Uplifting School Leadership and the Townsend/Adams Seven Powers: A Study of Leadership Growth in a Small Rural Primary School in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

This article presents a rich account of school leadership development within the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement program in New South Wales, Australia. The focus is the school leader at a small rural school, whose engagement with generative dialogue and collaborative inquiry results in a growing confidence in engaging her school community. The study demonstrates the power of narrative as a mode of inquiry and leadership development as represented in the school leader’s own account of her changing relationship with her school and her developing sense of professionalism. The study evaluates the success of the approach against a model of Seven Powers derived from the work of David Townsend and Pam Adams in Alberta, Canada, that includes the positive effects of carefully constructed and managed teams, professional relationships and processes, and the use of inquiry, reflection, collaboration, modelling and narrative in supporting the professional development of a school-based leader. Key words: school leadership growth; collaborative inquiry; emotional intelligence; narrative; generative dialogue; North Coast Initiative for School Improvement Cet article presente un compte rendu riche du developpement du leadership scolaire dans le cadre du programme North Coast Initiative for Schola Improvement en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, Australie. L'accent est mis sur le leader scolaire d'une petite ecole rurale, dont l'engagement dans le dialogue generatif et l'enquete collaborative se traduit par une confiance croissante dans l'engagement de sa communaute scolaire. L'etude demontre le pouvoir du recit en tant que mode d'enquete et de developpement du leadership, tel qu'il est represente dans le temoignage de la directrice de l'ecole sur l'evolution de sa relation avec son ecole et le developpement de son sens du professionnalisme. L'etude evalue le succes de l'approche par rapport a un modele des Sept Pouvoirs derive du travail de David Townsend et Pam Adams en Alberta, Canada, qui comprend les effets positifs d'equipes soigneusement construites et gerees, de relations et de processus professionnels, et l'utilisation de l'enquete, de la reflexion, de la collaboration, de la modelisation et du recit pour soutenir le developpement professionnel d'un leader scolaire. Mots cles : leadership scolaire, enquete collaborative, intelligence emotionnelle, recit, dialogue generatif, North Coast Initiative for School Improvement