Roots of Collaborative Inquiry and Generative Dialogue for Educational Leadership

Abstract

The twin processes of collaborative inquiry and generative dialogue underpin two closely aligned and increasingly influential school leadership development programs, one in Alberta, Canada, and the other in New South Wales, Australia. This paper focuses primarily on the Australian program, the character of which has been strongly influenced by its Canadian predecessor. Of interest in the paper is the nature of the foundations of collaborative inquiry and generative dialogue, and the relationship of these processes to an expressed need for better leadership development in the Australian school sector. David Townsend and Pam Adams, who are principally responsible for generating a school leadership development model based on the use of both collaborative inquiry and generative dialogue, have sought to show how these two processes should function seamlessly, but there is more to be said about the nature of their relationship. This paper seeks to throw more light on the integral role played by generative dialogue in empowering collaborative inquiry in the context of school leadership development. Keywords: generative dialogue, collaborative inquiry, school leadership, leadership development, educational leadership programs Les processus jumeaux de l'enquete collaborative et du dialogue generatif sous-tendent deux programmes de developpement du leadership scolaire etroitement alignes et de plus en plus influents, l'un en Alberta, au Canada, et l'autre en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, en Australie. Cet article se concentre principalement sur le programme australien, dont le caractere a ete fortement influence par son predecesseur canadien. Il s'interesse a la nature des fondements de l'enquete collaborative et du dialogue generatif, ainsi qu'a la relation entre ces processus et le besoin exprime d'un meilleur developpement du leadership dans le secteur scolaire australien. David Townsend et Pam Adams, qui sont les principaux responsables de la creation d'un modele de developpement du leadership scolaire base sur l'utilisation de l'enquete collaborative et du dialogue generatif, ont cherche a montrer comment ces deux processus devraient fonctionner de maniere transparente, mais il y a plus a dire sur la nature de leur relation. Cet article vise a mettre en lumiere le role integral joue par le dialogue generatif dans l'autonomisation de l'enquete collaborative dans le contexte du developpement du leadership scolaire. Mots cles : dialogue generatif, enquete collaborative, leadership scolaire, developpement du leadership, programmes de leadership scolaire