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 QUANDARIES
OF SCHOOL
LEADERSHIP

VOICES FROM
PRINCIPALS IN THE FIELD

Edited by
Debra J. Touchton
Mariela A. Rodríguez
Gary Ivory
Michele Acker-Hocevar
Quandaries of School Leadership
Debra J. Touchton • Mariela A. Rodríguez •
Gary Ivory • Michele Acker-Hocevar
Editors

Quandaries of School
Leadership
Voices from Principals in the Field
Editors
Debra J. Touchton Mariela A. Rodríguez
Stetson University University of Texas at San Antonio
Celebration, USA San Antonio, USA

Gary Ivory Michele Acker-Hocevar

Educational Leadership and Washington State University Tri-Cities
Administration Richland, Washington
New Mexico State University USA
Las Cruces, New Mexico
USA

ISBN 978-3-319-59119-3 ISBN 978-3-319-59120-9 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59120-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946888

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

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 CONTENTS

1 The Journey Begins 1

Debra J. Touchton

2 Understanding Role-Making in Leadership Performance 9

John Mancinelli and Michele Acker-Hocevar

3 Developing a Leadership Platform: Using and

Understanding the Professional Standards for Educational
Leaders 37
Mariela A. Rodríguez

4 The Ambiguity in Clarifying Expectations 47

William Ruff

5 Ethics: Acting Ethically to Promote Each Student’s

Academic Success and Well-Being 73
Teresa Wasonga

6 Principals Supporting English Learners in US Public Schools 93

Karina I. Vielma, Gloria Jean Martinez, and Mariela A. Rodríguez

v
vi CONTENTS

7 Quandaries of Assessment and Accountability 105

Betty Alford and Julia Ballenger

8 Emotional Intelligence as a Means to Combat Funding Cuts:

Meeting Student Academic Success and Promoting
Well-Being in Challenging Financial Times 127
Rene Guillaume

9 Elementary School Principals Supporting the Professional

Capacity of Teachers 143
Jennifer Zavala and Venus Valenta

10 Shared Voice and Vision: Fostering Professional

Communities for Student Success 157
Joyce A. Mundy

11 Leadership and Resource Allocation in Schools: Applying

Micropolitical Perspectives 181
Chad R. Lochmiller and Colleen R. Pawlicki

12 Leadership for Change 207

Donna Augustine-Shaw, Robert Hachiya, and
Teresa Northern Miller

13 Leadership Development and the Study of Expertise 225

Gary Ivory and Rhonda McClellan

Index 239
 NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS

Michele A. Acker-Hocevar is Professor and Interim Vice Chancellor of

Academic Affairs, and holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Organizational
Studies and School Leadership. She is one of the coinvestigators of the
University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) Voices 3 study
and was the past coeditor of the Journal of Research on Leadership Educa-
tion. Her work focuses on schools that have been both high and low
performing, change leadership, and decision-making for school
improvement.

Betty Alford is a professor and co-doctoral program director of the Edu-

cational Leadership Doctoral Program at California Polytechnic State Uni-
versity in Pomona, California, and a professor emerita at Stephen F. Austin
State University. She teaches qualitative research, organizational transfor-
mation, and dissertation courses. Her research agenda focuses on educa-
tional leadership in high-need schools.

Donna Augustine-Shaw is an assistant professor in the Educational Lead-

ership Department, Kansas State University. Her responsibilities include
teaching masters leadership academies and building and district leadership.
She served as a teacher, principal, and superintendent and holds a Doctorate
in Educational Administration, Wichita State University. Her research inter-
ests include leadership, mentoring, and change.

vii
viii NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS

Julia Ballenger is an associate professor in the Educational Leadership

Department at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Rene O. Guillaume is an assistant professor in the Department of Educa-

tional Leadership and Administration at New Mexico State University. His
teaching interests include higher education law and qualitative research
methods, and research interests include social justice issues in education,
and faculty teaching, life, and culture.

Robert F. Hachiya is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership

Department in the College of Education at Kansas State University.
Hachiya teaches for both building and district level licensure including
education law, ethics, and leadership for diverse populations. His research
interests include school law and education policy.

Gary Ivory is one of the coinvestigators of the UCEA Voices 3 study,

coeditor with Michele Acker-Hocevar of Successful School Board Leadership:
Lessons from Superintendents (2007), and coeditor with Michele Acker-
Hocevar, Julia N. Ballenger, and A. William Place of Snapshots of School
Leadership in the 21st Century (2012).

Chad R. Lochmiller is an assistant professor in educational leadership and

policy studies at Indiana University. His research examines leadership and
policy issues, including those related to school finance and instructional
leadership. A particular focus in his research is the acquisition, management,
and development of human capital in schools.

John Mancinelli is the chief of staff for Washington State University

Tri-Cities. With 24 years of experience in the K-12 system as both a teacher
and an administrator at all levels, Mancinelli brings a unique and compre-
hensive view to educational leadership. His research interests center on how
role-making impacts a leader’s ability to build academic capacity.

Gloria Jean Martinez is a principal in the San Antonio Independent

School District. She holds an EdD in the Department of Educational
Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio
in 2016. Martinez’s research focuses on testimonios that give voice to
participants, primarily Latina school district leaders.
 NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS ix

Rhonda McClellan is Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary PhD in

Leadership Studies, University of Central Arkansas, and has taught and
coordinated graduate programs in educational leadership development in
New Mexico, Texas, and Arkansas. She has special research interests in
leader development and integrative community leadership and her articles
have appeared in Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Educa-
tional Administration, Journal of Higher Education, and Journal of School
Leadership.

