510004

research-article2013

EAQ50410.1177/0013161X13510004Educational Administration QuarterlyStone-Johnson

Article

Responsible Leadership

Educational Administration Quarterly

2014, Vol. 50(4) 645674
The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0013161X13510004
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Corrie Stone-Johnson1

Abstract
Purpose: At a time when school leadership takes on great import, we must
ask how leadership can move beyond a focus on individual- and school-level
changes to collective leadership that relies on the strength of relationships
between schools and the communities in which they reside to foster and
sustain change. Such leadership is termed responsible leadership. Using a
conceptual framework for responsible business leadership and data from
a large-scale multinational study on Performing Beyond Expectations, this
article formulates a theory for responsible educational leadership. Research
Design: Data come from the Performing Beyond Expectations project, a
large-scale international study undertaken from 2007 to 2010. This study
used qualitative interviews and analysis of documentary data to explore
how organizations in business, education, and sport achieve exceptionally
high performance, given their size, client base, and previous performance.
The project included more than 220 interviews and 18 sites. Analysis in
this article focuses on the responsible leadership found in three schools in
one local authority and the ways in which each leader uses relationships to
improve the school and student achievement. Findings: All three leaders
see the purpose of leadership as developing relationships and attribute their
performance beyond expectations to the strength of these relationships. As
responsible leaders, they view their role as not only raising and sustaining
pupil achievement but also weaving leadership throughout the web of
stakeholders including students, parents, and community agencies. This
collectivization of leadership is a hallmark of responsible leadership.

1University

at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:
Corrie Stone-Johnson, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo, 471 Baldy Hall,
Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
Email: corriest@buffalo.edu

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Keywords
leadership, ethics, case study, empirical paper, qualitative research
School leaders are under more scrutiny than ever to make measurable changes
in the lives and academic achievements of their students (Hargreaves & Fink,
2006; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2010; Starratt, 2004).
Although strong pressure currently comes from national reform initiatives,
decisions are often made at the most local levelthe school building or
school district/local authority. Associated with these decisions are complex
choices about what is best for the students (Begley, 2004; Frick, 2009;
Greenfield, 1991; Sergiovanni, 1992; Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2011; Starratt,
1995, 2004; Sun, 2011). While it is known that a successful educational
leader believes that students, teachers, and others involved in the school are
responsible for helping all students reach their highest potential and doing
what is best for students (Starratt, 2005), the field of educational leadership
lacks deep understanding of the relationship between leadership, the organization of the school, and the community (Greenfield, 2004).
This article draws on a framework for responsible business leadership
(Maak & Pless, 2006a, 2006b) to formulate a theory for responsible educational leadership. A responsible leaders core task is to develop relationships
with stakeholder groups that raise one another to higher levels of motivation
and commitment for achieving sustainable values creation and social change
(Pless, 2007, p. 438; see also Maak & Pless, 2006a, 2006b). These stakeholder groups include employees, clients and customers, business partners,
the social and natural environment, and shareholders.
In this article, I use case study data interview data from the Performing
Beyond Expectations (PBE) project to examine responsible educational leadership. PBE, a large-scale international study undertaken from 2007 to 2010
by a research team comprising scholars from both the United States and the
United Kingdom (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011), explores how 18 organizations across three sectorsbusiness, education, and sportachieve exceptionally high performance, given their history, size, client base, and previous
performance. The education sector provides a unique perspective from other
sectors in that oftentimes schools cannot change employees or students but
must work with existing resources to perform beyond expectations. The evidence from the PBE study suggests that a key factor in performance beyond
expectations is a collectivization of leadership in which the strengths of
everyone involved in the work of an organization are marshaled (Hargreaves
& Harris, 2011).
PBE addressed three research questions:

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Research Question 1: What characteristics make organizations of different types successful and sustainable, far beyond expectations?
Research Question 2: How does sustainability of performance beyond
expectations in leadership and change manifest itself in education, compared to other sectors?
Research Question 3: What are the implications for schools and school
leaders (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011)?
In this article, I use responsible leadership as a theoretical framework to
explore PBE leadership. In particular I focus on the development of relationships to achieve and sustain performance against all odds.

Review of the Literature

Quality educational leadership matters. In fact, school leadership ranks second behind teaching as a school-related factor affecting student learning
(Leithwood et al., 2010). Key variables have been identified that have either
moderately large or large effects on student outcomes, including establishing
goals and expectations and promoting and participating in teacher learning
and development (Robinson, Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008). Furthermore, successful
leadership means both taking responsibility for learning when it is successful
and accepting responsibility when it does not go as well as planned (Dinham,
2005; Leithwood et al., 2010).
As research increasingly attempts to link leadership with performance,
pressure is mounting on school leaders (Crow, 2006; Hargreaves & Fink,
2006; Leithwood, 2001; Marks & Nance, 2007). This pressure is predicated
on the assumption of leader as a heroic individual who is individually responsible for such gains (Furman, 2004). Questions of what type of leadership
such an individual should assume have long been debated, from Burnss
(1978) distinction between transactional leadership, which relies on an
exchange of one thing, such as a job, for another, such as votes, and transforming leadership, which aims to meet higher-level needs and views followers as potential leaders themselves, to Shieldss (2010) description of
transformative leadership, which focuses on issues of justice and democracy
and views leadership as linked not just with performance but as part of the
social context of which it is part.
Academic performance, although important, is not the only goal of successful school leadership. An equally important goal is the promotion of the
best interests of the student beyond academics, including fairness, justice,
and equity as well as democratic learning that promotes civic engagement
and understanding. Such leadership is often referred to as ethical or moral

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leadership. At the heart of ethical educational leadership is the question

