Innovative learning environments and discourses of leadership: Is physical change out of step with pedagogical development?

Abstract

School leaders are at the forefront of reform agendas. They are challenged to embrace digital technologies, rethink the roles of students, teachers and school leaders, remodel physical spaces in schools and consider significant shifts to school administration and leadership. In this article a theoretical framework of learning leadership, relational trust and risk-taking is evoked to examine how leaders broker change to implement Innovative Learning Environments. The research reported in this article provides an analysis of pedagogical, instructional and learning leadership discourses drawn from the qualitative data in a survey that involved 165 Aotearoa/New Zealand school practitioners. Findings suggest the value of positive and critical leader engagement with the discursive nexus of education policy and economic rationalism. The research addresses the paucity of research on principal perceptions of ILE and the challenges this policy direction presents for leadership.