If you want to lead your community through crisis or change, the first step is to ask, “How big is our kingdom vision and what is the strength of our network?”
This focused question surfaced for me as I studied change leadership in British Columbia (BC) K-12 Christian schools. My dissertation addresses the following questions:
- What can we learn from the lived experiences of BC K-12 Christian school leaders about leading change in a world that often moves faster than our ability to adapt and disrupts before we are ready for change?
- How do leaders assess the strength of their networks to support educational change?
- What practices equip leaders to prepare their schools to navigate change faithfully rather than reactively?
Christian school leaders must wrestle not only with how to implement change, but with how their capacity for change reflects theological commitments to becoming more like Christ, both individually and communally.
While academic and societal conversations tend to prioritize outcomes, efficiency, and technique, far less attention is given to the practical, educational, and theological questions that emerge when Christian leaders guide change within their own communities. My dissertation attends to those questions by examining the lived experiences of Christian school leaders called to facilitate change within their learning communities.
Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework informing my network science lens was drawn from one of my PhD supervisors, Dr. Michael Arena at Biola University, in his (2018) work on “Adaptive Space.” The premise of his work is summarized as follows: Strong bonding leads to increased performance, whereas bridged relationships increase collaborative capacity. Each form of connection carries both strengths and inherent limitations for change.
Arena describes four types of connections that support network approaches to adaptive change:
The study’s design
My own study examined how BC K-12 Christian school leaders experience and practice organizational change using a complex adaptive systems lens. I interviewed 28 leaders across the province of BC (14 female, 14 male; 14 heads of school/superintendents, 6 directors of learning, 8 K-12 principals/campus principals), representing non-denominational (72%), interdenominational (25%), and denominational (3%) schools.
Rather than evaluating technical change outcomes, the study explored how leaders interpreted their experiences and relational interactions related to educational change initiatives. Participants were asked about the ways in which their network connections with other schools, educational leaders, and organizations influenced their educational change practices. This post focuses specifically on the findings pertaining to the role that network relationships play in sustaining whole-school change.
Findings
Three core network practices for leading change emerged from the study:
- Road trips (bridging new connections)
Six participant leaders described taking exploratory teams to other schools across the province or internationally to expand their community’s imagination for change. These visits often acted as catalysts—strengthening team cohesion and bonds, surfacing emerging leadership capacity, and sharpening shared direction.
Exposure to another school’s practices required discernment, as some ideas translated well, and others did not. While most exchanges energized change efforts, poorly aligned expectations reinforced skepticism and stalled momentum. Teams that brought the microcosm of the organization (a representational sample of different social roles across the learning community) experienced the greatest increase in trust and energy for change. Sustained partnerships, rather than one-time visits, proved most generative, normalizing shared struggles and deepening relational trust across schools. - Sustaining partnerships (discerning collaborative connections)
Seven leaders detailed initiating informal and formal partnerships to bridge gaps in limited resources, perspective, and expertise within their communities. Across roles, these networks functioned as safeguards against insularity, providing outside voices that normalized shared challenges and disrupted the echo chamber effect.
Informal relationships required intentional time investment, yet leaders valued them for the added layer of discernment they offered, particularly when navigating shifts in Christian identity, curriculum, and school culture. In some cases, leaders brought in coaches or mentors to strengthen senior leadership teams, either to build collective efficacy or to address gaps in understanding that internal familiarity could obscure.
Notably, one leader observed that external voices can exert greater influence than internal ones, both constructively and disruptively. This dynamic exposes a persistent tension between a leader’s own growth and the entrenched patterns within a community that shape what forms of change are seen as credible or possible. - Participating in leadership cohorts (developing practices with connections)
Participation in local and international leadership cohorts emerged as one of the most positively reported network influences on leaders’ capacity to navigate change. Leaders valued job-alike cohorts not primarily for transferable tools, but for the opportunity to process ideas, test assumptions, and discern next steps within a trusted community. Many described these spaces as widening their perspective, reinforcing a sense of shared kingdom purpose, and normalizing the complexity of leading change.
While programs such as ELDI and Van Lunen were appreciated as catalytic, several participants noted tensions around scale and American-centric frameworks that did not always align with the Canadian educational landscape, prompting cautious optimism about the development of a more contextually grounded pan-Canadian leadership network. At the same time, formal graduate programs were perceived as stronger in theory than practice, leaving leaders to conclude that preparation for change leadership is most effectively cultivated through real-time coaching, relational networks, and immersion in relationships that support meaning-making within the realities of change itself.
Implications
What do leaders need to support their network development?
Participants consistently emphasized the need for diversified spiritual, professional, and relational connections for sustaining change leadership. Trust-filled relationships with leadership teams, critical friends, mentors, and external coaches provided refuge, honest feedback, and the affirmation necessary to navigate loss, resistance, and change fatigue.
These relationships were not merely strategic but formative, offering spaces for prayerful discernment, candid reflection, and renewed clarity of identity. Leaders valued both spiritual companions and skilled consultants who could challenge and strengthen their thinking while reinforcing hope. Together, these supports suggest that network development thrives when leaders are encouraged in faith, equipped in practice, and sustained in their long-term wellbeing.
How do leaders assess the strength of their networks to support educational change?
To address this question, I developed an educational network strength tool for school and network leaders; I am testing it through self-assessment to evaluate its application in future research. As fewer leaders step into formal roles, Christian schools will need localized solutions that strengthen leadership capacity from within rather than outsourcing it elsewhere.
What practices equip leaders to prepare their schools to navigate change faithfully rather than reactively?
Collectively, the findings from my research suggest that sustainable change leadership depends less on heroic individuals and more on the intentional cultivation of strong relational networks. Within these networks, leaders and community members leverage relational capacity across Christian schools to identify where new knowledge is needed, support greater collaborative capacity within limits, and drive meaningful change. I am preparing to launch the Christian School Change Leadership Institute as a localized outcome from my dissertation research. Helping Christian communities thrive through transitions takes a kingdom vision of leading change that is localized in practice but also global in perspective.