Teresa Northern Miller is an associate professor emeritus at Kansas State

University, College of Education and Department of Educational Leader-
ship. She has served as a co-liaison for multiple leadership academies,
designed to develop prospective principals and teacher leaders. Her research
interests include public school/university partnerships and leadership
development.

Joyce A. Mundy is an assistant professor at Stetson University. She teaches

human resources and instructional leadership. Mundy has spent 15 years as
a school administrator. Her research focuses on inclusive, culturally respon-
sive schools and principal efficacy. Mundy also trains school administrators
in restorative practices and designing systemic culture change frameworks.

Colleen R. Pawlicki is a doctoral student in Education Policy Studies with

a concentration in Educational Leadership at Indiana University. She serves
as an associate instructor for IU’s Urban Program, an undergraduate prep-
aration program for aspiring Chicago Public Schools teachers. Pawlicki’s
research interests include issues in urban education and school governance.

Mariela A. Rodríguez is an associate dean of the Graduate School at the

University of Texas at San Antonio. She is also an associate professor in the
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Her research
focuses on the supportive role of principals in leading schools with bilingual
education programs, specifically dual language education. Rodríguez’s
research has been published in the Journal of School Leadership and the
Journal of Latinos and Education.

William Ruff is a Professor of Educational Leadership at Montana State

University, and has published more than a dozen journal articles and book
chapters addressing school leadership, social justice issues, and comprehen-
sive school reform. Additionally, he has served as the primary investigator
for a series of US Department of Education grants resulting in the
x NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS

preparation and placement of over 100 American Indian educational leaders

serving Indigenous communities at the federal, state, tribal, or local level.

Debra J. Touchton is a Professor and Program Director of Educational

Leadership Graduate Programs at Stetson University. She holds a PhD in
Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis on organizational development.
Her research focus is in the areas of organizational change and develop-
ment, women in leadership, and leadership in schools of poverty. She
teaches graduate courses in communication, leadership, and systems
planning.

Venus Valenta is a public school educator who has served over ten years as
an administrator in a large urban school district in San Antonio, Texas. She
holds a doctorate degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her
research interests include educational administration, the superintendency,
and Latina leadership.

Karina I. Vielma, Ed.D. is a Research Fellow at the University of Texas at

San Antonio College of Engineering where she specializes in education and
community outreach initiatives. Her research interests center on leadership
and equity initiatives in science, technology, and mathematics (STEM)
fields. With experience as a first-generation college student at the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, a public school mathematics teacher, and
now a researcher, her mission is to promote programs that motivate more
women and underrepresented students to persist and excel in STEM
careers.

Teresa J. Wasonga is Presidential Engagement Professor of Education

Leadership at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and a Fulbright scholar.
Besides teaching educational leadership courses at NIU, she is also the
cofounder of an innovative all girls’ secondary boarding school in Kenya
where educational leadership theories are put into practice.

Jennifer Zavala has served the south San Antonio community as a public
educator for the past eight years and has an administrative role as an academic
dean in the Harlandale Independent School District. She earned holds a
doctorate degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Educational
Leadership and Policy. Her research interests include social justice leadership,
the principalship, Latino-serving institutions, and public K-12 schools.
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Principals’ demographics 3

Table 8.1 Goleman’s (2001) theory of emotional intelligence 129
Table 11.1 Quandaries, resources, and sources of micropolitical conflict 198

xi
 CHAPTER 1

The Journey Begins

Debra J. Touchton

Leadership development is a life-long journey. It is not an event; it is a

process. Vaill (1989) asserts in his book Managing as a Performing Art:
New Ideas for a World of Chaotic Change that management/leadership is a
performing art. Have you ever thought of leadership that way? I had not
until reading his book (1989).
He states:

If management is a performing art, the consciousness of the management is

transformed, I think. One becomes much more interested in the quality of the
process and much more aware of how a given course of action does or does
not resemble other things that one has done or not done (p. 1544).

We want you to see this book as a piece of sheet music, the map to your
own leadership development; the school leader as the conductor; the school
as the orchestra. Using this metaphor, the chapter authors assist you, the
conductor, as you create your own music to lead your school. Let’s think
about the conductor: What does a conductor do? The orchestra conductor

D.J. Touchton (*)

Stetson University, DeLand, FL, USA

© The Author(s) 2018 1

D.J. Touchton et al. (eds.), Quandaries of School Leadership,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59120-9_1
2 D.J. TOUCHTON

leads the musicians with exactness, inspiration, and passion. Isn’t that how
effective, successful school leaders conduct the music of teaching and
learning? You will read more about this concept of leadership as a
performing art in the contributions by John Mancinelli and Michele
Acker-Hocevar (Chap. 2), and by Gary Ivory and Rhonda McClellan
(Chap. 13).
This book provides you with four products:

1. Descriptions of quandaries faced by real school leaders in the twenty-

first century, told to us in their own words. These leaders provide
vivid and compelling views of the world in which you work or aspire
to work. Your work as an educational leader will be largely about
facing quandaries, such as those our principals described.
2. A variety of different perspectives: (a) those of principals who partic-
ipated in focus groups across the nation; (b) theoretical frameworks
introduced to you that offer insight into patterns of behavior;
(c) those of the chapter authors; and (c) additional resources found
within each chapter.
3. Reflective questions, providing you with the opportunity to think
about how you might resolve quandaries that principals have faced
in their lives and work as they described them in focus groups. Your
solutions may be as multifaceted as the quandaries.
4. The opportunity to develop a leadership platform that reflects your
knowledge, values, and beliefs based on quandaries that principals
have faced in the field. This platform is your own perspective on
education and educational leadership. It is a reminder of what you
think is valuable, and important to know and remember—an ethical
compass of sorts—suggesting the direction you might take and not
regret later.

WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK FOR ME?

In each chapter, you will be given a glimpse into principals’ work through
excerpts from the Voices 3 focus transcripts. The principals’ contributions
portray quandaries that they faced. The chapter authors introduce theoret-
ical frameworks for you to think about while you examine a principal’s
quandary. The authors’ job is to make addressing each quandary compli-
cated, while your job is to anticipate the various viewpoints of stakeholders
so as to consider a multitude of solutions about how you might address the
 THE JOURNEY BEGINS 3

quandaries, and what responses and reactions might occur. The authors
have included reflection questions. Some have chosen to embed these
within the chapter while others have added them at the end of their chapter.
Either way, the questions are a way for you to ponder the quandaries, as well
as further develop and enhance your leadership platform and cognitive
sophistication when thinking about solutions.

THE VOICES 3 RESEARCH PROJECT

The voices you encounter in these chapters are real. In a project entitled
Voices from the Field: Phase 3 (Voices 3), researchers across the USA
conducted focus groups in which the interviewer asked questions and
encouraged a conversation among the participants (Acker-Hocevar et al.
2009). Between 2003 and 2006, thirteen principal focus groups were
conducted around the country in small and medium-sized school districts.
The gender and ethnicity of the eighty-four principals in the study are
shown in Table 1.1.
The focus group questions were based on Murphy’s (2006) “anchors”
for school-leadership preparation. Principals were asked to share their per-
spectives on (1) the No Child Left Behind Act (in force at the time of the
study); (2) doing what’s best for children; and (3) how they involve “other
people wanting to have a voice in decision making” (Acker-Hocevar et al.
2012, p. 4). The focus groups’ conversation were transcribed and analyzed,
and the stories presented within the chapters come directly from these
transcripts. Each Voices 3 principal cited in this book has been given a
number to ensure confidentiality. Some chapter authors have supplemented
the Voices 3 data with interviews they have conducted with other principals.
Those principals are not numbered.

Table 1.1 Principals’ demographics

Gender African European Hispanic Other Not reported Total

American American

Female 7 18 5 7 6 43 (50.6%)
Male 3 29 4 3 2 41 (48.2%)
Total 10 (11.8%) 47 (55.3%) 9 (10.6%) 10 (11.8%) 9 (10.6%) 84 (100%)
4 D.J. TOUCHTON

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

When conceiving of and compiling this book, the chapter authors were
asked to address one of the ten Professional Standards for Educational
Leaders (PSELs) that most related to their chapter. The National Policy
Board for Educational Administration adopted the PSELs in 2015 (NPBEA
2015). The PSELs replaced the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Con-
sortium (ISLLC) Standards. Like the ISLLC Standards, the PSELs were
designed to guide policy, to frame most licensure examinations, and to
outline the competencies needed by today’s school leaders. The ten stan-
dards are listed below and are explained further in Chap. 3:

1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values

2. Ethics and Professional Norms
3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
4. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
5. Community of Care and Support for Students
6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel
7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
8. Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
9. Operations and Management
10. School Improvement

Quandary: What Is It?

You may be asking yourself, “What is a quandary?” The Oxford English
Dictionary defines it as a state of uncertainty over what to do in a difficult
situation. A few synonyms to further the understanding of a quandary are
predicament, trouble, mess, and dilemma. Principals encounter many situ-
ations and challenges during their day. Leaders who think about opposing
ideas, and who compare and contrast solutions from different frameworks
and perspectives when handling quandaries, are more likely to be consider
creative and innovative solutions (Acker-Hocevar et al. 2015).
So why did we choose “quandary” to shape the chapters in this book?
Let’s go back to the idea of leadership as a performing art. Think of a group
of musicians getting together to jam. Do they follow a piece of music note
by note or do they begin with the original piece and add as they go? It
depends on the setting, the context, doesn’t it? If you have ever sat in on a
jam session as the listener or as one of the “jammers,” you know that the
 THE JOURNEY BEGINS 5

music that the musicians start with isn’t what they may end up with. This is
based on who comes in and goes out during the jam, what instruments the
musicians are playing, and the feel of the room. That is what happens when
principals are faced with a certain quandary: the context is never the same
and the players have different skill sets.
You will read about many different quandaries that the chapter authors
have gleaned from the principal focus group transcripts. Acker-Hocevar
et al. (2015) posit: “School leadership is not simply putting prescribed
solutions into action, but a constant encounter with quandaries that
demand thinking and problem-solving, responding, and adjusting to the
situations at hand” (p. 5). This is what jazz improvisation is all about. As a
leader, you must develop a finely honed set of skills that allow you to use
them as a toolbox of sorts to address different problems and arrive at
workable solutions that fit with the overall direction, as well as your beliefs
and values.

Theoretical Frameworks
In addition to learning from their experiences and the opinions of others,
leaders can benefit from the guidance of theoretical frameworks. These
function like crude maps or unfinished sheets of music. They are not exact
formulas or recipes but they can inform and guide behavior for someone
who reflects on them (Argyris and Schon 1978). Bolman and Deal (2008)
wrote:

The world for most managers and administrators is a world of messes: com-
plexity, ambiguity, value dilemmas, political pressures and multiple constitu-
encies. For managers whose images blind them to important parts of the
chaotic reality, it is a world of frustration and failure. For those with better
theories and the intuitive capacity to use them with skill and grace, it is a world
of excitement and possibility (p. 41).

The authors present a variety of theoretical frameworks across this book.

