Leadership for Learning (LfL): Principles

Leadership for Learning prioritizes student learning, professional learning, and system learning. It expresses a commitment to accepting responsibility for learning, to addressing the challenge of engaging others in learning, and to utilizing leadership in the advancement of learning.

Leadership for Learning is a distinctive model for educational practice that involves a set of well-defined principles designed to guide school leaders, school districts, and schools both in achieving high performance and in sustaining the learning of all members of the school community. The Leadership for Learning principles have evolved through a process in which educators from seven nations (Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States) have shared their thinking, tested their ideas, reflected on their practice, and explored the nature of learning and leading. The Center for Evidence-Based Education was a founding member of the international initiative committed to the construction of the Leadership for Learning principles (Carpe Vitam: Leadership for Learning, 2002-2005).

Learning and leadership are seen as “activities.” Viewed through the lens of Leadership for Learning, leadership is no longer seen as a role occupied by those few in positions of authority, but as an activity open to teachers, students, and parents. Similarly, This means building relationships which allow the link between learning and leadership to be explored and encouraged.

• Focuses on learning. “What’s worth learning, how is it best learned, how can we get it taught that way?” Everyone is regarded as a learner, learning is personalized, and is seen as occurring in multiple contexts.
• Creates settings, mindsets, and strategies conducive to learning. Sustains a culture that provides multiple opportunities for learning, and for reflection on the nature, skills, and behaviors of learning.
• Shares leadership. Builds structures and cultures that invite and sustain participation in leadership, encourages all members of the school community to take the lead as appropriate to task and context.
• Promotes explicit conversations about leadership and learning. Engages all leaders and learners in focused and deep conversations that explore and strengthen the relationship between leadership and learning.
• Incorporates mutual accountability. Mutual accountability engages all stakeholders in making judgments about practice and outcomes, based on values and evidence. Professional practice becomes public.

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