Uplifting School Leadership—Enabling Structures and Processes: The Seven Powers of the Townsend/Adams Approach

Abstract

This article reviews the work of two Albertan educators, David Townsend and Pam Adams, in their application of collaborative inquiry to improving school leadership. Collaborative inquiry is essentially a professional practice that has yet not been comprehensively theorized. This article seeks to lay some foundations for a theorization of the practice by identifying structures and processes that appear to underlie the remarkable success of applications of the practice in several school districts in Alberta, Canada. The emerging mode is one that envisages seven powers: the power of teams, the power of relationship, the power of the process, the power of inquiry and reflection, the power of collaboration, the power of modelling, and the power of narrative. These powers appear to underpin much of what has been written about the ways in which collaborative inquiry has become a powerful force for leadership development in Alberta, and more recently in the State of New South Wales in Australia. Keywords: Collaborative inquiry, school leadership, enabling structures Cet article examine le travail de deux educateurs albertains, David Townsend et Pam Adams, dans leur application de l'enquete collaborative pour ameliorer le leadership scolaire. L'enquete collaborative est essentiellement une pratique professionnelle qui n'a pas encore ete theorisee de maniere exhaustive. Cet article cherche a jeter les bases d'une theorisation de la pratique en identifiant les structures et les processus qui semblent sous-tendre le succes remarquable des applications de la pratique dans plusieurs districts scolaires de l'Alberta, au Canada. Le mode emergent est celui qui envisage sept pouvoirs : le pouvoir des equipes, le pouvoir des relations, le pouvoir du processus, le pouvoir de l'enquete et de la reflexion, le pouvoir de la collaboration, le pouvoir de la modelisation et le pouvoir du recit. Ces pouvoirs semblent sous-tendre une grande partie de ce qui a ete ecrit sur la maniere dont l'enquete collaborative est devenue une force puissante pour le developpement du leadership en Alberta, et plus recemment dans l'Etat de Nouvelle-Galles du Sud en Australie. Mots cles : enquete collaborative, leadership scolaire, structures habilitantes