Distributed Leadership in Practice

Distributed leadership has become an important term for educational policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the United States and around the world, but there is much diversity in how the term is understood. Some use it as a synonym for democratic or participative leadership. This book examines what it means to take a distributed perspective based on extensive research and a rich theoretical perspective developed by experts in the field. Including numerous case studies of individual schools and providing empirically based accounts of school settings using a distributed perspective, this thorough volume:

• Explores how a distributed perspective is different from other frameworks for thinking about leadership.
• Provides clear examples of how taking a distributed perspective can help researchers understand and connect more directly to leadership practice.
• Illustrates how the day-to-day practice of leadership is an important line of inquiry for scholars and for those interested in improving school leadership.

James P. Spillane is Olin Chair in Learning and Organizational Change at the School of Education and Social Policy and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. John B. Diamond is Assistant Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA.