Educational leadership development in the Greater Victoria School District using generative dialogue: Report on Wave I

Abstract

This report documents the recorded experiences of principals and vice principals in the Greater Victoria School District, who voluntarily participated in the study of the first year of a new mandated approach to their professional development or “professional growth,” generative dialogue. Generative dialogue is an approach to facilitating the professional growth of a specific group of leaders – school principals and vice principals – through a conversational approach which encourages and enables them to identify and work towards their own professional goals. Generative dialogue was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the early 2000s (Sharmer, n.d.), building on decades of previous work on dialogue (Gunnlaugson, 2006). Although a substantial theoretical foundation exists, literature to support the application of generative dialogue to educational leadership growth is limited (Adams, 2016). The current study explores the application of generative dialogue within the Greater Victoria School District, led by Dr David Townsend and Dr Pamela Adams of the University of Lethbridge. The research team was contracted by the Greater Victoria School District to conduct this research as an independent group, through the Centre for Health Leadership & Research at Royal Roads University. The project was reviewed and has clearance from the Royal Roads University Research Ethics Board. The Greater Victoria School District has no access to the data reported.