Here is a brief look at Chaps. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 (principal
quandary chapters) and the perspectives on which the authors have based
their individual chapters. The Chap. 4 uses the bureaucratic and participa-
tory models as a theoretical framework to explore how principals clarify
organizational expectations to meet the demands often levied upon their
schools. Chapter 5 examines the interplay of ethics through the lens of a
6 D.J. TOUCHTON

distributive and facilitative power framework in promoting the academic

success and well-being of all students. Social justice serves as the theoretical
framework for Chap. 6 for school leaders promoting the acceptance and
inclusion of all culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students in
school today. Chapter 7 focuses on the principal as the leader of learning and
school improvement while dealing with accountability issues. In Chap. 8,
the author examines the emotional intelligence (EI) framework for
school leaders grappling with how to best support their students while
being tasked with doing more with less owing to recent and continuing
budget cuts. The authors of Chap. 9 frame their contribution within the
principal effectiveness theoretical perspective and the importance that school
leaders have in encouraging teachers in their professional capacity within the
accountability movement. School leaders’ role in creating a professional
learning community that emphasizes a culture of trust, shared vision, and
action research that impacts student success serves as the theoretical frame-
work for Chap. 10. Chapter 11 invites readers to consider the micropolitical
theoretical framework for challenges that principals often address in their
leadership when dealing with resource allocation. Chapter 12 shares theo-
retical perspectives on effective leadership through first- and second-order
change as principals lead stakeholders and navigate change in their schools.
Reading and thinking about the different theoretical frameworks
included in this book should help you develop more perspectives on quan-
daries and make you better at negotiating them. Perhaps that is why
psychologist Kurt Lewin remarked: “Nothing is as practical as a good
theory” (1951, p. 169).

SUMMARY
The everyday work of principals is complex and, at times, frustrating.
However, there are many days of satisfaction and enjoyment. As mentioned
earlier, there are no easy solutions to quandaries that school leaders face
daily. Just as there are no easy solutions, nothing replaces understanding
that leadership and learning are not separate constructs but should be
intertwined and supportive of ongoing improvement and practice. Just as
the most accomplished musicians continue to practice, so must a leader
continue to develop their knowledge so as to be responsive and adaptive like
the jazz improvisation player.
 THE JOURNEY BEGINS 7

Acknowledgments I am extremely grateful for several groups of people who have

made contributions to this book. First and foremost, I thank the principals across the
nation who took time from their busy schedules to participate in the Voices 3 focus
groups, the heart of this book. Secondly, to the researchers who scheduled and
facilitated the focus groups, your work is greatly appreciated. A special thank-you
to the chapter authors’ for their commitment and flexibility. Lastly, I must
acknowledge my co-editors for their perseverance and teamwork on this project.

REFERENCES
Acker-Hocevar, M., Miller, T. N., & Ivory, G. (2009). The UCEA project on
education leadership: Voices from the field, Phase 3. Educational Considerations,
36(2), 1–5.
Acker-Hocevar, M., Ballenger, J., Place, W., & Ivory, G. (Eds.). (2012). Snapshots of
school leadership in the 21st century: The UCEA voices for the field project. Char-
lotte: Information Age Publishing.
Acker-Hocevar, M., Hyle, A., Ivory, G., & McClellan, R. (2015). In G. Ivory,
A. Hyle, R. McClellan, & M. Acker-Hocevar (Eds.), Quandaries of the small-
district superintendency (pp. 1–14). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Argyris, C., & Schon, D. A. (1978). Organizational learning: A theory of action
perspective. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Bolman, C. L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing the organization: Artistry,
choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lewin, K. (1951). Problems of research in social psychology. In D. Cartwright
(Ed.), Field theory in social science: Selected papers (pp. 155–169). New York:
Harper & Row.
Murphy, J. (2006). Preparing school leaders: Defining a research and action agenda.
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
National Policy Board for Educational Administration. (2015). Professional stan-
dards for educational leaders 2015. Reston: Author.
Vaill, P. (1989). Managing as a performing art: New ideas for a world of chaotic
change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 CHAPTER 2

Understanding Role-Making in Leadership

Performance

John Mancinelli and Michele Acker-Hocevar

This book is a cooperative effort between academics and practitioners to

provide aspiring principals with an understanding of how their future role
can be shaped by rehearsing leadership quandaries. Within these quandaries,
we examine leadership complexity from two related concepts referred to as
role-taking and role-making. We discuss how various leadership theories
and personal and contextual factors will influence your choices in role-
making. We compare role-taking and role-making to the journey of a
musician who gains fluency over time to that of a leader gaining expertise
over time.
Role-taking is simply imitating what you think you should do as a
principal without much thought as to why or how this supports intentional
leadership action to promote student success. Although role-taking can be
highly efficient in recreating templates for people to mimic a prescribed set
of role behaviors, it may be quite deficient in helping the same new leader
adapt to new and unique challenges s/he will be facing to improve learning
outcomes and solve other serious organizational problems. Therefore, lead-
ership adaptation requires role-making where the leader adjusts his/her role

J. Mancinelli (*) • M. Acker-Hocevar

Washington State University, Tri-Cities, Richland, WA, USA

© The Author(s) 2018 9

D.J. Touchton et al. (eds.), Quandaries of School Leadership,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59120-9_2
10 J. MANCINELLI AND M. ACKER-HOCEVAR

within a specific context and time in history to address problems with

intentional action. This action should include how you understand and
use leadership frameworks to see problems in practice in distinctive ways.
Your leadership platform differs from your use of leadership frameworks.
Your leadership platform is the compass that guides how and what frame-
works might be a better match for you with your values and beliefs. But
role-making adds another layer of understanding because role-making
involves how you bring extant knowledge together with your beliefs and
values to conceive your role. Fundamentally, the conception of this role is
related to the more knowledge a leader has of himself/herself, of different
leadership theoretical frameworks, of the historical evolution of the princi-
pal’s role over time, and the interplay between personal and contextual
factors to solve problems and innovate, the better leader they will become.
In fact with this knowledge, the leader becomes more sophisticated in
his/her responses to problems-of-practice. And the more willing the leader
is to learn and ask questions about why s/he is doing what they are doing
and how s/he might incorporate various aspects of his/her learning into
practice to shape the role, the more agile the leader will become as a role-
maker, an innovator versus a conformer.
We review several leadership theories in this chapter so you can see why
leaders must be adaptive. Subsequently, and within the quandaries
presented in this book, we ask you to explore questions that distinguish
role-taking from role-making. In regard to role-taking, consider “What
defines my role?” “Who defines my role?” In contrast to role-taking, role-
making is about your intentional adaptation to the school context and your
deliberate choices for a course of action that will influence purposeful
change. Questions such as, “What impact does my interpretation of the
role here on how I go about solving this problem” and “How should I use
my role to select an appropriate leadership theoretical framework to create
excellence in this context?” These questions should punctuate your thinking
as you become a more expert leader. Notably, and as you read the following
book chapters, ask yourself what arguments chapter authors might wish you
to consider on your journey to becoming a role-maker. Reflect on our
analogy between the development of a musician and your development as
a performance-based leader. In other words, imitation in role-taking may be
a natural progression to role-making in the process of what we call
performance-based leadership. Recognizing rehearsal time, such as imita-
tion, is needed for any performance to become part of your own repertoire.
 UNDERSTANDING ROLE-MAKING IN LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE 11

We explore now how our music analogy might elucidate a clearer under-
standing of what we mean.

EXPLORING PERFORMANCE-BASED LEADERSHIP THROUGH

A MUSICAL ANALOGY

To assist the reader in understanding role-taking and role-making, we use

an analogy of performance-based leadership through the eyes of a musician
throughout this chapter. Both the leader and the musician must be skillfully
prepared, self-aware, and continuously attuned to the environment s/he is
situated within to achieve a successful performance. Both must practice
his/her leadership or musical performance as s/he gains knowledge or
automaticity over time to enhance his/her repertoire of conceptual flexibil-
ity, intentional choice, and reflection on how to improve student learning or
impact a musical recitation positively. Carefully enacting the role or skillfully
playing the piece challenges the emerging leader and the novice musician to
enlarge conceptual fluency and to address problems-of-practice as new
musical pieces challenge a musician. By thinking like a musician who must
be both a proficient player and an adaptive interpreter of the audience, s/he
is trying to influence (not to mention the other musicians with whom s/he
is performing)—the leader too must possess a knowledge of many genres of
music as a leader must understand different leadership theories. Musicians
appreciate the legacy from Brahms to the Beatles. Ultimately, however, the
leader will need to understand how to use elements from leadership legacy
that will explicitly shape his/her role. This role will be informed by his/her
leadership platform and as a response to many messy problems s/he will
surely encounter—problems that will require conceptual flexibility and
nuanced responses. Hence, we encourage the emergent leader to recognize
how personal values and dispositions will influence choices and idiosyncratic
responses and personal interactions with others that will either positively or
negatively impact his/her ability to lead changes within his/her school. The
skillset you develop as a leader that is yours affects and is tied to role-making.

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PRINCIPALSHIP

Once you enter the official role of principal, it won’t take long for you to
realize that there are many expectations placed upon you. The job posting
usually outlines some expectations for you; however, it leaves out the
12 J. MANCINELLI AND M. ACKER-HOCEVAR

expectations of peer administrators, supervisors, teachers, parents, and stu-

dents. Not all of these expectations will align with your own perception of
the role nor even be complimentary with each other. The reason for
inherent contradictions can be traced to an amalgamation of perceived
responsibilities from past roles. Many of these expectations were shaped
from global legacies passed from one generation of administrators to
another. They were sculpted into current educational policy, role expecta-
tions from mentors, and create a gateway of passage for the new principal to
be seen as legitimate players as s/he enters the new role. For the new
principal, the challenge, therefore, is to construct his/her role carefully
and incorporate legacy while simultaneously being aware that strict adher-
ence to any predefined role or role-taking (Hart 1993) ignores adaptability.
Role-taking is static and disregards a reciprocal leadership process that is
grounded in the dynamic interaction between the leader and the various
audiences s/he must interact—performance leadership.
Performance-based leadership, therefore, is reflective, relational, contex-
tual, and collaborative. It engages constituents with the leader to define and
agree upon how a model performance will appear. Simply put, traditional
role-taking processes inadequately prepare principals for the complexities of
the role today. These processes do not provide the forward strategy to assess
what leadership frameworks can assist a leader with different skillsets from
role-taking (Crow 2010). Rather, role-taking provides more of a backward
gaze. A shift from role-taking to role-making, a relatively recent phenom-
enon, represents leadership as synonymous with learning. Role-making
allows a leader to construct their role to respond to existing conditions
that can influence reciprocal leadership performance between leaders and
followers. We provide a present-day example.