What is in the best interest of the students? (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2011).
Ethical educational leadership has grown to incorporate understandings of
multiple ethics, including those of justice, critique, care, and the profession
(Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2011). The ethic of justice includes questions related
to the rule of law and concepts including fairness, equity, and justice. The
ethic of critique raises questions about inequity in society and in schools,
with an eye toward who benefits and who holds the power in school-related
concerns. The ethic of care reflects concern about helping students meet their
needs at whatever level they may be and also addresses who is helped and
who is hurt by the decision-making process. Finally, the ethic of the profession examines the role of leadership in making these decisions. Begley (2004)
suggests that in an era of increasingly higher-stakes accountability, school
principals are encountering more situations that require ethical leadership.
Moral leadership centers on the question of leading and teaching to what
ends, and by what means? (Greenfield, 2004, p. 174). Greenfield (1991)
suggests that leadership is made up of much more than daily routines and
tasks and is underpinned by the moral orientation of both the leaders and
teachers (p. 161). Moral leadership involves attention to context, with an eye
toward blending local resources with a keen awareness of existing challenges
(Starratt, 1995) and with a goal of school improvement, democratic community, and social justice (Murphy, 1999). Sergiovanni (1992) argues that a
moral way of knowingand leadingought to be valued equally to more
logical ways of leading.
Whereas all of these types of leadership have demonstrated positive effects
on student learning (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2000, 2005; Shields, 2010), most
assume that the individual leader is not only the decision-maker but also the
ethical and moral leader as well (Furman, 2004). Furthermore, most assume
that the leadership resources for change reside in the school. However, leadership that relies solely on what is available in the school will not sustain a
school no matter how ethical or moral the leader is (Greenfield, 2004) or how
high the school performs (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011). Recent work in educational leadership demonstrates that performance beyond expectations happens
when leaders lead not by themselves but with and through others (Hargreaves
& Harris, 2010, p. 36), taking responsibility not just for success and failure but
for developing the relationships needed to foster such success. Indeed, school
success is linked to the distribution of leadership (Crum & Sherman, 2008;
Dinham, 2005; Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008; Spillane, 2006). This
distinction is the key element of responsible leadership. Responsible leadership, though, extends the idea of who might be involved in leadership and
change. Starratt (2004, 2005) argues that not only is a leader responsible to

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multiple stakeholders in the building, the district level, and the community,
but also he or she is also responsible for developing relationships with each of
these stakeholders. Responsible leaders, then, develop relationships as an
equally important part of their leadership, not instead of but alongside strategies for improving academic achievement for all students.
Recent work on the ethic of community adds to this understanding of relationship-building by placing community at the center of moral agency
(Furman, 2004). The ethic of community not only complements the aforementioned ethics (justice, critique, care, profession) but also works to extend leadership beyond the schoolhouse and into the community. At the same time, the
ethic of community also broadens the notion of what community is, extending
it from an entity or an end-product to a series of processes that are assisted by
formal and informal leaders who both understand and are dedicated to developing, enacting, and facilitating these processes (Furman, 2002). While
Furman (2004, p. 230) suggests that the ethic of community is a missing
link in understanding leadership, more research is needed to understand better both the social relations among school leaders and others (Greenfield,
2004) and the development of community as process (Furman, 2002).

Theoretical Framework for Responsible Leadership

One way to understand how responsible leadership differs from more traditional views of leadership is through metaphor. In this metaphor, responsible
leaders are weavers whose strength is in the ties that bind stakeholders
together (Maak & Pless, 2006). As a weaver, a responsible leader leads from
the center, not the top, with a focus on building relationships rather than
developing individual power. Maak (2007) argues that weaving these strong
relationships with stakeholders leads not just to increased organizational performance but to benefits to all stakeholders.
Maak and Plesss (2006b) roles model approach operationalizes the web
metaphor. At the center of the web is the responsible leader who has four values-based roles (Pless, 2007). As a visionary, a leader involves stakeholders in
the process of future thinking. As a steward, a leader acts as a defender of the
organizations most precious resources, including its vision and its relationships. As a servant, a leader develops a vision that aligns with stakeholder
needs and goals. Finally, the citizen acts as an integral part of the community
who committed not only to business matters but to civic matters as well.
Stretching out from these four roles is another set of roles. These include
storyteller and meaning enabler, coach, architect, and change agent (Maak &
Pless, 2006b; Pless, 2007). Finally, extending out from these four roles are
the stakeholders. These include suppliers, peers, future generations, fellow

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Figure 1. Roles model of responsible leadership.

Source. Adapted from Maak and Pless (2006b).

citizens, family, employees, customers, board members, and other stakeholders. Figure 1 shows the figures of roles for responsible leadership.
Responsible leadership, although a powerful framework for understanding
relationships development and stakeholder benefit, is not without fault. As it
applies to education, it runs the danger, like other concepts drawn from the
business world such as Total Quality Management or turnaround leadership,
of being viewed as a fad providing only short-term improvement to educational organizations (Peck & Reitzug, 2012). However, responsible leadership, as theorized in this article, aims to show how building relationships can
enhance both student performance and promote democratic community.
A second challenge of this model of responsible leadership is the almost
inherent centrality and pervasive hierarchy of leadership (Blackmore, 1989).

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Even as responsible leadership attempts to strengthen the ties that bind leaders,
schools, and stakeholders, the imagery of the web places an individual, formal
leader at the center (Maak & Pless, 2006a, 2006b). Furthermore, the decision to
embrace responsible leadership often comes from the formal leadership of a
school or organization. This challenge is combated in two ways. First and foremost, a shift is needed to view not who is at the center but what is at the center.
The centrality of a formal leader does not inherently lessen the power for change;
indeed, democratic leadership is based on the idea that at times a single person
may need to be central (Woods, 2004). While moral leadership places values at
the center, ethical leadership places students best interests at the center, and
transformative leadership places social justice at the center, relationships are at
the center of responsible leadership (Maak & Pless, 2006a). Additionally, the
challenge is addressed though the development of leadership capacity among
informal leaders. Even though these leaders may not be at the center of decisionmaking, their role in decision-making is critical nonetheless.
In summary, responsible leadership deemphasizes the notion of the leader
as a hero and replaces it with the vision of the leader as a weaver of both
relationships. The strength of an organization is determined by the strength of
the web. This idea of the leader as weaver is its most important distinguishing
feature. Leadership is about developing relationships and building leadership
capacity within stakeholder groups. Furthermore, it is about relying on these
stakeholders for participation rather than just including them when it suits the
purposes of the leader. For school leadership, this distinction is crucial.
Returning to Murphys identified valued ends of leadership, responsible leadership focuses not on school improvement, democratic community, and
social justice as discrete outcomes but rather weaves together all the three as
a single outcome, highlighting the importance of benefit to all stakeholders as
the ultimate goal. In this way, it is different from ethical or moral leadership,
which focus more on individual leadership decisions.
The framework of responsible business leadership provides a useful lens
by which to better understand the ethic of community in educational leadership practice. Using the operationalized values-based roles of visionary,
steward, servant, and citizen, and data from educational organizations that
perform beyond expectations, this article aims to provide empirical support
for the importance of the ethic of community as well as theoretical support
for responsible educational leadership.

