Teaming--when done well--can make all the difference. Yet where can teachers and leaders learn how to be effective team members? What common challenges do teams face? And how can a developmental approach help teams thrive? In this article, the authors address the painful challenges many adults encounter when working in teams. They discuss how…

Eleanor Drago-Severson's research, writing, teaching, and coaching has helped show that supporting adult learning and professional development improves outcomes for students. Given the mounting adaptive challenges educators face in education today, teachers and school leaders must continuously learn and grow as they manage these tremendously…

"What is happening in education today?" and "What is most needed for the future of teaching, learning and leading?" This article presents a developmental approach to learning, leadership and advancing professional learning--one that takes into account adults' diverse meaning making processes--that can help educators build the…

We interviewed eight principals from Bermuda and Florida about how they identify and manage their most pressing challenges. Their challenges are composed of both adaptive and technical work, requiring leaders to learn to diagnose and manage them. Challenges focused on change and were traced to accountability contexts, yet accountability was not…

This research was part of a larger, mixed-methods study, funded by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, which examined the learning and change experiences of 41 learners in three ABE/ESOL programs. This paper examines a Polaroid diploma program with a focus on women workers, employing gender (relational) and…

This article examines the views of graduate students who are aspiring or practicing school leaders and faculty from two university degree granting leadership preparation programs. Drawn from a larger mixed methods study, the authors focus here on survey results that show how these groups rated the effectiveness of 14 potential curricular…

Learning Forward's new Learning Designs standard is an important reminder that shaping professional learning as opportunities for adults to learn and grow is essential and that one's understanding of how adults learn is an essential component of this pressing goal. This article discusses the three strands of the Learning Designs standard: (1)…

Background/Context: Improved professional development for teachers and principals is central to our national educational agenda. Principals struggle with the challenge of how to build school climates that improve practice in an era of heightened accountability and increasingly complex adaptive challenges. Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus…

Background/Context: Given the challenging complexity of the modern principalship--including high-stakes testing, standards-based reform, increased accountability, and severe budget cuts--practitioners and scholars emphasize the urgency of supporting principals' stress-relief and renewal. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This…

An online survey (using forced-choice and open-ended questions) of faculty at two university-situated degree-granting leadership preparation programs revealed that the faculty describe critical connections for developing leadership capacity: theory-practice nexus, university-based learning and "real-life" experience, and nurturing deeper…

Through qualitative interviews and document analysis, this nationwide study investigated how 25 principals from a sample of public, Catholic, and independent schools with varying financial resources understand the practices they use to support teacher learning. This Spencer grant-funded research illuminates how these leaders understand the…

This qualitative study investigated how 25 school leaders in the US understand the practices they use to support teacher learning in their schools. The primary question guiding this research includes: How do these schools leaders, who serve in diverse school contexts with different levels of resources, exercise their leadership in support of adult…

family literacy, and workplace sites) for a year or more to examine their experiences of learning and change. Each program was aimed at enhancing participants? English language fluency, content knowledge, and effectiveness as students, parents, and/or workers. The purpose of this study was to better understand how these adults experienced learning…

The ways in which school leaders support teachers' transformational learning are influenced by the amount and types of resources available. This study examined how school leaders exercise their leadership to promote adult learning, what practices they used to support such learning, how they supported their own development, and what developmental…

How can a principal create opportunities for teacher learning that really work to support teachers with different needs and preferences? There is wide agreement that the best teacher development is informal, diverse, democratic, school-based, and continuous. The best programs ignite and sustain teachers' excitement in learning, growing, and…