Summary:
The hackneyed adage, “If Rip Van Winkle woke up today and went to school, he’d feel right at home,” continues to have considerable face validity, particularly in regard to the leadership structures of schools. The administrative structure of schools has traditionally been hierarchical and bureaucratic. It follows a scientific management (Taylor, 1916) approach to the separation of administrators’ and teachers’ responsibilities, with the administrator responsible for most major decisions and the teachers responsible for what Taylor referred to as the work. However, in Alabama, various efforts have recently been implemented to alter this structure somewhat, calling for a dissolution of some of the lines between teachers and administrators and for the sharing of leadership in the school. This article examines those efforts against the backdrop of the professional knowledge base on shared leadership in schools. FULL MANUSCRIPT AVAILABLE IN PDF (attached below) OR ONLINE AT: http://cnx.org/content/m37194