Customer Reviews

The Constructivist Leader

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This book essentially examines the dynamics of a learning community within the theoretical framework of constructivism. While the book is dense in theory, its clear prose and liberal inclusion of examples and stories make it an accessible and meaningful read. The books title may be misleading in that an educational leader, in the constructivist sense, is any educator who seeks school improvement through open, democratic processes. In this sense, the book would seem useful to any organizational development specialist who craves a broader theoretical understanding of the nature of OD, and insight into how groups of educators can build learning communities committed to improving the lives of their stakeholders. The book is complex in its scope and depth, but nonetheless answers a fairly simple question: How does constructivism help us see what humane and effective schools should look like? Lambert and her colleagues weave a fairly cohesive and inspiring narrative of social change within the educational context.

According to the writers, constructivism is a theory of learning derived from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and science. Constructivism in simplest terms posits that learning is the process of reforming what we know, believe and value based on the connections between new and already held knowledge, values and beliefs. In other words, people are in a constant state of learning in order to secure or enhance their existence. In the school context, Lambert defines Constructivist Leadership as the reciprocal processes that enable participants in an educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose about schooling. (p.29) These reciprocal processes entail building trust through social and professional relationships, identifying and reconstructing commonly held assumptions and beliefs, building new shared knowledge, and altering individual and group behaviors to create new ways of doing school. In this way, Lambert and her colleagues argue, we begin to see leadership, community, and schools themselves not as roles or physical entities, but as social processes, which require constant tending and development. In a biological sense, individuals are in a constant state of constructing their understanding of the world. In an ecological sense, interdependent groups of individuals must co-construct their understandings in order to create a desired reality. In this way, Lamberts constructivist view of learning and leadership is in close company with Senges view of the learning organization, which strives to move from status quo to a shared ideal of something better.

Theoretically, constructivism owes much Lee Vygotskys work on the relationship between language and learning. Not surprisingly then, this books core chapters all deal with the role of communication in constructivist leadership. In Leading the Conversations, Lambert argues that conversations are the visible manifestation of constructivist leadership (p.83). On page 86, she provides a useful Typology of Conversations model, which shows that four conversation types (dialogic, inquiring, sustaining, and partnering) contribute to, among other things, collaborative sense-making, remembrance and reflection, sharing and building ideas, and respectful listening. In The Linguistics of Leadership, Diane Zimmerman deconstructs the processes of paraphrasing, inquiring, and articulating ideas, and argues that when used in balance they help groups uncover the unspeakable, make sense of assumptions and beliefs, and find new patterns and paths to improvement. In The Role of Narrative and Dialogue in Constructivist Leadership, Joanne Cooper argues that stories provide a vision and a desired direction for adults working in schools (p.122) Narratives bring to life tacit knowledge and in so doing imbue groups with connectivity, and common purpose and vision. In these chapters, we see strong practical and theoretical themes that are consistent with the change work of Fullan, Senges work on learning, and the organization work of Schmuck and others.

Constructivism, as an epistemological theory, has a long and broad history in this century. I found this book refreshing for making clear connections between a theory of knowledge and the practices and perspectives relevant to organization development and learning communities.

Constructivism has a myriad of definitions, or so it seems in education today. In this book, the general principals of constructivist leadership are defined and "fleshed out" through the contributing authors. Excellent book for administrators that are trying to find theory based rationale for site based management in school. A book that should be kept on your office bookshelf because you will refer to it often. The listing and comparisons of past educational methods is nicely done and easy to reference.

This had many solid points and I like the fact that it has many example of the constructivist theory in use which makes this book more practical for some one who doesn't want to worry about getting to deep into the theory. The only problem with this book is that the theory that is presented is flawed. They completely down play the role of traditional education and present their theory as the opposite to traditional education. This goes against John Dewey's basic theory and makes the fallacy of selective emphasis. This is a great book if you want to practical experience from schools that this method has been used at but if you want theory, you are better off going to the source, John Dewey.