Learning leadership: a dialogic phenomenon of high school principal practice

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to more deeply understand and describe how leaders promote and enact personal and transformational learning of teachers and students, while also meeting the transactional goals and objectives of the educational system. Learning as a method to lead was studied, given the assumption that much of a principal’s practice occurs within realms of the unknown. One aim of the study was to add a scholarly viewpoint encouraging learning and thinking as principles of school leadership, rather than knowing or being an expert. This phenomenological research study described the dialogic process of learning leadership through interviews with high school principals who responded to the motivating question how do high school principals experience and enact learning leadership? Key findings demonstrated that principals led by learning, nurtured the process of learning, acted as mediators, and learned through recognizing and addressing the complex situations that arose in their practice.