Methodology
The research and study design were informed by systematic reviews of the
literature in each of the sectors with a focus on leadership, giving the research

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team a base from which to construct interview schedules. The project team
undertook more than 220 interviews with 18 organizations. Additional sites in
the health sector were proposed, but due to issues of consent these sites were
discontinued. In addition, documentary and website data including mission
statements, program information, press articles, financial performance data,
published rankings on various indices, and existing research studies relating to
the sites were gathered to add deeper contextual detail and add data beyond
our own observational and interview-based data. After extensive analysis,
original case reports of between 8,000 and 16,000 words were each written for
and then ethically approved by the participating organizations. These case
reports, in combination with the literature reviews from each of the sectors,
formed the basis for the projects final report (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011).
The projects sampling strategy was based on a number of performance
criteria and was purposive in design (Flyvbjerg, 2006). Each of the 18 cases
met at least one of three criteria for inclusion in the study (Hargreaves &
Harris, 2011):
1. Sequential PBE. All 18 of the profiled organizations at one point teetered on the brink of failure. Each case not only turned around but
exceeded beyond expectations. Some of the declines were less drastic
than others, but in all cases the organizations were not performing to
their highest possible levels.
2. Comparative PBE. Each of the included organizations not only performed beyond their own expectations but indeed beyond the expectations of similarly placed peer groups. At the time of the study, the
organizations were all outperforming their peer groups.
3. Contextual PBE. Not only did each organization outperform peers,
they also did so with fewer resources. Many of the organizations
faced seemingly insurmountable challenges given the characteristics
of their clientele or their initial levels of human and financial
resourceseither actual or perceived. Furthermore, they often converted what had been previously been considered liabilities (such as
the local population) into crucial assets.
A fourth criterion, one much harder to use but one to that we attempted to
adhere, was ethical PBE. While it was fairly simple to exclude cases on the
basis of ethical criteria, such as in cases of labor violations or misrepresentation of test scores or financial results, decisions about whom to include were
not as straightforward. The cases here represent the research teams best
understanding of what it means to be an ethical and responsible organization,
understanding that not everyone may fully agree with our assessment.

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Interview samples concentrated on but were not restricted to management

and leadership teams; the research design included talking to those who were
not at management or leadership (formally understood) level, to ensure triangulation of data among different groups in each site. Interview sample sizes
varied from fewer than 10 in smaller organizations to as many as 20 in the
largest ones. Most interviews took approximately an hour and were conducted in a safe and confidential space. Data in almost all sites were collected
by two or more members of the research team. The only exceptions were in
geographically remote sites where travel costs were prohibitively expensive.
All interviews were recorded on high-quality digital recorders.

Data Analysis
For the larger project, transcriptions were made of all interviews. Data were
open coded by the research team according to a schema derived originally
from the literature and the questions of the interview schedule (Merriam,
2009). These codes were augmented as the team gained experience and information from the sites. The framework was revisited and augmented through
axial coding in response to emergent data at stages throughout the project and
with reference to the broader literature (Corbin & Strauss, 2007). Ultimately,
23 codes were used.
From the 18 cases, a framework of 15 factors, named the F15 framework,
which comprised the PBE, was developed (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011). Each
of the factors is illustrated by multiple cases, with at least one example from
each of the studied sectors. The study cases were cross-analyzed to look at
these F factors. Yin (2003) describes this process of analysis as explanation
building.
This article focuses only on the education cases profiled in the PBE project. The total number of education cases was 9, all in the United Kingdom.
All schools in the case showed improvement on the General Certificate of
Secondary Education (GCSE), the national examination in the United
Kingdom, although this criterion was not the only indicator for performance.
Additional components for inclusion were performance indicators, such as
achieving outstanding school ratings on Office for Standards in Education,
Childrens Services and Skills (Ofsted) evaluations (the highest rating on a
scale of outstanding, good, satisfactory, and inadequate), and reputational
indicators, including prizes garnered by schools and local authorities such as
the Bridging Cultures Award bestowed on Limeside in 2008. Ofsted inspections are 1 or 2-day visits by trained inspectors who examine records and
reports, talk to people in schools, and visit classrooms to see what students
are learning and how they are being taught (Ofsted, 2011). These nine cases

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included schools, Local Authorities (or what would be districts in the United
States), and a variety of federations, or groups of schools banded together for
the purposes of improvement. The education cases included primary and secondary schools as well as federations and local authorities.
This analysis focuses on three schools within one geographic area. In a
similar analysis that began with a large study and then focused on two cases,
Shields (2010) pays heed to the challenge of confirmation bias, or as she cites
Evers and Wu (2006), finding in the data what one already believed to be
there. By using the theoretical framework of responsible leadership and identifying leaders who exemplify the four values-based roles of responsible
leaders, I have, in a sense, as Shields again notes, approached the data with
good biases. That said, the F15 framework and its related findings incorporated responsible leadership, referring to it not specifically as responsible but
as based on high fidelity (F10) and fraternity (F11; Hargreaves & Harris,
2010), and any of the cases could have fit within the responsible leadership
framework.
I made the choice to use three cases for several key reasons. The first reason is one of trend identification. While the cases were all chosen and analyzed for their performance, it became increasingly clear through the process
of analysis as well as in conversation with research team members that relationships, and by extension relationship-building, was a primary force behind
each organizations success. Our first review of the business literature, which
I conducted, focused on corporate social responsibility, but this concept did
not quite capture the way each of the organizations approached responsible
leadership. Furthermore, our findings suggested that the cultivation and coordination of everyones capabilities was part of the success of organizations
that performed beyond expectations. The educational organizations chosen
for this study all exemplify responsible leadership to some degree and are
strong in the areas of cultivation and coordination of responsibilities, or what
I am using here to describe responsible leadership. However, to allow for
more in-depth case descriptions, the second reason for focusing on three
cases instead of nine is one of definition. Of the nine education cases, two
were local authorities, one was a multisite special education unit that provided support for local schools, and one was a high-performer who had an
unexpected dip as opposed to traditionally lower performing schools that
with different leadership performed beyond expectations. A fifth case, while
making significant improvements, never performed beyond the local or
national averages. With four schools remaining, the third criterion became
one of context. Of the four other education cases, three were within one local
authority. The decision to exclude the fourth case is not one of performance
or leadership but one of contextual depth. All three cases in this article are

