Source: Educational Action Research, Volume 15, Issue 4 December 2007, pages 519 - 543.
This study describes three action cycles the author identified retrospectively and examined the processes she underwent through the lens of research literature dealing with leadership.
She then provided a retrospective account of her reflections on her actions over a four-year period.
As the head of the Elementary School Department in a teacher education college, the author tried to make informed decisions by documenting the process and collecting data from a variety of sources:
transcripts of group discussions; unstructured interviews;
a reflective journal;
and excerpts from a triadic journal.
The findings are on three levels: on the personal level, the author underwent internal transition both in her conception of her role and in her behavior, from being a 'top-down' manager to working collaboratively with colleagues by relinquishing overall control.
On the professional level, shaping a new professional identity revealed a significant shift in her perception of leadership: from a transactional model through a transformational model to a distributed leadership.
She also recognized the power of action research in linking pragmatic issues and theoretical knowledge, as well as in binding together all the partners in the process.
These two levels were parallel to the departmental level, in which there was significant organizational change, from coping with fragmented elements to a holistic ecological overview of the system.
Thus, it is clear to me today that in order to change teacher education she first had to transform herself.