Leading the Coversation

Leading the conversation refers to the facilitation of reciprocal dialogue, in both formal and informal settings, that enable participants in an educational community to construct meaning and shared purpose for teaching and learning. These kinds of conversations do not happen naturally, at least at first. At the same time, they do not always need to be scheduled, and any interaction is an opportunity to lead the conversation.

Leading the conversation is the work of everyone in the educational community, and is the role of leaders defined broadly (school leaders, teacher leaders, respected elders, etc.). It requires active involvement by leaders, both formal and informal, to intentionally make conversations connect to emerging vision, values and purpose. It also requires leaders to actively convene, frame, and move conversations, and leaders' skills are important to making these conversations productive. Fostering the ongoing conversation is more productive as a means of developing shared understandings when it is part of a distributed leadership approach, rather than the work of isolated leaders.

Leading the conversation is related to the concept of "nudging" improvement.

Source: Lambert, L. (2002). Chapter 3: Leading the conversations. In L. Lambert, D. Walker, D. Zimmerman, J. Cooper, M. D. Lambert, M. Gardner, & M. Szabo (Eds.), The Constructivist Leader. New York: Teachers College Press.