Management in Education Copyright © 2008 British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS), Vol 22(1): 31–34. DOI: 10.1177/0892020607085623

Distributed leadership is an idea that isgrowing in popularity. There is wide-spread interest in the notion of distrib-uting leadership although interpretations of the term vary. A distributed leadership perspective recognises that there are multiple leaders (Spillane et al., 2004) and that leadership activ-ities are widely shared within and between organisations (Harris, 2007). A distributed model of leadership focuses upon the interac-tions, rather than the actions, of those in formal and informal leadership roles. It is primarily concerned with leadership practice and how lead-ership influences organisational and instruc-tional improvement (Spillane, 2006). A distributed perspective on leadership acknowledges the work of all individuals wh