Distributed leadership: developing theory from practice

Taylor and Francis Ltd CUS103837.sgm 10.1080/00220270500038545 Journal of Curri ulum Studies 0 00-0 00 (p i t)/0 -0000 (online) Original Article 2 5 & Francis Group Ltd 002 5 Hele Timperley School f Edu a onUniversity of AucklandPrivate Bag 92019AucklandNew [email protected] Hopes that the transformation of schools lies with exceptional leaders have proved both unrealistic and unsustainable. The idea of leadership as distributed across multiple people and situations has proven to be a more useful framework for understanding the realities of schools and how they might be improved. However, empirical work on how leadership is distributed within more and less successful schools is rare. This paper presents key concepts related to distributed leadership and illustrates them with an empirical study in a schoolimprovement context in which varying success was evident. Grounding the theory in this practice-context led to the identification of some risks and benefits of distributing leadership and to a challenge of some key concepts presented in earlier theorizing about leadership and its distribution.