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centered in Oldham, a former mill town in Lancashire. Oldham is an area of

high deprivation and includes large numbers of students from immigrant, and
particularly East Asian, backgrounds. These cases include two primary
schools and one secondary school.
Oldham. Oldham, in Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom, is an area of
significant social and economic deprivation that has had problems with poor
social housing, racism, high unemployment, and low aspirations (Hargreaves
& Harris, 2011). Recent immigration patterns have resulted in a sizeable South
Asian community. In 2007, this former mill had the 23rd highest local concentration of deprivation in the United Kingdom (Noble, McLennan, Wilkinson,
Whitworth, & Barnes, 2008). Income deprivation continued to worsen
between 2004 and 2007, partly because of the increasing proportion of Bangladeshi families. The borough has two areas of multiple deprivation (known
as Super Output Areas) that fall within the most severe 1% in the country.
In Oldham, deep social divisions exist along ethnic lines. In 2001, race
riots broke out between the Asian and White communities, leaving more
than 20 people, including police, badly injured (BBC News, 2001). These
riots highlighted the disparities between the areas groups of residents.
Indeed, many local residents report that the race riots of 2001 continue to
shape their experiences in Oldham, although the city has since made conscious efforts to improve community cohesion (Cantle et al., 2006). While
difficult for the community, lasting memories from the riots have propelled
school leaders to seek out stronger connections across Oldhams multiethnic communities.
Until the past few years, school performance in Oldham has been below
the national average. In 1996, 33% of students in Oldham achieved 5 or more
GCSE scores between A* and C, as compared to the national average of 44%.
GCSEs are taken by students aged 15 to 18 and are scored using a system of
grades ranging from A* (highest) to either D or G (lowest) depending on the
examination (Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, 2012).
A* to C is a higher level of qualification. By 2008, this gap had all but closed,
with 64% of students in Oldham achieving 5 or more A* to C as compared to
the national average of 65%. These same trends existed in the primary
schools. In 1996, students in primary schools in Oldham scored 15 percentage points below the average on standardized examinations; by 2008, students were only 1 percentage point below the national average.
The schools that agreed to participate in this study reflect the changes and
challenges facing Oldham broadly and the promising improvements related
to both school achievement and community development and relationshipbuilding. Each of the three schools is described below.

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Limeside Primary School. In 1999, Limeside was failing. The school was in a
shabby building and had reached a low point with appalling results, apparently
uncontrollable children, overwhelmed teachers, and a poor community reputation. A series of very critical inspections resulted in the school being placed
in Special Measures in 2000. Under the Education Act of 2005, schools are
placed in special measures when the school is not providing an acceptable
standard of education and the leadership of the school is not showing the
capacity to make the improvements needed to raise standards (Ofsted, 2012).
The current Head, who arrived in June of 2000 as Deputy Head,
remembers,
You had a slum school that nobody wanted to go to in a slum estate that nobody
wanted to live in. I remember what a very difficult family said to me right in the
beginning they said this isnt a school. And the child was going through an
excruciating time and that always sticks in my mind because it wasnt. It wasnt a
school.

The former Head of Limeside was responsible for getting the school out of
Special Measures by 2002. A large number of teachers left the school and
experienced staff were brought in to support improvements in teaching and
learning. A new behavior strategy was introduced, focusing on positive reinforcement. The Head at the time of the interviews, who had been in the role
for 7 years and had been Deputy Head during the period just described, made
further improvements to the school building, restructured roles, introduced
sweeping changes to the curriculum, refocused staff and students, and connected the school more strongly to its community.
Today at Limeside Primary School in Oldham, a high number of students
are eligible for free school meals, and more than a quarter of the students
have learning difficulties and/or disabilities according to the most recent
Ofsted report at the time of our visit (Ofsted, 2007a). The majority of the
schools families live in rented, subsidized accommodations.
In spite of these immense challenges, Limeside has experienced a steady
and sustained improvement. At the time of our interviews, test scores were
well above the national average, and the 2007 Ofsted inspection report just
prior to our visit judged the school to be outstanding, citing,
Happiness and delight sum up the pupils pleasure in learning and their care for each
other. They are polite, enthusiastic and excellent ambassadors for their school and
community. Underpinning the pupils outstanding personal development and wellbeing are the Headteachers vision and dedication. This is variously described by
pupils, parents, staff and governors as life changing, passionate and visionary.
(Ofsted, 2007a, p. 4)

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Figure 2. Aggregate % level 4+ (300 max) at Key Stage 2 in English, Math, and
Science.
Source. Adapted from Hargreaves and Harris (2011).

Furthermore, the school was part of a Bridging Cultures Award for a partnership with the local public housing project in 2008.
Figure 2 shows the aggregate percentage of students achieving Level 4 at
Key Stage 2 in English, Math, and Science between 2000 and 2009. Key
Stage 2 is students in Grades 3 to 6 between the ages of 7 and 11. Most 11
year olds are expected to achieve Level 4 (Department for Education, 2012a).
Students are tested at 4 key stages.
Mills Hill Primary School. Mills Hill, a large primary school in the center of
Oldham, is located in the same community as Limeside, although it serves a
distinctly different population (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011). Approximately
5% of the school population receives a free lunch. There is also a small population of students of professional parents. While at the extremes there are
well-educated and highly deprived families, the Head identifies that many
fall in between:
A significant proportion of children and families who just come in at that level that
they work enough hours to get the family tax credits, which take them out of
benefits. Theyre often just coping with the mortgage or the rent that they have to
pay, the food . . . but havent got masses of disposable. Havent been in a higher
education but dont fall into the social deprivation trap of free school meals and
other benefits.

