The second critical component of a leadership disposition is adaptivity. As things change in the educational landscape, and be assured they will, an adaptive leadership disposition supports the teacher to remain effective and reduces anxiety. Adaptivity is different from reactivity. Whereas reactivity focuses on a particular situation, adaptivity focuses on clarifying identity and changing form in order to build capacity (Garmston & Wellman, 2012).
Traditionally, schools operate in a reactive mode, and not always for negative reasons. For example, we often plan far ahead to give people time to prepare. In turn, such planning makes it difficult to respond to a changing environment. Professional development calendars were often planned in advance for the coming year, reducing the responsiveness to learning needs of staff as they arose, while personalizing learning to the interests of a few making the plans. This practice has been replaced with using academic and implementation data for buildings to develop visions for a limited number of student-centered improvement efforts around which Building Leadership Teams can rally and bind their work. This adaptability to identified systemic needs, rather than fast-paced reactions to live problems, led our district to the creation of different meeting schedules for the leadership teams, to allow for more regular assessment of their work. This has led to more meaningful and self-directed professional learning by teachers.
While a benefit from this work has been a clearer definition of needs and vision, a cost is that some teachers perceive there is seldom closure to the work being done. Since adaptivity requires continuous clarification and goal setting, the ability to celebrate task completion can be lost in the cycle. At first, this can appear as if we are accomplishing very little; when in reality it is a giant systems change. The cost is a larger burden on the intellectual capacities of teachers as they maneuver through their school year and move through lessons, but at the same time never feel their work as a teacher leader is “done”. Seeing the work as connected, flowing, and related to the needs of students is powerful, but it requires a shift in the idea of what success looks like. Previously, success came from finishing a project. Now, it comes in the constant connection between the work we did yesterday, the work we do today, and the work we will continue tomorrow.
Garmston, R. & Wellman, B. (2012). Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar Learning Guide. Highlands Ranch, CO: The Center For Adaptive Schools