GREATER THAN THE PARTS: HOW SCHOOL LEADERS AND CENTRAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATORS BUILD COHERENCE AND TRUST

Abstract

School districts are highly complex organizations. Leaders often feel frustrated by the failure of improvement efforts that are built with rational if-then structures when the intended goals are not met. During the design phase of this Participatory Action Research study, a group of Co-Practitioner Researchers (CPR) highlighted Trust and Coherence as essential considerations for leaders building innovative improvement plans. The Focus Of Practice (FOP) of this study is how school leaders and central office administrators build trust and coherence between and among each other and foster innovation. I designed collaborative gatherings using Improvement Science and Community Learning Exchange methodologies. The CPR from a Northern California public school district took part in three cycles of inquiry to explore Trust and Coherence. Over 18 months from 2021-2022, I designed activities and gathered data from Learning Exchanges, 1:1 Interviews, and Reflective Memos in order to answer the research questions developed to explore the FOP. Analysis of open and axial coding is at the heart of this dissertation and indicates that efforts to build trust and coherence are often thwarted by the churn of educator turnover and the gravity of the status quo. By exploring the relationship between school and central office leadership, the co-practitioners and I found actions that counter these adverse outcomes. Study findings show that school leaders at all levels can create outcomes that are Greater than the Parts by attending to building Trust and Coherence. Specifically, the co-practitioner researchers in this study found six Critical Levers that leaders can use to build Trust and Coherence between and among school leaders and central office administrators. The three Critical Levers for increasing Trust are Proximity, Support, and Vulnerability. Vision, Alignment, and Systems are the three Critical Levers for increasing Coherence. This study highlights these Critical Levers as key considerations that leaders can use to design improvement plans that increase Trust and Coherence between and among school leaders and central office administrators. The study findings have implications for leaders at all levels of educational organizations.