Approaches to learning leadership development in different school systems

This chapter presents a selection of the leadership initiatives and analyses gathered through the Innovative Learning Environments project. Tanja Westfall-Greiter describes the strategy of creating teacher learning leaders (lerndesigners) in the current Austrian reform (Neue Mittelschule or NMS). Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser discuss a leadership programme in British Columbia, Canada that engages leaders together in a “spiral of inquiry” about learning in their own school and networked activity across sites. The New York City examples described by Roser Salavert cover Professional Learning Communities, coaching, teacher teams, and student “voice”. Lone Christiansen and Per Tronsmo present Norwegian approaches to leadership, and national programmes for school leadership professional development and the Advisory Team programme for mentoring principals and local providers. The South Australian and Israeli examples presented by Susanne Owen and Dorit Tubin feature the work of particular sections of the education ministries looking to drive innovative learning and provide conditions to support it.