Differentiated Instruction - Understanding Organizational Leadership to Transform Learning

Los Gatos Superintendent Dr. Diana Abbati continues her series of articles on differentiated instruction with a review of research to understand organizational leadership needed to transform learning and implement innovative instructional practices to provide diverse learners with equal opportunities.

Background

Educational leaders continually strive to implement new initiatives to support teachers, educate students for the 21st century, and create equitable learning environments within schools today. In an effort to meet the needs of all students and close the achievement gap, differentiating curriculum in the classroom has been praised as a transformative practice for change. Given the complexity of implementing any new initiative, I began my inquiry by reading aboutschool reform efforts, learning communities, and building leadership capacity.After an exhaustive search,I found that program decisions rarely come about through rational decision-making processes but through multiple actions by multiple actors within the organization (Weiss, 1988).

Hence, I was intrigued by two fundamental concepts. First, I wanted to know more about the overarching theories on leadership and the role of school leaders as primary actors in the decision-making process within schools to transform teaching and learning in the classroom. Next, I looked at the research on organizational learning. 

Overarching Theories on Leadership. 

I was drawn to the work of Sergiovanni and Fullan. In his work, Rethinking Leadership, Sergiovanni (1999) defined five important levels of leadership necessary for competence and excellence: technical leadership, human leadership, educational leadership, symbolic leadership, and cultural leadership. Fullan’s framework of leadership (2001) called upon leaders to demonstrate similar characteristics that include: moral purpose, understanding change, knowledge, creation and sharing, relationship building and coherence making.  Both researchers defined the key roles of a leader, as a facilitator, in terms of moral leadership, purpose, intention and hope focusing on building community and partnerships for teacher learning. 

Overarching Theories of Organizations. Earlier research of school organizations focused on two models: the nested-layers model and the loose-coupling model (Gamoran et al, 2003) as paradigms for school improvement. The nested-layer model portrays schools systems that are arranged in complex layers where the way to change is to manage the flow of resources available to teachers. In this model, teachers are autonomous and at the same time are constrained by the amount of resources available. The loose-coupling model renders school organizations as a set of parameters such as facilities and professional activities that are disconnected. For example, organizational leaders in this model often lack agreement regarding the purpose and goal of the school, often not focused on teaching and learning. 

Three key organizational conditions as gleaned from the literature describe a new dynamic model drawing upon both the nested-layers and loose coupling models and other theoretical approaches (Gamoran et al, 2003) to support high-quality instruction within the organization. These three conditions are: (1) influencing norms and values based on a commitment to equity, (2) available resources and materials that allow for highly individualized approach to instruction (Hall, 2002; Loveless, 1998), and (3) quality professional development available to teachers (Gamoran & Weinstein, 1995). 

Final Thoughts

In the end, educational leaders need to craft coherence among the multiple actors to deal with a myriad of organizational challenges when implementing any new change initiative. Is there a way to predict the decision-making approach when a dilemma arises? I found that decisionscan be negotiated and renegotiated to reach a common understanding by all the constituents if there is a moral purpose and understanding among principals and teachers.