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Mills Hill is an example of school improvement under a new Head working

almost exclusively with the existing staff base. When the Head (at the time of
our interviews) began in the spring of 2004, he felt the school would need to
critically reassess the way it operated in terms of teaching and learning.
Change was triggered by a local authority inspection that he initiated, which
judged Mills Hill to be a school that was causing concern.
Capitalizing on the apprehension resulting from the critical evaluation, in
2004-2005, the Head and staff undertook a process of pedagogical transformation that was focused primarily on implementing the principles of cooperative learning. Results picked up again, and performance has surpassed
previous high levels to reach beyond expectations. Like Limeside, Mills Hill
went from a good rating to an outstanding rating between 2003 and 2007,
with inspectors commenting,
This is an outstanding school that provides excellent value for money. A very
strong commitment to making sure each pupil has the best chance to achieve their
potential is at the heart of its work. The key to its success in achieving this lies in
the consistent way in which school leaders, teachers and other staff implement
very well devised strategies to ensure pupils get the most out of their learning.
(Ofsted, 2007b, p. 4)

Even though Mills Hill is considered a high-performing school, many on staff

feel that there is still much room for improvement. The Head explained,
Even though Ofsted may have said its an outstanding curriculum, weve
clearly identified that our curriculum doesnt match the best way in which
children learn. At the time of our interviews, the school was undergoing a
major review of its curriculum in efforts to make it more inquiry-based so
as to better develop childrens critical thinking skills.
Figure 3 shows the aggregate percentage of students achieving Level 4 at
Key Stage 2 in English, Math, and Science between 2000 and 2009. Mills
Hill has typically been above the national and local norm at this level,
although there are at least 2 dips between 2000 and 2009 where performance
was lower.
Grange Secondary School. More than 90% of Granges students are Asian, the
vast majority of which are Bangladeshi. Almost two thirds of the students
qualify for free school meals. The school, created in 1968 as Oldhams flagship secondary school, was historically White and traditional, with a very
strict Head and staff who wore academic gowns. As demographics shifted
and immigrants arrived in Oldham to work in the mills in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, the school began to experience a deep decline. By 1996, the
school barely achieved a satisfactory Ofsted inspection.

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Figure 3. Aggregate % level 4+ (300 max) at Key Stage 2 in English, Math, and
Science.
Source. Adapted from Hargreaves and Harris. (2011).

By 1996, only 15% of the students at Grange were achieving GCSE examination passes of Grades A to C (the level of acceptability for universitybound courses). In 1997, a new leadership team was formed. This team
brought vision and focus, raising the school out of the doldrums and into a
new level of high performance. The curriculum was directed to the Visual
Arts, and the school became a model for the area.
In the decade between 1997 and 2008, Grange experienced remarkable
change. The school turned around, raising GCSE passes from 15% in 1999
to 71% by 2008. Also in this decade, the school was awarded designation as
a visual arts specialist school (2002) and became the highest performer of
such schools in 2005. Grange also won a regional Arts and Minds award in
2004. Specialist schools were a joint public- and private-funded initiative in
England designed to improve schools through the creation of school identities (specialisms). These specialisms included subject areas such as arts,
business and enterprise, humanities, and computing. By October 2010,
approximately 95% of secondary schools in the United Kingdom were specialist schools and general funding was discontinued (Department for
Education, 2012b).
The Head at the time of our interviews was fairly new in the role, although
she had been in the school since 1995. This article focuses largely on the leadership of her predecessor, who was a long-term staffer in the building, beginning his career at Grange in 1971 and acting as Head from 2004 to 2008.

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Figure 4. Grange secondary 5+ GCSE A to C including English and Math.

Source. Adapted from Hargreaves and Harris (2011).

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Granges performance during this

period was not the sharp rise in academic performance but the fact that the
staff remained fairly constant. These staff members were able to take a school
from a satisfactory rating in 1996 to a good school with some outstanding features by 2006, only narrowly missing the highest rating because of
scores in Math and English. Outstanding features included support and caring
for learners and forming partnerships with others (Hargreaves & Harris, 2010).
Figure 4 shows Granges performance over the decade of change. This
figure shows the schools performance on the GCSE in English and Math.
The three schools profiled in this article show how leadership not only
guided the schools out of performance lows but also propelled them to new,
and unexpected, performance highs. Furthermore, it is leadership and in particular its focus on forward thinking and relationship-building that have
allowed this performance to be sustained over time. It is important to highlight
that this article focuses on the school leader at each site as a means to understand responsible educational leadership in action. Even though responsible
leadership is inclusive and far-reaching, the purpose of this article is to show
how the actions of one individual inform and inspire the actions of others.

Findings
As described above, the roles model approach (Maak & Pless, 2006a, 2006b)
helps operationalize the various roles responsible leaders take on as they

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make and guide organizational decisions. In this article, I use the three cases
from the PBE project to show how each of the roles might look in an educational setting, focusing on the roles of visionary, steward, servant, and citizen, which form the second circle in the web. The examples and evidence
given are intended to show how responsible leadership drives not only learning but also relationships and are provided to help operationalize the roles
defining responsible leadership. My examples provide one possible view, but
it is important to note that many of the examples provided could be construed
in multiple ways. For example, using data to drive decision-making is not just
a servant role but could also be viewed as visionary or steward.

Visionary
Visionary is a word that is imbued with multiple meanings. Being a visionary
leader means thinking about things in a new way, a way beyond the normal
or tradition expectations. It also means looking into the future to see what is
coming, envisioning a future that one might consider beyond expectations.
Whereas more traditional forms of leadership leave the process of visionsetting to the formal leader, a responsible visionary leader not only thinks big
about the future but includes, indeed depends on, stakeholders in this visioning process (Maak & Pless, 2006b).
The essence of visionary responsible leadership is the co-creation of
vision. All three school leaders relayed a sense of common or shared vision
for their schools. The Head of Limeside spoke about
[a] shared vision which is very inspirational. The staff and the government and the
parents who wrote this vision, what is your dream and then moving into the dream.
And you know, its not that hard because they fulfill it themselves because its
within them.

The Head of Mills Hill described establishing a vision of where were going
and what this school is about and what our key focuses are in terms of what
were doing. And having that ownership and drive from all the staff.
More important, however, others within the representative schools also
spoke of the shared vision. At Limeside, the Assistant Head said,
Its like walking through this place and seeing and hearing everything youre going
to do, it would be happening in your dream and in many ways that has really begun
to happen because we talked it all the time, we use it all the time, constantly referred
to it, but its now your ideas and your vision of what that vision will look like.

Furthermore, a Year 6 teacher at Limeside said,

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Its like a shared vision that you want all to work towards the children having the
best possible opportunities, the widest possible opportunities but that you want
them to individually work to the best that they can.

At Mills Hill, a Year 6 teacher said,

[The Head] brought about a new vision to the school. There was a new mission
statement. Everything was evaluated and we started afresh from that point on. . . .
That was one of the first things he did. . . . All staff on board . . . all views were
allowed to fade in and considered and then it was formulated from that . . . we
formulated the new mission statement from everybodys views and went forward
from there.

An Assistant Head at Mills Hill said,

From the beginning [the Head] started off with a vision. But he started off with a
vision that the teachers created. We had four days where we talked where we
wanted to be . . . how we might get there . . . actually bring[ing] everybody on
board.

