Leadership through Social Capital

May 8, 2015
L4L Cohort 5
Barbara Peterson, Doctoral Candidate

Leadership Standard: 1
Standard 1: Equity & Excellence
d)Foster the collective responsibility, growth and
capacity of others to reflect on and enact
equitable practice.
e)Engage and empower multiple voicesboth
professional and community in key
deliberations and decision-making.
f)Facilitate explicit discussions about race, class,
language, ability, and other group-based
disparities in the service of collective action to
decrease them.

Standards Addressed:
4
Standard 4: Strategic, Collaborative Governance
& Decision-making
d) Build the capacity of educators and community
members to collaborate in ongoing systemic
improvement to ensure a high-quality education
for every student.
e) Develop and guide decision processes that
maximize collaborative problem solving and
continuous improvement.
f) Model transparent and ethical leadership and
address sources of conflict productively and
equitably.

Background
Authentic Audience: Educational Nonprofit
Board, NLA.
Why: It is appropriate ending a three-year
Board commitment made to help support
this degree, for me to explicate an evolution
in my approach to meet agency goals.
Audience learning goals: To recognize various
leader moves without positional authority
My learning goals: Can I describe an evolution
from agency ED to educational leader?

My leadership

NLA

Click icon to add picture

Where I
work

But heres how many

long-time residents
still see their towns:

The
students I
serve

Managing versus Leading

leadership is path-finding while

management path-following. (Bennis &
Nanus 1985)

Management is concerned with doing

things right, whereas leadership is about
doing the right things (Hailey, 1999).

Social Capital

Transformational Learning: collective discourse

with others that develops new perspectives
(Mezirow, 2010)

. weaving a web of sustainable relationships

engaging a multitude of stakeholders in a dialogue
(across differences) to create resonance, trust, and
ultimate stakeholder social capital. (Maak, 2007)

Standard 4e maximize
collaborative problem solving

Nonpositional Leadership
moves.
Broker
Weaver

Cross
Pollinator

Illuminator

BROKER

Family
Literacy Curriculum + STEM
.
))

Cross
Pollinator

MATH CURRICULUM ADOPTION

GEAR UP Math Goal:

Improve 9th graders success in Algebra

Cross Pollinator

WEAVER
oAgile Minds, Math Curriculum
Adoption,
oProject Lead the Way, Highland,
Chelan
oAddressing the D&F List Chelan
.....it is a key quality of responsible
leaders to act as a weaver and broker of
social capital. (Maak, 2007)

Illuminator
Flipping the
Paradigm:

Thomas Kuhn: the Structure

of Scientific Revolutions

More staff of color

Gap in rigorous course

enrollment

STEM learning: proficiency

among struggling learners

Full circle to my
roots..

Rigorous Coursework: Increased student # +

success.
For my COI, I offered to review bldg data and provide an
analysis.
Requested the principal provide me with data on current
enrollment: it showed low Hispanic enrollment.
Conducted a student focus group: found differential recruitment.
Read the research literature and offered insights.
Developed a PowerPoint for the principal and staff; also
presented this at a Rural Alliance meeting, and sent it to other 9
districts.
Offered to send interested teachers to AP Summer institute; to
bring AP trainers to build cadre of AP.
Offered a summer stipend to develop AP or dual credit courses.
Offered to train 12th grader teams to recruit students to AP.
What moves have I made? What additional moves
could I make? How are you helping me?

YOUR TURN:

Engaging with school

leaders

The ultimate leadership challenge here is to

engage all relevant stakeholders in a
coalition for responsible change, thereby
creating a social network of stakeholders
who are connected through a common
purpose(Maak, 2007)

My Claim

NLA: an appropriable organization

Appropriable organization -- which may
provide access to, and participation in, a
larger network of people, or
stakeholders.. Websters

My Evidence

Literacy program approved

STEM programs offered as G&T, WERA

Adding 10 new AP and dual credit classes

Sending 18 teachers to AP Summer Institute

Eliminating essays to Honors English

Districts will fill rigorous courses next year.

2 district are auto-signing students

District admin team will present at national

conference on D&F strategies.

A collective focus
shifting the collective focus from reactive
problem solving to co-creating the future.
Change often starts with conditions that are
undesirable, but artful system leaders help
people move beyond just reacting to these
problems to building positive visions for the
future.

Standard 1d collective
responsibility

Leadership: a lifetime Commitment

The ability of people to be natural leaders is,
as near as I can tell, the by-product of a
lifetime of effort effort to develop
conceptual and communication skills, to
reflect on personal values and to align
personal behaviour with values, to learn
how to listen and to appreciate others and
others ideas.. Peter Senge, quoted by
Siddiqi (2013).

A network of
stakeholders
Being central in a network of stakeholders, the
responsible leader is instrumental in shaping
an organizations relationships to internal and
external stakeholders and thus plays the key
role in building and managing the interplay of
different levels of social capital, in enabling
social capital and in maintaining it. (Maak
2007)

Standard 1e engage/empower multiple

voices