RUNNING HEAD: CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF INQUIRY: MY PATH TO

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION

Fostering a Culture of Excellence: My Path to Transformational Leadership in Education

Hope Shields

Appalachian State University

School Leadership Graduate Certificate Program Candidate

RUNNING HEAD: CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF INQUIRY: MY PATH TO
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION

Leadership is a journey. The dynamic process of evolving leadership style is determined

through experience, reflection, and learning. My personal philosophy of leadership, rooted in

constructivist principles, has developed through a combination of academic exploration and

practical application. My journey towards understanding constructivist leadership began during

my undergraduate studies in education but has since evolved immensely. It was in my

undergraduate studies that I first encountered the works of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky,

whose theories on cognitive development and social constructivism deeply resonated with me.

Piaget's emphasis on the active role of learners in constructing their understanding of the world

(Piaget, 1970) and Vygotsky's insights on the social nature of learning (Vygotsky, 1978)

provided a foundation for my leadership approach. I realized that just as students learn best

through active engagement and social interaction, effective leadership similarly thrives on these

principles.

However, during my early years of teaching I quickly discovered that collaboration and

facilitation without discernment was not as effective as I expected. As I began to grow and learn

in my role as grade level leader, at that time, I discovered the value of incorporating

transformational qualities into my leadership practices. During subsequent roles in education,

from reading specialist to district-level English as Second Language Specialist, I have expanded

on this conglomeration of philosophies. While participatory leadership can work, I have found

that it is much more effective to ensure that the team is collaboratively working towards a clear

and compelling vision that promotes motivation. In my current role, I have found that this

particular principle of the transformational leadership style yields teacher buy-in and anchors our

team to tasks at hand.

A pivotal moment where my philosophy changed trajectory more towards

transformational leadership happened very recently. Our curriculum director has purchased an

evidence-based online program that my team of teachers were not yet sold on utilizing
RUNNING HEAD: CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF INQUIRY: MY PATH TO
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
consistently. Although the program has a history of high yield results, the teachers needed a

sense of inclusion in the process before they allocated significant amounts of their instructional

time to it. Using inspiration from research on transformational leadership I knew that if I gave my

teachers the space to be creative and innovative with a common vision, they would more than

rise to the occasion while uncovering the value of this program (Judge & Piccolo, 2004, p. 755).

So, I leveraged their common interest in supporting their students with EOG scores and tasked

them with some exploration of the product. However, if I had stopped there, I would be leaning

into my constructivist style only so I took it a step further and added a vision that was beneficial

to them. They would use their allotted planning hour that day to explore the program, but utilize

the resources within the program to create any type of EOG prep product that they deemed

valuable for their students. The teachers completed the task, then maximized it’s effectiveness

by posting their creations in our ESL Hub. Each teacher pair created one product, but all team

members left with 6 new resources to utilize. Since that point, teachers have increased usage of

the platform with their students and the resources within their classrooms.

Based on my experiences and seeing effectiveness first hand, my current leadership

style is transformational but rooted in some constructivist values like collective inquiry. I believe

in transformation leadership because it puts teams on a trajectory to unexpected and

extraordinary outcomes, while valuing the beliefs and attitudes of the followers.

I am interested in applying to the School Leadership Certificate program at Appalachian

State because I believe that this program will help me to continue to explore this leadership

style in practice. The outcome of that exploration will help me to continue to evolve as a leader

and help me to gain new insights into my own self reflection of leadership. Additionally, it will

help me progress in my professional goal to become an assistant principal in the near future so

that I can continue to motivate and inspire teachers to uncover their potential.
RUNNING HEAD: CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF INQUIRY: MY PATH TO
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION

References

Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional

leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. The Leadership

Quarterly, 15(6), 755-775.

Piaget, J. (1970). Science of education and the psychology of the child. Viking.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological

processes. Harvard University Press.