The former Head at Grange described his own leadership style as not set
apart and very approachable and others concurred. The schools business
manager said, He will delegate and he lets you get on with it. Similarly, a
Governor of the school said,
Leadership is part of the team. Theyre all teachers. They all work together. Theres
none of this I cant go straight to the Head or I cant do this because everybodys
got a right to say what they want, when they want, and how they want it.

In these cases, the visionary component of responsible leadership has

taken root, particularly in the co-creation of vision. The school community
has incorporated it not only in the perception of the leader but also in the way
they talk about their own work with their students, colleagues, and communities. Equally important to the means of vision-setting is the goal of visionsetting, here a vision in which students who live in deprivation and have not
always performed at the top of the tables can excel beyond expectations. All
three leaders spoke about the fear they had about dreaming so big, about
people thinking that those children would never perform well, and about
setting such high levels of achievement in areas where no such goals existed
before. At Limeside, the old view, according to the Assistant Head held that
there were no real expectations for the children around here. It was kind of,
well, theyre Limeside children so what can you expect? At Grange, the

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prior way of handling children of an increasingly diverse background was

blaming the children, the community for being so poor and the fact that they
were on free school dinners and that they dont speak English and that mobility is the problem. Mills Hill, previously higher performing, had lost its way
during a leadership turnover and progress there was ticking along at the time
. . . there was no direction, there were certainly no ideas coming through. It
was just plodding along in the same old tried and trusted.
The responsible leader as visionary relied on strengthened relationships to
develop, enact, and sustain a new vision in which staff, students, and leadership
were not only allowed but also encouraged to dream big. Furthermore, these
dreams were not just created by the leader. Rather, they were woven through
the school in new behavior plans, new curriculum, and increasingly distributed
forms of leadership that gave more voice to greater numbers of people.

Steward
A steward is someone who understands herself as a custodian of social,
moral and environmental values and resources (Maak & Pless, 2006b,
p. 108). The stewards role is to consider how decisions made in the present affect not only those currently involved but also future generations. A
steward is also a protector, one who keeps the vision of the school alive.
The educational leader as steward not only defines what sorts of characteristics are valued but also ensures that these are woven into the everyday
life of the school. Building on the understanding of responsible leader as
visionary, a steward takes the shared vision of the organization and makes
it a standard operating procedure. There is a thread through the three PBE
cases that speaks to how school heads cultivate the way we do things
around here. Each of the heads seeks to preserve their own brand or
particular school culture. The Head of Mills Hill Primary talks about our
approach to teaching and learning (italics mine). As steward, he seeks to
take the approach and nail it down and lets pin it and lets bottle it so we
know exactly what its about and how its working and doing it. And getting down there on paper and in practice and within us an organization.
The Head of Limeside refers to the package her school represents. She
says, Its everybody walking and talking, the vision, its the challenge, the
high aspirations. Its all about package. The Head of Grange stewards a
culture and community built on trust within the school. As a former football player, he fosters very much a team approach. Its not meits our
school and that kind of thing!
What is also important to highlight is that the school leaders, while helping to shape the culture of the school, do not view themselves as solely

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responsible for its maintenance. Rather, all three rely heavily on the staff,
both those who have been in the school a long time and those who are newly
hired, to embody the important elements of what makes their school special
and to lead the next generation. Each of the school leaders paints a portrait of
a family table when describing their leadership. The Head of Limeside
remarked,
Weve got real distributed leadership here because it isnt a hierarchy. Its the
model of the job is everywhere because anybody can lead any time and the
children are leading at the moment on the business and social enterprise. We talk
about leading from every chair.

The Head of Mills Hill jokingly sees himself as the main plate spinner.
One or two people started to, now and again, come on board and just help me. Id
pass one or two of the plates to the person whod share the ideas with other people
. . . and then people would bring their ideas of what color plates and what
configuration we should have . . . Id probably give them a Yeah, thats possibly
a good idea. Have a go at that. And then theres a multitude of plate spinners who
go out, and maybe I come along and just help turn them for them.

The Head of Grange commented on his leadership in comparison to his predecessors: I brought skills to the table that he couldnt and he brought skills
to the table that I couldnt. Likewise, another staff member at Grange
remarked, Everybody around the table brings their strengths so I sit there
now happy and confident that I bring my strengths to the table.
Thus, the role of responsible leader as steward is manifested through the
role of developer, protector, and sustainer of the treasured, and increasingly
collective, culture of the organization. Most important, though, the responsible leader as steward spreads the work of stewarding the vision throughout
the stakeholder community; everyone upholds the values and vision. The
relationships developed within and outside the school support and steward
the vision throughout the entire school community.

Servant
As servant, a leader pursues a vision and respective goals that are compatible with the needs and interests of all relevant stakeholders and that are shared
by followers (Maak & Pless, 2006b, p. 110). The servant leader relies on a
deep understanding of context and stakeholder needs to develop relationships
that serve the mission of the school. This leadership builds on the former two
roles; the culture is developed within the organization, spread to its members,

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and then spun outside to the community beyond. In these cases, this notion of
service is best seen through the way the school leaders view their curriculum
responsibility.
Most schools in the United Kingdom, at the time of the interviews, used
the National Curriculum to drive instruction. However, each of the three case
schools felt that being servants to their communities meant not using the
National Curriculum. Their curriculum decisions are made in the service of
the unique bodies of students they serve, in these cases often poor and from
other countries.
At Grange, curriculum change became a hallmark of the schools success.
Students historically performed poorly in science but excelled in the visual
arts domain. The Head of Grange felt that the students needed not textbook
learning but visual stimulus. The school introduced more vocational courses
and eventually became a Visual Arts College as part of the Specialist Schools
effort in 2002. As a result, achievement results zoomed. The change in curricular focus benefited not only students achievement but also their confidence in their academic abilities.
At Limeside, the focus also shifted. The Head commented,
So whenwe dont teach national and traditional national curriculum. We do all
the skills theyre really important and very, very good but the content is really
quite different. And the children have come up with their own ideas as to what they
want to learn. And were very into the global economy as well, you know, and
children are understanding their place in the world and knowing how they can
change it.

