Grappling with the Complexity of Urban School Leadership: Integrating Perspectives on Educational Change Author: Brad Kershner Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107928 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2018 Copyright is held by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0). Boston College Lynch School of Education Department of Teacher Education, Special Education, and Curriculum and Instruction Grappling with the Complexity of Urban School Leadership: Integrating Perspectives on Educational Change Dissertation by Brad Kershner Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Committee: Dr. Patrick J. McQuillan, Chair Dr. Andy Hargreaves Dr. Rebecca J. Lowenhaupt April 2018 © Copyright by Bradley G. Kershner 2018 ii Abstract Grappling with the Complexity of Urban School Leadership: Integrating Perspectives on Educational Change by Brad Kershner Dr. Patrick J. McQuillan, Chair This dissertation presents two case studies of educational leadership, followed by an extensive discussion of methodological, historical, and philosophical issues that pertain to education research, policy, and leadership development. The case studies utilize qualitative research methods and the theoretical framework of complex systems to ascertain how and to what extent principals fostered cultural and educational change at their schools, with attention to how principals leveraged distributed leadership, instructional leadership, and the generation of cultural norms. Findings from the study were consistent with literature on systems leadership, and reinforce the significance of history and path dependence in school systems, the need to limit disequilibrium and turbulence within sustainable ranges, the importance of trust within social networks to facilitate productive change processes, and the importance of shared cultural norms to align staff values and behavior. Following the explication of the two cases, a meta- analysis is presented to address the methodological and interpretive limits of the study. The role of human development and the influence of cultural ideology and social infrastructures are highlighted as crucial dimensions of reality that warrant integration in educational research. Integral Theory is utilized as a means to explore the cultural, social, and psychological factors involved in achieving more comprehensive interpretations of social reality. Key topics include: complex systems, Integral Theory, modernity, postmodernity, education reform, neoliberalism, and developmental psychology. iii Acknowledgements I offer many thanks to the faculty and students at the Lynch School of Education. It was a long and winding road, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank you Dr. Hargreaves for your advising, teaching, and writing. When I was researching PhD programs in 2010, I came across your work and decided to read one of your books—and then several more. I had an opportunity to work with one of the most important educational theorists of the past century in Madison, WI, but I chose to come to BC because I perceived in your work at that time an indication of the integral, post- postmodern possibilities that I explore in chapter five of this dissertation. You are the reason I moved my family from Berkeley to Boston, and I am humbled by and grateful for the myriad subsequent events that were influenced irrevocably by that decision. Thank you Dr. Lowenhaupt for your guidance and thoughtfulness. I have greatly appreciated your perspective as a teacher, researcher, and confidant who understands the overlapping worlds of academia, school leadership, public education, and progressive independent schools—worlds we have both been navigating in different ways. Thank you for listening, understanding, and sharing your wisdom. Last and most, thank you Dr. McQuillan. You have been my primary guide throughout these seven years, and I could not have navigated this emergent process without your patient and consistent support. Bless your heart for taking an idealistic philosopher and carefully guiding him through the process of becoming a nascent qualitative researcher. I greatly appreciate the generosity of spirit you have shown in letting me chart my own course through the program. May this dissertation be a fulfillment of my circuitous path, and honor the work we have done together. iv Table of Contents Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 – One City, One Leadership Program, Two Schools Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………………..4 Purpose of Study and Research Questions………………………………………………9 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………….12 Chapter 2 - Literature Review Complex Systems and Complexity Leadership Theory…………………………………21 Distributed, Shared, and Relational Leadership in Complex Systems…………………..40 The Complex Systems View…………………………………………………………….45 Chapter 3 – A Comparative Case Study of Educational Leadership Research Design………………………………………………………………...……….56 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………..65 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………….66 Meta-Analysis……………………………………………………………………………70 Chapter 4 - Two Cases of Leadership and Educational Change Jeffrey Jackson School…………………………………………………………………..74 Culture, Climate, and Collaboration...........................................................................80 Communication: The Key to Cultural Change…………………………………..82 Distributed Leadership: From Consistent Communication to Collective Action.......87 Festivals, Fundraisers, and Families: Taking on Big Projects Together……...…93 Instructional Leadership: Principal Presence in the Classroom................................98 v High Expectations and Critical Thinking: Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap…………………………………………………………………101 Conclusion: Reform is in the Eye of the Beholder.....................................................110 Saint Catherine’s School……………………………………………………………..…122 DREAM BIG: Creating a Common School Culture..................................................129 Distributed Leadership: Creating Structures for Organizational Learning.............135 Instructional Leadership: Challenging and Supporting Teachers in the Classroom...........................................................................................................144 Conclusion: Guiding Emergence Through Challenge, Support, and Balance........148 Summary of Findings……………………………………………………………….....157 Chapter 5 – Meta-Analysis…………………………………………………………..166 Post-Postmodern Pluralism: Integrating Perspectives on Leadership and Change……169 Subjective Realities: Understanding the Spectrum of Perspectives…………………...190 Social Realities: Surfacing Economic/Political Infrastructures and Ideological Influences……………………………………………………………………………...216 Methodological Hindsight: A Formative Assessment………………………………...239 Reflections on Systems Thinking, Integral Theory, and Qualitative Methods.........240 Recommendations for Future Research: Fostering and Assessing Development in Complex Systems.....................................................................................................252 Deliberately Developmental Organizations…………………………………..253 Lectical Assessments…………………………………………………………257 Action Inquiry………………………………………………………………...259 Positionality as a Kosmic Address.........................................................................265 References…………………………………………………………………………...283 vi Index of Figures Figure 1 – The Four Quadrants……………………………………………………….....17 Figure 2 – Networked Teams at JJS……………………………………………………..90 Figure 3 – Networked Teams at SCS…………………………………………….…..…137 Figure 4 – Evolution in Four Quadrants………………………………………….….…178 Figure 5 – Evolution of Operating Systems……………………………………….……178 Figure 6 – Four-Quadrant Perspective Taking …………………………………….…...180 Figure 7 – Theorists in Four Quadrants………………………………………….…..…181 Figure 8 – Quadrant Absolutism……………………………………………………….181 Figure 9 – Eight Zones of Integral Methodological Pluralism…………………………182 Figure 10 – Methodologies in the Eight Zones…………………………………………183 Figure 11 – Distribution of Levels of Mental Complexity Among Adults……………..203 Figure 12 – Comparison of Mental Complexity Stage Models ………………………..203 vii Introduction There are many challenges, tensions, and paradoxes of policy and practice embedded in the operations of urban schools. On one hand, there are persistent achievement gaps between students of different races, social classes, and linguistic backgrounds, and a college degree remains an unattained aspiration for many young people. On the other hand, many policies and practices that ostensibly seek to address these and other problems create other, perhaps even more pernicious difficulties for teachers and students. These problems include: narrowed curricula, test-focused preparatory school cultures that limit the ends and means of the learning process, teacher accountability practices that encourage test-focused instruction and militate against the development of professional cultures of practice, and limited time, money, and support for the arts, physical education, and play. As many have documented, this confluence of system pressures and the responses of education reform, largely constituted by standardization,