Chapter 10: “I've Changed – We're a Force”: Team Enactment of Leadership in Whole School Improvement in Australia

This chapter relates to the experiences of educators in varying Australian school communities when they are charged with the responsibility of leading their school toward the development of a school-wide pedagogical approach. Each school team is an eclectic group of educators made up of classroom teachers, middle level leaders, and administration representatives. Initiated by the commitment of the principal and externally facilitated support, the school team takes ownership of leading the whole school professional community toward a whole school improvement agenda. This agenda focuses on enhancing teaching and learning, the result of which is the development of the school’s pedagogical purpose through a process of clarifying their Vision for Learning. Incumbent in the Vision for Learning is the need to claim their school identity, identify the needs of their students, and responsively develop a pedagogical framework that is enacted across the whole school. The development process is externally facilitated which deliberately focuses on the protocols and strategies that enable individuals to realize their capacity for contributing to the team and simultaneously understand the importance of collective responsibility. It is this individual capacity building within the team that enables self-acclaimed competence and confidence in working with the team and the whole school professional community. The team collectively realizes their strength in leading and being recognized for their leadership toward achieving whole school improvement goals. Furthermore, it is the tenacity of the collective and their revitalized understanding of professional learning that enables ongoing capacity building and sustainability for the school community.