Likewise, the Head of Mills Hill also felt that the success of his school is not
that tight focus on literacy and numbers. Instead, success is about a development of schools for individual learners so that they can grow and master
their lifelong learning.
Thus, even in a context that pits school against school in a race to achieve
the highest test results, these servant leaders looked to the individual students
in their schools to shape curriculum. Deep and meaningful relationships with
students set a framework for understanding the need to fit curriculum to context. This is not to say that because they had poor or minority students they
watered down the curriculum but rather to say the focus shifted from outputs
to inputs.
While data usage can be seen in each of the four roles, it is most prevalent
in its relationship to curriculum and the decisions leaders as servants make,
which link student performance to curricular decisions. As schools and teachers increasingly feel that curriculum decision-making is taken away from

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them, these responsible leaders put developing relationships with students

that help identify academic strengths at the center of their curriculum work.
Mills Hill, for example, expects students to perform well on the national
exams but is equally concerned with students social and emotional wellbeing. They consider not only performance data but also students levels of
confidence in a range of tasks, their degree of independence in learning, their
personal social skills, and their creativity demonstrated at school. They link
creativity with performance; an assistant head commented that students do
well because the children are allowed to be creative. They are not told what
to do. They have got to think for themselves. Furthermore, another assistant
head in the building maintained that the schools academic achievements
were largely a result of their efforts to nurture more than academic literacy.
I think were quite keen to building a school so that when [students] move on they
can become independent learners, direct themselves. That has been probably the
biggest focus within school over the last four to five years . . . and I think that the
reason results have risen and improved are because of this philosophy behind
developing the child and the skills and a by-product of that is that academically
[students are] doing better.

Limeside uses continuous data tracking to monitor progress and allocate

resources. In addition to more formalized testing, students are encouraged to
track their own progress using a traffic light system. Students undertake
weekly assessments and at the end of the week have opportunities to target
weak areas or work with partners to find out where they may have stumbled.
The Deputy Head said,
Because of, I think, the passionate drive of the head, taking us forward we really
did get involved and we were taking those risks and we realized that, you know,
the children were learning on a much, much deeper level. On top of that we have
philosophy for children helping them to develop those higher order thinking skills
and it just came together. It just came together like a great big jigsaw.

Grange used student performance data to make curricular changes for its
students. By channeling students into areas where they are strong, school
staff can work with students to set more ambitious performance targets.
Student data are constantly monitored so that school work can be more personalized. Students who are borderline are connected with learning mentors or receive after-school support. As for coursework, more vocational
offerings meant that students take exams in their areas of strength. Coursework
was prioritized over exams. Curriculum programs were modularized, as the
Head felt that our kids prefer to learn in shorter term chunks rather than a

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linear course with an end of year assessment where youre banking everything in an exam in July. These changes meant more students achieved high
levels of performance. This success was sustained until governmental
changes mandating that the 5 GCSEs include Math and English.
It is clear that what matters for these responsible leaders is not just the data
and the curriculum but the synchronizing of the two in a way that both promotes and supports learning for all students. This process of aligning the
curriculum and measuring it success relies heavily on developing strong relationships both with staff and students who can identify individual and group
needs and plan curriculum accordingly.

Citizen
Finally, the leader as citizen sees herself committed not only to business matters but to civic matters as well. She views herself as an integral part of the
larger community in which she operates (Maak & Pless, 2006b). Each of the
three school leaders has forged relationships with communities and community and business organizations outside the school. For example, Limeside
and Mills Hill have formed local partnerships, both with the East Asian communities in Oldham. Mills Hill has created the Oldham Linking project,
and Limeside has partnered with Clarkwell Estate. Limesides head found
that in the Oldham community, there were few role models of people owning
their own businesses. The school wanted to train children and families in the
notion of business ownership, so they partnered with the Clarkwell Estate,
which is predominantly Pakistani, to show examples of self-owned businesses such as restaurants and taxi runs. This partnership not only developed
the families skills but also helped with community cohesion, which has been
a long-standing concern in the area. The Head says this partnership has had a
lasting impact on the students and the community regarding difference.
If Asian people moved into this area they would burn out their house. Its that bad. And
now they're talking and they say to me my son is your son and your son is my son.

Grange draws some of its learning mentors and faculty assistants from the
local community. This not only brings in diversity and employment opportunities but, according to a staff member, these people also bring an understanding and a knowledge to the school as a whole which will help all staff
who maybe come from different backgrounds culturally, religiously and in
language terms. Thus, the learning relationship is reciprocal; students, staff,
and community all benefit from the increased diversity of a key civic institutionthe local secondary school.

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The way in which the aforementioned leaders enter into partnerships

relationships that are not part of the daily requirements of their own school
and learning communitiesdemonstrates high levels of citizenship. Each of
these leaders has engaged a talented team in which risk and creativity are
valued. They hold firm to the belief, however, that this work is necessary to
benefit not only their own community but also the community in which they
are situated and the larger educational community.

Discussion
Responsible leadership, with a focus on building relationships, provides one
way by which to understand better improving schools. In the cases described
above, leaders who exemplify four values-based rolesvisionary, steward,
servant, and citizenhave made important changes in the way people who
work in and attend school relate both to one another and to the community
outside the school. These changes can be attributed to gains in student performance. Each of the schools set a vision for student learning that challenged
long-standing notions of what success in a highly deprived area could look
like. This vision was stewarded by leaders, who sought to infuse the vision
throughout the school and into the next generation of teachers and leaders.
The vision, in turn, also helped shape curriculum. As servants, the school
leaders focused their curriculum not just on achievement targets but also on
the strengths of their own students, which they realized through deepened
relationships with teachers, parents, community members, and students
themselves. As citizens, the schools acted not only to improve the learning
for students but also the conditions in which students learn and live, partnering with local agencies to train students for life after school, training community members to be aides in schools, and working with other schools in the
same area to strengthen their academics.
As with any qualitative research, it is virtually impossible to make causational statements about the relationship between responsible leadership, relationship building, and student achievement. However, it is also true that in
the time in which these relationships developed, each of the three schools not
only raised achievement but also sustained it. In the three cases in this article,
each of the leaders sees the purpose of their leadership as developing relationships. They of course feel responsible for raising achievement in their
districts and schools, but they see such achievement as a by-product of relationships. This collectivization of leadership is a hallmark of responsible
leadership.
As we move toward a focus on tying leadership with school results, it is
more important than ever that the purposes and the products of leadership be

