Partners in the leadership dance: School vocational learning partnerships and community development

Educational Forum, The, Summer 2003 by Johns, Susan

Picture an old-time dance. The band strikes up, gentlemen take their partners, and couples begin to move rhythmically around the room to the strains of a familiar waltz. There is a sense of certainty and predictability about the music, the dance steps, and the roles of the dancers. Now picture a modern nightclub. The music seems much louder, the melody less certain, the dance steps spontaneous rather than pre-planned. Though people are dancing together, the role of partners seems less clear-it's difficult to tell who, if anyone, is in the lead. In some places, groups of three or four females dance together, entering and leaving the group from time to time as circumstances change.

What does all this have to do with leadership for school vocational education and training (VET) programs? The dance analogy seems to reflect the changing nature of leadership in modern times. As society has become more complex and less predictable, so has the task of leadership. The days of "hero" leaders and "one size fits all" leadership strategies seem to belong more to the era of old-time dances than to the nightclub scene. The nightclub analogy reflects leadership in modern times; conditions are less predictable, actions must be flexible and attuned to changing conditions, and leadership is not the province of one or several people in formally designated leadership positions, but is shared, with different people taking a leadership role in the process at different times, then stepping out again as circumstances change. The increasing focus on partnership development, evident within most sectors of society, is a good example of the "new" collective leadership.

Research in rural and regional areas of Australia suggests that stakeholder collaboration through partnerships increases the quality of VET outcomes (Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia [CRLRA] 2000; 2001). By working in partnership with their communities to develop VET-in-schools programs, rural schools have the potential to make significant contributions to community renewal, particularly in terms of building community capacity or social capital. Communities build stocks of social capital as they develop active relationships, engage in democratic participatory processes, and strengthen community ownership and trust (Lane and Dorfman 1997). As Falk and Kilpatrick (2000) have shown, social capital comprises both knowledge resources (knowledge of how and where to gain advice and resources) and identity resources (self-confidence, trust, shared values and vision, and commitment to the community). The link between social capital and leadership is crucial, because successful rural-community renewal depends on "the way the community leads the development of its stores of social capital" (FaIk and Mulford 2001, 221). This notion suggests a view of leadership as a community-development process (Barker 1997; Lane and Dorfman 1997), and an enhanced role for VET-in-schools partnerships in rural schools as vehicles for community development, because of their focus on collaborative leadership.

LEADERSHIP RESEARCH

Contemporary theorists view leadership as problem solving (Leithwood, Begley, and Cousins 1992), suggesting that collaborative problem-solving efforts lead to better solutions and an increased long-term capacity to solve future problems. At the heart of collaboration and capacity building are nonsupervisory and dynamic relationships (Barker 1997). Rost (1993, 99) described leadership as "an influence relationship among leaders and collaborators who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes." Both leaders and collaborators bring resources to the relationship useful for accomplishing their intended changes (Rost 1991). This view differs from the traditional "man at the top" or hero leadership characterised by a supervisory leader-follower relationship (Barker 1994; 1997).

In educational terms, more recent leadership theories have focused on the transformational leadership practices of formal school leaders. Transformational leadership builds capacity within schools by enhancing participation in and ownership of school decisions, and by fostering collaboration and empowering staff members to participate in leadership (Leithwood et al. 1992; Gorinski and Davey 2000). Silins and Mulford (2002) have identified a positive relationship between transformational leadership practices within schools and their level of organizational learning (and the extent of distributive leadership). In community-development terms, more recent theories have focused on a leadership of capacity building, to facilitate communities to make and implement their own decisions (Cavaye 2000). Theories of collaborative community leadership (Chrislip and Larson 1994) are based on broad-based community involvement, strong stakeholder groups, and credibility and openness of the leadership process. Through collaborative leadership there is a gradual shift from narrow, individual interests to broader community interests (Chrislip and Larson 1994).