ROLE-MAKING: A CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVE TO TRADITIONAL

ROLE-TAKING
So we must now look forward to role-making as a contrasting perspective to
more traditional characteristics of role-taking. This is complicated because
we cannot totally ignore the historical evolution of the principal’s role over
time. Yet role-making is about the principal’s ongoing adaptation to
existing conditions that influence his/her role and include legacy (e.g.,
what has occurred in the school prior to your leadership and what has
occurred overall in the role writ large), personal context (e.g., leadership
 UNDERSTANDING ROLE-MAKING IN LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE 13

platform, dispositions, and values), and school context (e.g., type of school,
location) (Crow 2010).
For example, today’s Principals are rated on performance within
assumptions that they—as performers—must possess high levels of skills
that apply deep and broad knowledge, adapt to various challenges, and
continuously respond to changing student needs, teacher requirements,
technological advancements, and shift educational standards to improve
learning within a community (Knapp et al. 2010; Mancinelli 2014; Portin
et al. 2009). Previous generations of principals were rated on building
management and operations with limited responsibility toward student
performance or instructional leadership. Such a shift toward enhanced
performance means that the principal must prioritize leadership behaviors
over managerial behaviors that do not impact learning performance but may
be necessary to ensure things like clean building are completed. Bluntly put,
the ends justify the means. Or said another way, leaders today must be
creative and ethical; they must be adaptive solution-centered thinkers. This
requires the principal to imagine the performance and what s/he needs to
be successful. Conformity must be replaced by adaptability.

PERFORMANCE-BASED LEADERSHIP
Thus as a new aspiring principal, it will be essential for you to have a strong
understanding of your role in order to be effective. You will need to
understand the scope of your responsibilities; what resources are available
to you; how to contextualize problems-of-practice for student learning
improvement to occur; how to make decisions about setting expectations
with a depth of content knowledge, instructional pedagogy, and data use;
how to manage resources; how to develop human capital; how to create
structures to support effective practices. Even more significantly as a new
principal, you will need to understand how to accomplish all of these things
in varying school contexts by adapting your leadership strategies to define
and enact your role in situ. Therefore, it does not take long for anyone
considering becoming a principal to realize that leading schools in today’s
educational environment is a very complex task and one in which the
demands of the principal’s role can be overwhelming.
Because the principal’s role has evolved from a traditional managerial role
to a performance-based distributed leadership role that focuses much more
today on student learning, your ability to apply multiple concepts and skills
to be a successful leader means you must enact the role differently and build
14 J. MANCINELLI AND M. ACKER-HOCEVAR

collective expertise and efficacy within your school (Acker-Hocevar et al.

2012; Hallinger and Heck 2010; Leithwood and Strauss 2008; Portin et al.
2006; Thompson and Vecchio 2009). Contributing to this shift toward
performance-based leadership is educational policies that increase the
accountability of teachers and school leaders to respond dynamically to
student needs. This requires new and vigorous leadership approaches (Cop-
land et al. 2003; Knapp et al. 2010; Lai 2015; Mancinelli 2014; Portin et al.
2006, 2009).
As a leader then, you will be measured by your abilities to address contin-
ually changing contexts that affect your students’ achievement. Many educa-
tional leaders draw upon their teaching experiences for decision-making as a
principal. This may be appropriate if you are leading a school with similar
contexts; however, it is erroneous to think that you know all the various
teaching and learning contexts you will encounter as a leader. For instance, as
a teacher you may have worked in an affluent school where your challenges
were significantly different from the myriad of problems and demands in a
neighboring school of poverty. Drawing upon your experience is essential in
order to relate to teachers and anticipate problems affecting implementation;
however, a shift of a school context requires adaptability. Adapting to a new
context will require you to interpret and reinterpret your role as you take cues
from others as to what is needed to enact your role in this new situation—
again that reciprocal relationship to be both understood and understand what
the issues are will enable you to focus.
Your current experiential knowledge may not be enough to lead schools
in today’s dynamic environment. For this reason, it is incumbent upon you
to prepare, as a musician would, for any type of performance that might
come your way. Your preparation, critical to your success, requires thought-
ful attention to your leadership platform, understanding of leadership the-
oretical frameworks, knowledge of legacy, and the ability to adapt to various
contexts. But, all of these must also be paired with your willingness to
learn—it is an ongoing process of reflection and personal insights.

PREPARING FOR THE PERFORMANCE JOURNEY AS AN ASPIRING

MUSICIAN
We relate to the journey that you are about to embark upon as similar to the
journey one of the authors, we’ll refer to as “Paul,” took during his
undergraduate years as an aspiring musician and music educator. As a
 UNDERSTANDING ROLE-MAKING IN LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE 15

musician, Paul had to prepare himself with skills and knowledge that
allowed him to walk onto any stage and perform inspiring and stylistically
appropriate music in his role as a lead trumpeter. This meant he had to
develop technical skills and knowledge through consistent and regular
practice until his playing became a subconscious response to his context.
Additionally, Paul had to learn to use these skills within various theoretical
frameworks or, to use a musical term, genres.
As a principal, you will be faced with similar challenges. You will need to
develop your understanding of theory and technical skills to the point that
you can apply them naturally while performing daily functions. This does
not mean that you are unaware of what you are doing nor does this refute
reflection on your actions at a later time. It means that you will need to
achieve a level of automaticity or fluency with various skillsets in order to
focus on the big picture of the performance.
To the point, as a musician, Paul needed to understand his role and how
to adjust it within various performing groups in order to achieve an inspiring
performance. Role anticipation allowed him to better prepare, make deci-
sions, and take actions within the context of any venue. Specifically, it was
important to know if and when it was his turn to lead or follow. Paul’s role
became malleable and flexible enough to achieve an excellent performance
while working with others. Again, this required him to continuously learn
and reflect on his choices. This is also true as you think about more
contemporary approaches and corresponding theories to educational lead-
ership discussed in this chapter.
As a soloist, Paul learned to be out front directly engaging his audience
and leading the rest of the musicians with poise and confidence. Paul had to
learn to interpret the reaction from the audience in order to select appro-
priate music and adjust his performance to engage them fully. Understand-
ing stylistic interpretation was essential because all other musicians would
take cues from him based upon their collective understanding of the char-
acteristics of that style. This affected the performance expressively by placing
intricate inflections on certain notes or phrasing of the melody. Paul’s
personal interpretation formed and informed his role and the role of others
in the performance group.
Paul also learned to play background parts that required him to be
extremely sensitive to the lead performer and careful so as not to over-
shadow but to follow someone else’s interpretation of the music. In short,
as a musician, it was essential to maintain a command of technical skills and
theoretical perspectives in order to understand and adjust his role within
16 J. MANCINELLI AND M. ACKER-HOCEVAR