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explored in depth. A responsible leader brings in people to help with the fundamental goal of achievement and should be measured not solely on test
scores but on the way his or her leadership enhances, develops, and sustains
an educational community. The leaders of Mills Hill, Limeside, and Grange
have added value not just academically but also culturally and socially. They
have strengthened their communities by addressing head-on the poverty and
racial concerns that have plagued them for decades. They have helped struggling schools nearby not by hoarding resources and ideas but by sharing best
practices. They have taught students not in a one-size-fits-all fashion but in a
way that best fits them.
The leaders of Mills Hill, Limeside, and Grange stand out as exemplars for
responsible educational leadership. Further work is needed to understand better how such leadership develops students and schools, how such leaders can
be prepared, and what roadblocks prevent such leadership from developing.
Leadership and teacher preparation can begin to explore relationship development by deepening connections between schools and community. In fact,
administrators professional standards, referred to as the Interstate School
Leaders Licensure Consortium standards, value both a shared vision for
learning (Standard 1) and collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to diverse interests and needs, and mobilizing community
resources (Standard 4; Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008), and
leadership programs are increasingly evaluated on the extent to which students not only learn management skills but vision and community-building
skills as well. In the meantime, we can turn to these leaders to see how even
in the most challenging of circumstances, responsible leadership that results
in performance beyond expectations can be fostered and sustained.

Conclusions
At a time when school leaders are under immense pressure to raise student
achievement, it is more important than ever to understand the relationship
between leadership, schools, and communities in reaching this goal. While
research in educational leadership has focused over the last several decades
on the traits or styles of successful school leaders, little research examines the
role of developing relationships within and beyond the school. Furthermore,
many schools and districts or local authorities, looking for a quick way to
bolster achievement, turn to technical solutions for change: extra tutoring
sessions, more time focusing on test-taking skills, or curricula that promise to
raise scores. These may provide a short-term rise but ultimately ignore the
kinds of transformational change that are more durable (Hargreaves, Shirley,
Evans, Stone-Johnson, & Riseman, 2006).

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Recent work in the field of business has looked to responsible leadership

as a way to operationalize the role developing relationships in fostering organizational success. While education differs in important ways from the business world, responsible leadership remains a potentially important framework
by which to understand better leadership that looks beyond heroic individuals. As this article suggests, performance beyond expectations happens when
leaders lead not by themselves but with and through others (Hargreaves &
Harris, 2010, p. 36), taking responsibility not just for success and failure but
also for developing the relationships needed to promote such success. Such a
view necessitates deep change in schools and communities. Commitment to
this type of change, however, results in the kind of dynamics described in the
three cases presented in this article.
As mentioned above, the conceptual and empirical base for responsible
educational leadership is still developing. In an era where leaders must make
choices about how to best use their dwindling resources, though, it is imperative that educational leadership defines what responsible leadership means to
education as a field distinct from business, a field with its own norms, stakeholders, and values. Educational leaders do not have many of the same freedoms as business leaders; they cannot change their client base nor can they
easily change their staff due to issues of tenure (Hargreaves & Harris, 2011).
Thus, being a responsible educational leader involves using the resources one
has available. An underutilized resource is the stakeholders themselves. As
demonstrated in this article, responsible leadership in practice means weaving in those who have typically only been recipients of leadership to fullfledged participants and developing relationships with them that serve to
benefit not only students but also the stakeholders themselves. As Furman
(2004) describes, the ethic of community necessitates moving away from
individual understandings of both leadership and achievement. The three
cases described in this article demonstrate how by changing, developing,
strengthening, and sustaining relationships with people both in and outside
the school, everyone benefits. The findings from this research suggest that as
schools and systems continue to hone their focus on student achievement,
perhaps the key to success is not an intensified focus on the technical or rational components of teaching and learning, including curriculum and instruction, but on the interpersonal and relational aspects that previously were
understood not as forces of change themselves but rather as contextual pieces.
Even as the findings from this large-scale research suggest a shifting of
focus away from technical and toward the interpersonal, schools and school
leaders are left with the question of why practice responsible leadership, particularly when what gets measured is not relationships but achievement
scores. The answer to this question is not simple. Responsible leadership is

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not a reform strategy in and of itself and cannot simply be adopted to raise
scores. However, responsible leadership is part of the solution. The data presented here suggest that oftentimes the more technical pieces of change are
strengthened through the relational aspects of work in schools. Schools might
attempt more responsible ways of being not because the technical solutions
do not work but because by themselves they are not enough. Understanding
that responsible leadership is not a solution in and of itself but rather a critical piece in the puzzle of improving learning for all students means understanding that simply attempting responsible leadership as a reform strategy is
missing the very point of responsible leadership.
A second reason why schools and school leaders might want to move
toward greater responsibility is, as alluded to earlier, the notion of sustainability. No one school leader can do the work alone, and even if he or she
could, such work is not everlasting. Deep and lasting change requires many
people to do the work. The web that a responsible leader weaves wraps multiple people into the ongoing process of change.
This article presents an early understanding of what responsible educational leadership looks like in practice. The findings from this work suggest
that the strength of the web of responsible leadership is a vital source of support for schools undergoing change. More research is needed to understand
better how schools and systems that lack such webs can develop them.
Additionally, although the notion of responsible leadership begins to address
issues of sustainability, further research is also needed to understand better
what happens when leadership structures change and how the webs that exist
shift as new leaders enter the role.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the members of the team, who not only collected and coded data but
also provided insight at each and every turn. In particular, I must thank Andy
Hargreaves and Alma Harris, principal investigators on this project and mentors in the
field of educational leadership, who have taken this project beyond our own expectations. Furthermore, I am grateful to the National College for School Leadership and
the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in the United Kingdom who generously
funded and supported this project.

Authors Note
Portions of this article are taken from work developed by the Performing Beyond
Expectations team. These include unpublished and internally circulated cases written
about the education sites by Alan Boyle, Alex Gurn, and Kathryn Ghent, as well as a
paper cowritten with Dr. Janet Goodall and presented at the annual conference of the
American Educational Research Association in San Diego, California, in 2009.

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Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by funding from both
the Specialist Schools Academies and Trust and the National College of School
Leadership in the United Kingdom through Grant Number 5001068 at Boston College.

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Author Biography
Corrie Stone-Johnson is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at
the University at Buffalo. Her research uses the lens of micropolitics to view the impact
of educational change on schools and on those who work in them, focusing on the various protective actions that people in schools at all levels take when they are either
participants in or agents of change and how structures in school, particularly organizational culture and demographics, affect the need for these micropolitical actions.

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