Transformative Leadership: An Asset-Based Approach to Leadership for Diverse Schools and Learners

Traditionally, school leadership has been viewed as emanating from a sole source, the school administrator. This top-down perspective suggests that school leadership lives and dies by the leader\u27s specific skills, mind-set, and preferred activities. This perspective ultimately oversimplifies the difficult work that school administrators must navigate in order to ensure the success of all learners. While there is no doubt that many individual school administrators are empathetic and compassionate educators, unilateral decision-making means that the cultural, linguistic and social lenses utilized to inform decision-making are limited to the perspective of the administrator. In this chapter we propose that school leadership should be framed as a complex activity that occurs through the interaction of school administrators, teachers, and students-within the unique social context of specific classrooms, schools, and communities. This leadership style is transformative since it honors the resources that diverse students, teachers, and communities bring to the school. Transformative leadership purposefully integrates these resources into school- and classroom-level decision-making. Additionally, this leadership style is distributive as it assumes school leadership activity must be stretched across stakeholders and types of tasks. We maintain purposeful examination of school level issues from the perspectives of diverse groups is an essential piece of the school leader\u27s work. Through transformative, distributive leadership a culturally proficient learning community is created