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Leadership Alignment: The Challenge of Distributed Leadership

Abstract

"Drawing on case studies of schools participating in a school-university partnership to
improve math and science teaching, this paper explores the configurations of distributed
leadership in four schools in three districts. To examine how leadership is distributed, we
examine how a set of change-related leadership tasks are accomplished, and in particular what
contributions are made by district leaders, principals, formally identified teacher leaders and
other teachers. This analysis suggested that principals and district office staff were more active in
performing leadership tasks than teachers and teacher leaders. However, the vision or approach
to improve mathematics was not always share among leaders. We describe patterns of leadership
distribution looking into these two dimensions: visions and tasks. The configuration of
leadership showed a typology of alignment."