, a plateaued approach to challenging the status quo and ultimately, making the changes necessary. The social justice foundation of Transformative leadership speaks to the reality that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Neoliberal ideals narrowly define success (Lavergne, 2023), creating an environment where anything outside that definition is seen as unimportant while subtly communicating a sense of failure. Transformative leadership expands beyond neoliberal values to include lived experiences and cultural or identity-based values, beliefs, and approaches. Seeking, valuing, and embedding this thinking into practice creates the space for educators to realize lived experiences in learning practices while also recognizing (and counting) different forms of demonstrating that learning. For example, the learning that an Indigenous person engages with on the land is important, matters, and counts (Chrona, 2022). Transformative Leadership supports and models the inclusion of that learning as-it-is. A student shouldn’t have to write a reflection on that experience for it to count as learning. The experience and demonstration count as they are.

Through a Transformative leadership approach, what counts through a Eurocentric lens still counts. Transformative Leadership, however, creates the conditions and space to go beyond that belief that only Eurocentric standards matter (Dei, 2018), expanding what learning looks like and how learning can be demonstrated (Lavergne, 2023). 

Further discussion on expanding what learning looks like will follow…

Consider: 8 Tenets of Transformative Leadership (Shields, 2022):

• A mandate to effect deep and equitable change
• A need to deconstruct knowledge frameworks that perpetuate inequity and injustice and to reconstruct them in more equitable ways
• A need to address the inequitable distribution of power
• An emphasis on both private and pubic (individual and collective) good
• A focus on emancipation, democracy, equity and justice
• An emphasis on interdependence, interconnectedness, and global awareness
• The necessity of balancing critique with promise
• A call to exhibit moral courage

References

Chrona, J. 2022. Wayi Wah! Indigenous pedagogies: An act for reconciliation and anti-racist education. Portage & Main Press.

Dei, G. J. S. (2018). “Black like me”: Reframing blackness for decolonial politics. Educational Studies, 54(2), 117-142. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131946.2018.1427586 

Lavergne, R. J. (2023). Learning: What counts and who decides?. The Dissertation in Practice at Western University, 359. Retrieved from https://uwo.scholaris.ca/items/2f40e43b-069d-4e7f-a9da-081e8816c066 

Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.

Shields, C. M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558-589. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013161X10375609 

Shields, C. M. (2022). Transformative leadership theory: A comprehensive approach to equity, inclusion, excellence, and social justice. In A. Gelinas-Proulx, & C. M. Shields (Eds.), Leading for equity and social justice: Systemic transformation in Canadian education (pp. 23-42). University of Toronto Press. https://utorontopress.com/9781487542511/leading-for-equity-and-social-justice/