78 PREPARATION OF SCHOOL LEADERS
GENERATIVE LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
Leadership is “an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real
changes that reflect their mutual purposes” (Rost, 1991, p. 102). Even while social-justice
leadership, school-improvement leadership, and democratic leadership (Murphy, 2002; Orr,
2006) are contemporary demands for effective principals, being an effective school leader still
requires attention to managerial tasks (CCSSO, 1996; Leithwood & Riehl, 2003; Portin,
Schneider, DeArmond, & Gundlach, 2003). Being able to work with and through others to get
things done requires reflective thinking, confidence, and credibility, characteristics integral to
self-management (Kouzes & Posner, 1987).
In addition to addressing daily streams of administrative responsibilities, today’s
principals have to create continuous-improvement school cultures (Calabrese, 2002; Zepeda,
2004; Zmuda, Kulis, & Kline, 2004) if they are to be successful. Such efforts are necessary to
assure that optimal learning occurs (Blankstein, 2004; Fullan, 2003) by creating and
maintaining trust-based relationships (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Kouchanek, 2005) and to
develop leadership capacities and responsibilities among various groups to accomplish goals
(Lambert, 1998, 2003; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). Creating and maintaining
professional learning communities (DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2005; Sullivan & Glanz,
2006) is one essential means of assuring high levels of continuous learning by everyone
engaged in today’s P-12 schools.
As the principalship has changed to reflect these new constructs, preparation programs
have added courses about “change, conflict resolution, delegation, teamwork and
communication, analytical and process skills, [and] the capacity to foster learning
communities” (Orr, 2006, p. 495). Such leadership expectations depend heavily on
interpersonal and relationship-building skills that need to be developed and assessed in
supportive and constructively critical practice settings. And program instructors need to
facilitate experiential learning through cycles of concrete experience, observation and
reflection, abstract conceptualization, and experimentation in new situations (Johnson &
Johnson, 1996; Kolb, 1984).
When experiential learning is used in classroom settings with minimal risk to learners, it
provides safe opportunities for learners to practice transferable skills in conflict resolution,
teamwork, and community building (Kolb, 1984). With careful planning and attentive
facilitation by instructors, a group of students can transform themselves into an experiential
learning group that may be described as a community of practice or a generative learning
community.
Communities of Practice
Communities of practice take many forms: short-term or long-term, spontaneous or
intentional, homogeneous or heterogeneous, unorganized or institutionalized. However, they
always have three fundamental elements: “a domain of knowledge, which defines a set of
issues; a community of people who care about this domain; and the shared practice that they
are developing to be effective in their domain” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 27).
Communities of practice evolve over time as their members develop expertise through shared
learning and knowledge refinement as the group matures. Individuals who participate in
communities of practice expand their opportunities for professional growth and career
advancement by sharing expertise and developing collegial relationships. Further, in
leadership-preparation programs communities of practice provide opportunities for situated