Female Superintendents and Complex Adaptive Systems Leadership

Female superintendents face a unique set of challenges as the leadership models offered by traditional educational leadership programs are undergirded by patriarchal and technocratic ideologies that promulgate top-down decision-making. These models are insufficient in addressing complex educational issues such as closing the achievement gap, promoting equity, and meeting diverse student needs (Brown et al., 2023). Research suggests that antiquated leadership models have proven to limit new leaders, coupled with the lingering symptoms of COVID-19 (Arundel, 2022; Fidanboy, M., 2022; Fasel, 2023; Author, 2022).

This paper examines how female superintendents can apply complex adaptive systems leadership (CASL) in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) K-12 educational environment.