Collaborative Leadership Summary

These norms and culture are not universally standardized across the museum industry. Becca detailed a myriad of working conditions and a wide spectrum in regards to the amount leadership opportunity, which she observed at previous job sites. She notes that historically those working in other departments (i.e. curatorial work, collections, etc.) and museum leadership, looked down upon museum education. She offered various theories, including, educators’ association with “kids and crafts” seemed trivial, museum education is a less publicly visual job, society more broadly undervalues education, and that curatorial work climbed to the top because it has more public appeal, and curators often have PhDs. In some places this leads to curatorial work
York-Barr & Duke (2004) explore the idea of three forms of collaborative leadership; instructional, participative, and parallel, to conclude that effective teacher leadership requires leadership not being “vested in one person” (261-2). CHS’s divide in leadership empowers educators. Additionally, Stoelinga (2008) found that “The alignment between formal and informal organizational structures and the extent to which pathways of communication exist between them is a critical factor in the enactment of teacher leadership positions” (116). Becca speaks about herself and upper level management being a united “we,” bound by a common goal. She explains, “at the end of the day we have a mission, it’s really making sure any type of program meets the mission and gets us to that long term goal that we’re hoping to do.” The formal leadership of CHS, by providing a common mission as a standard for alignment and maintaining open pathways of communication, cultivates an environment which fosters individuals at all levels to become informal