each performance context to be successful. A principal must also know when

it is appropriate to take the lead, follow a lead, and when to solicit leadership
from others.
Finally, Paul had to learn how to identify appropriate feedback from the
audience and fellow musicians and adjust his performance when needed to
ensure that the audience connected meaningfully with the music. Using this
analogy of a musician illustrates the complexity of educational leadership in
today’s schools (Crow 2010). The elements of becoming a strong musician
parallel with the skills needed to be developed by principals to adapt their
roles to the continuously changing landscape and contexts required by
leaders in today’s schools.
Of course a principal needs a strong command of technical skills so as to
not be distracted from thinking forward—meaning a fluent contextually
appropriate response to what is occurring in the context that will contribute
to a good performance. Just as a musician caught up in reading and playing
notes cannot focus on the larger context of performance, a principal con-
sumed in the mechanics of daily operations cannot address the larger
context of what is occurring in the school. Fluency of skills directly affects
the capacity of the performer’s abilities to be effective in addressing more
complex and nuanced issues and to focus on what is required.
Fluency relies partially on the fact that higher-order thinking and rea-
soning can only occur after rudimentary skills can be performed with a level
of automaticity allowing for the strategic application of knowledge and skills
to solve routine problems. Grashow et al. (2009) describe the fluency
phenomenon as the ability to “sit in the balcony” where the leader is able
to keep perspective about the larger context in order to make sound
judgments and not go off on tangents. Although the development of
these skills and knowledge are important and must be part of ongoing
learning for principals, these areas are not the focus of this chapter. In this
chapter, we ask you to move beyond technical skills toward the more
sophisticated application skills of leadership. This is where you think about
your role in terms of what it means to enact that role within a particular
context; how you identify with your role and define it. Of course, technical
skills form the foundation for your leadership development and should not
be forgotten. Remember, however, that just as a musician practices his/her
scales on a daily basis in order to achieve automaticity and stamina, you too
may need regular practice with basic skills in terms of increasing your
technical knowledge. That is where the toolbox comes in for you to use.
 UNDERSTANDING ROLE-MAKING IN LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE 17

UNDERSTANDING THE COMPOSER’S INTENT: THE ANALOGY

CONTINUES
Performance leadership requires a person to develop a toolbox from which
to draw upon during the “heat of the battle.” Understanding various
leadership theories provides frameworks for operation by principals
to apply into practice. Just as a musician will study the music theory to
determine the composer’s intent, principals can use leadership theory to
anticipate next steps in problem-solving. For example, a practical response
to the question “Why do I need to learn theory” is “theory gives you a
framework from which to interpret intent and address issues that you
encounter in practice.” This saves you time and effort (fluency), the two
most valuable commodities in educational leadership (Mancinelli 2014,
p. 96). To further illustrate, music theory allows the musician to anticipate
what will happen when performing because of structure, form, and specific
characteristics of the composer. The ability to use theory allows the musi-
cian to strategically act on making the performance meaningful to the
audience. This incorporates both role-taking and role-making. Role-taking
would explain why understanding theory and the historical context of the
piece is important to having a rudimentary knowledge, while role-making
would allow the musician to interpret the context of the written piece and
apply a personalized and learned interpretation to the present performance.
Role-taking demonstrates the theory but role-making translates intentional
aspects of a theory into meaningful practice. Music is built upon common
principles that create predictability for the performer which allows for
improvisation and embellishment. As a result, the musician has a framework
from which to build on any genre of music giving him/her flexibility in
addressing the dynamic opportunities within the performance. Leaders too
have frameworks to draw upon that provide flexibility in conceptualizing
and addressing problems within an organization.
As an example, all songs possess form, chord structure, melody, har-
mony, and rhythmic patterns. Another layer of frameworks, called genre,
allows the musician to use these rudimentary blocks within the appropriate
style. The musician, in turn, is able to quickly and efficiently break down any
piece of music, process it, and act upon these inputs to shape the perfor-
mance. To an untrained musician, the execution looks effortless but, in
reality, it is a result of disciplined preparation contributing to an artful
performance. This translates into the need for principals to understand the-
oretical frameworks that allow for the efficient understanding of problems,
18 J. MANCINELLI AND M. ACKER-HOCEVAR

potential solutions, and their strategic implementation based upon their

school’s needs—again the artful performance of leadership.
Having the ability to keep contextual perspectives in mind (“sitting in the
balcony”) while performing rudimentary tasks will be an essential part of
your role-making as you effectively interpret the larger context to make
strategic decisions to address local problems (Grashow et al. 2009). Lead-
ership theories, therefore, provide you with ways to interpret your context
from varying perspectives in order to clearly understand problems. Having
clarity about problems will prevent you from spending large amounts of
resources on addressing secondary symptoms that detract from focusing on
the core problems. In order to consider multiple solutions to a problem, you
must use various lenses to view the problem so you can arrive at a solution
that matches your leadership platform with a productive solution that is
aligned with your values and beliefs (Bryk et al. 2011; Copland 2003; Portin
2004).
To reiterate, principals, like musicians, have leadership theories
(or frameworks) at their disposal to apply in varied and purposeful ways as
appropriate to the audience, venue, and genre. It is important to understand
why multiple theoretical approaches are critical. Applying a single theoret-
ical approach to all leadership situations is similar to a musician walking onto
stage for a rock concert and playing a Bavarian folk song because it was the
only thing s/he knew. This would be absurd to most audiences and likely
result in the audience leaving or booing him/her off the stage! Albeit a
humorous example, this directly relates to the need for a principal to have
multiple leadership frameworks from which to draw upon in order to meet
the needs of the school and demonstrate competency.
And so you can see that we argue that a principal must transcend a single
set of leadership framework that impacts his/her leadership platform in
order to effectively adapt to the dynamic needs of a school. In essence, the
static concept of the principal conforming to traditional role-taking activi-
ties is too narrow because of the constant and ongoing changes of school
contexts. In this educational environment, role-making is ongoing and
depends on the principals’ abilities to align their leadership to their constit-
uents’ readiness for following and a host of other internal and external
variables. As an educational leader, you need to understand various leader-
ship frameworks (or theories) to best engage your constituents and view
problems and solutions from a number of perspectives.
 UNDERSTANDING ROLE-MAKING IN LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE 19

