COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR LEADERS: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY TO IMPROVE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADER COLLABORATION
Author
Parker, Johanna Jorgensen
Abstract
When highly effective educators move into school leadership, their learning and growth
are put on the back burner. Oftentimes, school leaders operate in silos within their school
districts with little to no authentic collaboration with other school leaders or district
administrators. The goal of this participatory action research study was to analyze the
knowledge, skills, and dispositions of school leaders to improve the use of equitable practices. In
this participatory action research (PAR) study, I created the conditions for school leaders from
across a school district to collaborate and learn about equitable practices through a Networked
Improvement Community (NIC; Bryk et al., 2015). Over ten months and three cycles of inquiry,
three school principals and two district leaders met every 4-6 weeks as a School Leader
Networked Improvement Community (SL-NIC) to collaborate and learn together about equitable
practices. The study findings are: (1) School district leadership sets the tone for school leader
agency through modeling effective collaborative practices; (2) collaboration among school and
district leaders about equitable practices occurs through enacting a collaborative meeting
structure; and (3) school leaders transfer and sustain collaborative meeting structures in their
schools with teachers when they have time to process and find value in the work. The study
challenges the existing structures by proposing a framework that includes a District and School
Leader Collaboration Continuum that builds leader agency. The study has national, state, and
local policy implications for school and district leader collaboration and learning.
Date
2023-04-21
Citation:
APA:
Parker, Johanna Jorgensen.
(April 2023).
COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR LEADERS: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY TO IMPROVE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADER COLLABORATION
(Doctoral Dissertation, East Carolina University). Retrieved from the Scholarship.
(http://hdl.handle.net/10342/12806.)
MLA:
Parker, Johanna Jorgensen.
COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR LEADERS: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY TO IMPROVE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADER COLLABORATION.
Doctoral Dissertation. East Carolina University,
April 2023. The Scholarship.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/12806.
May 02, 2024.
Chicago:
Parker, Johanna Jorgensen,
“COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR LEADERS: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY TO IMPROVE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADER COLLABORATION”
(Doctoral Dissertation., East Carolina University,
April 2023).
AMA:
Parker, Johanna Jorgensen.
COLLABORATIVE SPACES FOR LEADERS: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY TO IMPROVE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADER COLLABORATION
[Doctoral Dissertation]. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University;
April 2023.
Collections
Publisher
East Carolina University
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