Context Matters: Lessons Learned from Successful Superintendents about Professional Development 277superintendents permitted us to look across these national settings for common themes and
provided two distinct settings for understanding the socialization processes for
superintendents including recruitment, preparation, and on-going professional development.
FINDINGS
To begin, our emerging theory of context-responsive leadership builds on existing theories
of leadership already well documented in the field of educational leadership and leadership
studies more broadly. In doing so, our purpose is to move beyond simple matches of leader
style to tasks, followers, and situations. These successful leaders employed a complex mix of
knowledge, skills, and dispositions we identified as context-responsive leadership (CRL)
moving their organizations forward with collective purpose, vision, and goals. As indicated
by the results of our study, effective leaders engage in a fluid conversation of practice in
dynamic, interactive contexts. Furthermore, the context-responsive view of leadership more
aptly accounts for educational leaders’ anticipatory and responsive engagement with their
respective contexts. We wanted to better understand how leaders interact and participate in
context in ways that simultaneously affect leader behavior as well as shape and/or respond to
various elements of context.
Our findings confirm that these superintendents were indeed successful leaders. Despite
the success they enjoy in their roles, however, none revealed much about his/her leadership
behavior or perspectives when asked what they hoped their colleagues would describe about
their leadership. As one superintendent noted, “It’s not about me.” Some superintendents
indicated they would like to be known for such personal leadership qualities as generosity,
honesty, forthrightness, caring, and creativity; however, the true indicators of their individual
leadership capacity emerged when they described their interactions and relationships with
others to achieve organizational goals, reinforcing the distinction that leadership absent
context is meaningless.
A Leadership Paradox: Superintendents’ Work is Both Similar and Different
During the interviews, some respondents told us there were more similarities than
differences in their work as school superintendents; however, upon further investigation, it
became apparent that, while there were indeed a number of similarities in the primary work
tasks and responsibilities attached to their formal roles, respondents’ personal expressions of
leadership, in concert with their unique contexts of practice, provided illustrative differences
in their leadership actions. Differences in national traditions, political/governance structures
in education, geography, organizational culture, and demographics notwithstanding, the
leadership demonstrated by the superintendents in our study can be characterized by three
main themes.
In the first theme, the focus of their professional work centered on children and young
people. Each superintendent endeavored to keep their systems and their processes child-
centered. The second theme focused on the district vision and mission. Given that change
and uncertainty were constant companions of these superintendents, each worked to clarify,
communicate, and protect a collective vision and mission dedicated to the care, nurture, and
development of all children. Their clearly-focused visions also helped these superintendents
shape the context of their professional work, and push back against the influences of special
interest groups, irrelevant political diversions, and fiscal constraints. In all cases, their efforts
resulted in the formation of a clear, positive framework which provided direction and support