Reconstructing a Theory of Educational Governance Based on a Distributed Leadership Perspective

This paper points out, from the current studies on governance in political science and theoretical studies of Distributed Leadership, two significant aspects in order to reconstruct a theory of educational governance, through case studies on changes of educational governance in two urban school districts of Chicago and Boston, both of which have been led by a strong mayor and NPO's professional assistance. First, a theory of educational governance should be reconstructed containing a pursuit to "function of governance" and "situation of governance", which means that democratic procedure is necessary to control dominant power by the mayor of professional practice by teachers. It is also necessary for educational governance to use mayoral power to avoid a failure of governance. For example, the reform case of mayoral control in Chicago has merits and demerits. Mayor Daley had a strong leadership to make educational finance healthy and to reconstruct failing schools by taking over the School Board in Chicago. That was also criticized by parents and teachers whose school was turned over, because their voice has not reached the administration any more even though they did not want to close their school. Educational governance needs a system where mayor control of governance leads to success and is controlled to keep legitimacy. Second, a theory of educational governance needs a structure containing mediators to facilitate stakeholders' "learning" and building their reciprocal relationship in schools, pointed out by a theory of distributed leadership, so that teachers, parents and other stakeholders can collaboratively plan and practice what they want for children in school. In the case of Chicago's Local School Council, teacher team members became mediators between parental needs and professional ideas, as showing the school vision to both and thinking of better ways together with teachers. The other teachers could understand why they should change their ideas for school reform because the teacher team gently showed that parental needs are linked to their school vision apparently. The mediation role played by the teacher team was critical for this school planning its reform plan successfully. The key for successful governance is whether its structure has a mediator to build reciprocal relationships or not. The remaining problem of this article is whether a mediator in the governance structure should, or should not, have a more power and superiority to stakeholders in order to keep governance stable and developing. The actors for school reform need support from mediators, but it is also necessary for them to retain their identities and wills. As mayoral control is criticized, it is worrying that the power and superiority of a mediator may have a big effect on their mind toward autonomy, which means mediation turns into control. A study on educational governance needs to think about this problem through more case studies to reconstruct a theory of governance.