Distributed Leadership and Schools as Learning Organizations: Conceptual Issues in Crossing National Boundaries While Linking Practice to Theory

Distributed leadership, especially the conceptual framework developed by Spillane and colleagues (2001; 2004), is widely used to promote better school functioning and enhance the development of teachers and administrators in their professional capacities. With roots in Wengers’ communities of practice(Wenger, 1999), various scholars have attempted to articulate a conceptual model that can enhance the effectiveness of leaders, promote teacher communities of practice and re-organize schools as learning communities. However, significant issues arise when crossing national boundaries – differences in school work culture, leadership structures and the understanding of distributed leadership itself. There is an ongoing debate about how distributed leadership as a theory aligns (or is in different from) other theories such as teacher leadership, socially distributed leadership or shared leadership. In assessment and evaluation literature, these and other terms, are often incorrectly used interchangeably. In crossing national boundaries, scholars and practitioners have to account for different organizational cultures of leadership in schools if there is to be a systematic advancement of our understanding of the concept and its potential to reform schools.