[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-596915-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-596915-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","emergence-in-school-systems-lessons-from-complexity-and-pedagogical-leadership","Emergence in School Systems - Lessons from Complexity and Pedagogical Leadership","","Study uses a complexity-thinking framework, integrating complexity theory in education and research on school leadership interventions. The research examines how leadership practices shape system-level change and how such change unfolds across a school system. Conducted in an Alberta urban public-school jurisdiction, findings highlight pedagogical leadership practices that help redress disparities, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse students from low-income households with lower standardized exam performance.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/emergence-in-school-systems-lessons-from-complexity-and-pedagogical-leadership/596915/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/emergence-in-school-systems-lessons-from-complexity-and-pedagogical-leadership/596915.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Danger Angel","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What framework guides the study on leadership and school change?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The study applies a complexity-thinking framework that draws on complexity in education and school leadership research about leadership interventions and school improvement effects.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Where was the study conducted and what were the local student characteristics?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It was conducted in an Alberta urban centre within a public-school jurisdiction, focusing on an area with many students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds from low-income households and with lower standardized examination scores.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What do the findings emphasize about pedagogical leadership practices?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The study identifies and describes pedagogical leadership practices central to addressing disparities currently found in schools, and argues that this area needs more empirical attention in the context of school leadership.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},596915,1792166603,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962090769052,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Emergence in School Systems: Lessons from Complexity and Pedagogical Leadership  \nGabriela Alonso-Yanez, Sharon Friesen,  \nArmando Paulino Preciado-Babb, & Barbara Brown University of Calgary  \nAbstract  \nThe theoretical framework for this study draws on conceptual advances from two bodies of scholarship:  \n1) complexity thinking in education, which has recently focused on school system change and, 2) school leadership research, which has recently attended to the effects of leadership interventions to school improvement. Using a complexity-thinking framework, the purpose of this study was to understand how leadership practices contribute to shaping change in school systems and how change occurred across the system. Our study was conducted in an urban centre in Alberta within a public-school jurisdiction and inan area of the city that had a high population of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds from low-income households compared to other areas across the school jurisdiction. Students in this area typically scored in the lowest quartile on provincial standardized examinations. Our findings are significant because complexity thinking in the context of school leadership has not received sufficient empirical attention. In our study we identified and described pedagogical leadership practices that play a central role in redressing disparities currently found in schools.  \nKeywords: complexity in education, school change, leadership, equity, organizations  \nIntroduction  \nThe educational applications of complexity science consist of a range of interconnected fields and theories, including complex adaptive systems, complexity, complexity thinking/theory/science, dynamical systems theory, generative science, and systems theory (Davis et al., 2000). A complex system comprises groups of agents that form a unified whole in their interactions, relationships, or dependencies. Learning from a complex system thinking approach has been described as a continuous adaptation of the myriad interactions of diverse elements that give rise to many simultaneous experiments as well as perturbations in the system, that ultimately produce new knowledge and change (Fenwick & Dahlgren, 2015). Current work in complexity point to the need to examine social organizations with a focus on the emergent circumstances—e.g., the creative experiments and disturbances—arising from the interaction of varied elements within systems, rather than focusing on the agents individually (Lichtenstein & Plowman, 2009; Male & Palaiologou, 2015).  \nResearch on leadership suggests that traditional leadership models have been often shaped by top-down bureaucratic paradigms that had to deal with a very different set of circumstances than the ones we encounter today (Davenport, 2001; Uhl-Bien et al., 2007). Contemporary leadership models require designs that account for diversity and continuous change in complex, interactive dynamic environments from which emergent, unexpected outcomes result. Complexity within leadership theory recognizes the  \ndynamic interactions that take place within organizations as they change, create innovation, and evolve. The focus is on complex relationships and network interactions rather than controlling, standardizing, and managing the behaviours and actions of single agents (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2007; Uhl-Bien et al., 2007). Further, complexity leadership theory proposes that adaptability occurs in the everyday interactions among individuals responding to triggers in the work environment caused by a varied set of factors. These interactions connect to produce strong emergent phenomena at various levels of the system (Lichtenstein & Plowman, 2009). Male and Palaiologou’s (2015) research on educational organizations describe how levels of complexity produce emergent phenomena.  \nIn this study, we examined school leadership practices through a complexity lens. This offered an opportunity to describe and understand the dynamic, ","cbCaiv59hpfZ0i8x","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv59hpfZ0i8x","pdf",530107,18,"English","# Introduction\n## Context of the Study","[{\"question\":\"What framework guides the study on leadership and school change?\",\"answer\":\"The study applies a complexity-thinking framework that draws on complexity in education and school leadership research about leadership interventions and school improvement effects.\"},{\"question\":\"Where was the study conducted and what were the local student characteristics?\",\"answer\":\"It was conducted in an Alberta urban centre within a public-school jurisdiction, focusing on an area with many students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds from low-income households and with lower standardized examination scores.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the findings emphasize about pedagogical leadership practices?\",\"answer\":\"The study identifies and describes pedagogical leadership practices central to addressing disparities currently found in schools, and argues that this area needs more empirical attention in the context of school leadership.\"}]","Emergence in School Systems - Lessons from Complexity and Pedagogical Leadership | PDF",1792083993,45]