Transcending tensions of the school system with distributed leadership: lessons from a Change Laboratory intervention

Purpose Our study aims to explore distributed leadership as a concept emerging from the developmental efforts of a Finnish teacher training school community to transform their activity to transcend contradictions of the Finnish school system. Our study increases understanding of distributed leadership as a practice-embedded, inherently contradictory functional concept. Design/methodology/approach We employ the Change Laboratory intervention method, based on cultural-historical activity theory and the theory of expansive learning. In the intervention, teachers and the principal of the school created a new teamwork and leadership model based on a locally formulated concept of distributed leadership. Findings Through the expansive learning process that took place in the intervention, a local concept of distributed leadership emerged through the participants’ efforts to resolve the contradictions. The concept was then modeled into a new mode of activity, which mediated the school community’s practice renewal, especially regarding teamwork and leadership practices. Originality/value Our study offers an alternative, dialectical path for conceptualizing distributed leadership. Instead of empirical classifications, distributed leadership is approached as a concept arising from the tensions of real-life practices but also containing the seeds of transformation to transcend the tensions. Implications for educational change efforts are discussed.