Learning and leading: How beliefs about learning can be used to promote effective leadership

Purpose: To examine the l inks between the core beliefs a leader holds about learning and knowing (called epistemological beliefs) and how they go about leading an organisation. Design: We interviewed 15 directors in centre-based child care organisations about how they viewed learning and knowing in their leadership role. Findings: What we found in these interviews were that the directors who indicated transformational leadership behaviours also thought that staff learning and knowing should be active, meaningful and evidenced-based. This means that they viewed knowledge as evolving, tentative and needing to be critiqued and evaluated in the light of evidence (known as evaluativism in epistemological belief jargon). Conversely, the director with transactional beliefs about leadership clearly demonstrated beliefs that knowledge was about his own “truths ’ or black and white facts that could be transmitted to others (known as objectivism). Value & Practical Implications: While it may be useful to reflect on the connections between core beliefs about knowing and learning and transformational leadership practice, a more important task for the field is how such leaders might be nurtured