LCT-5002

Anderson, F. K. (2024). Radically excellent school improvement: Keeping students at the center of it all. Corwin Press, pp.37-46.
This reading focuses on coaching, a process that directly informs change and improvement in real-time so course corrections can be made within and across all levels of the organization. Coaching is a highly effective practice with tangible results. District and instructional leaders who have implemented coaching as an improvement strategy shift the focus from individual performance to one with a collective impact.

Beycioglu, K., & Kondakci, Y. (2021). Organizational Change in Schools. ECNU Review of Education, 4(4), 788–807.
This review aims to discuss the meaning of organizational change, change dynamics, and the current state of debates on organizational change in schools. The core purpose of this review is to challenge the current theoretical understanding of change in schools by raising new perspectives on change in schools. Parallel to the arguments in the literature, the authors found that continuous change has been indicated as an alternative perspective to planned change, and leadership has been indicated as a key driver of organizational change.

Fahey, K., Breidenstein, A., & Ippolito, J. (2019). An uncommon theory of school change: Leadership for reinventing schools. Teachers College Press, pp.1-26.
In this reading, the authors argue that if educators want to create more equitable, socially just, and learner-focused schools, then they need a more robust, transformational theory of school change--an UnCommon Theory. After describing the limits of current school improvement initiatives, the authors explain what is needed to actually engage in deeper school reinvention work.

Murphy, M. (2021). Built to last: The school leader’s guide for sustaining change while managing resistance. Corwin, pp. 49-76.
This reading focuses on the implementation of change. Murphy discusses the initiation of change and how accomplishing the vision over time (implementation) creates a different dynamic. It takes long-term persistence and focus. Two leadership principles are most important during implementation. The first principle is that change is primarily a people process. The second principle is that implementation plans have to be firm but flexible and directive but collaborative.

Vanlommel, K., van den Boom-Muilenburg, S. N., & Kikken, E. (2025). School leadership during disruptive change: an emotional and relational practice. School Leadership & Management, 45(1), 125–147.
Leaders play an important role in creating suitable conditions for and leading change, and leadership is most effective when it is needed most, such as during disruptive change. The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic was used in this research. Leadership practices and paths of influence are discussed. The authors found that school leaders focused on setting directions and developing people to mainly influence the change process. These findings focus on understanding and supporting leadership in times of disruption.