KNOWING YOUR GENRES CAN INFLUENCE ROLE-TAKING

AND ROLE-MAKING

Theoretical frameworks are as important to a leader as knowing genres such

as jazz, classical, rock, and country are to a musician in his/her performance
repertoire. Understanding genres allows a musician to develop performance
strategies appropriate to the present performance. We now show how
McGregor (1957) identified different theories about leadership that influ-
ence role enactment—theories that can enhance your repertoire. While
traditional role-taking would require new principals to adopt a single frame-
work (perhaps from their mentor), role-making broadens the idea of lead-
ership to a dynamic framework based upon the context (Emison 2004;
Heifetz and Laurie 1997; Honig and Ikemoto 2008; Portin et al. 2006).
This is not to suggest that leadership is applied in a haphazard fashion.
Rather, as a musician incorporates a nuanced stylistic interpretation to
enhance the impact of the music on the audience, a leader too must skillfully
select the approach that best reflects thoughtful choices and a contextual
awareness of what is needed.
Let’s consider the fact that leadership frameworks are generally based
upon two psychological principles of human motivation: (a) extrinsic and
(b) intrinsic motivation. Various leadership styles strive to describe the
relational aspects between the leader and the follower as it pertains to
these two concepts. McGregor (1957) defines extrinsically motivational
leadership as Theory X and intrinsically motivational leadership as Theory
Y. He simply states, “Theory X places exclusive reliance upon external
control of human behavior, whereas Theory Y relies heavily on self-control
and self-direction” (McGregor 1957). McGregor (1957) delineates some
differences between these two motivational concepts and generally shows
that Theory X leaders work under assumptions critical of workers that
require the leader to closely monitor their work, while Theory Y leaders
work under assumptions of optimism about workers that require the leader
to develop people as assets. Historically, it’s important to understand that
these theories were influenced by American industry and specifically steeped
in Henry Ford’s assembly line innovation for manufacturing. Several lead-
ership styles emerged from McGregor’s Theory XY dichotomy. It will be
important that you understand how these various leadership frameworks
shape your personal leadership enactment.
Within Theory X, you will find a range of leader-centric styles. The
bureaucratic leader is typically seen in government, universities, and other
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
mm. × 48 mm., the ordinary size on the adjoining banks being only
about 50 to 60 × 30 mm.
Some observations have already been recorded (p. 40) on the
growth of Helix aspersa. In the summer of 1858, which was very dry,
especially in the south of France, the young Helices born that year
were still very small in August. About the end of that month abundant
rain came on, and in four or five days young H. variabilis, H. pisana,
and H. aspersa, eating without cessation, as if to make up for lost
time, grew more than a centimetre of shell. The lip of a young H.
arbustorum has been observed to have grown, at the end of the first
week in the season’s growth, 3 mm., at the end of the second week,
6·25 mm., the third, 11·5 mm., and the fourth 12·5 mm., with a
finished lip.[342]
Careful observation has shown that in the growth of the shell of
Helix aspersa the periostracum is first produced; it is covered with
hyaline globules, 10–12 mm. in diameter, which persist even in the
oldest shells. Calcareous matter is deposited on the internal face of
the new periostracum, at some distance from the margin. It is
secreted by a white zone or band of cells bounding the entire
breadth of the mantle as applied to the peristome. Immediately
behind the white zone are a series of pigment cells which not only
give the shell its colour but complete the calcification of the shelly
matter laid down by the white zone. When the animal has attained its
full growth and the lip is finished off, the white band and the
periostracum cells completely disappear, and only such cells persist
as contribute to the internal thickening of the shell. Shell growth, in
this species, is very rapid. If a portion of the pulmonary sac is laid
bare, by removing a fragment of shell, at the end of 1½ or 2 hours
there may be detected a delicate organic membrane covering the
hole, and strewn with crystals of carbonate of lime. This thickens
with great rapidity, and soon fills up the hole with solid matter. For
two consecutive months an animal, deprived of food, has been
known to reproduce this membrane daily after its removal every
morning.[343] Prof. Schiedt has found that oysters, if deprived of the
right valve and exposed to the light, not only develop brown pigment
over the whole exposed surface of mantle and branchiae, but
actually succeed in part in reproducing the valve and hinge.[344]
Deposit of Additional Layers of Shell.—Mollusca possess the
power of thickening the interior of the shell, by the deposit of
successive layers. This is frequently done in self-defence against the
attacks of boring Mollusca, sponges, and worms. Cases may often
be noticed of Ostrea, Spondylus, and other sedentary molluscs,
which, unable to escape the gradual assaults of their foes, have
provided against them by the deposit of fresh shelly matter. A
somewhat similar plan is adopted to provide against intrusion by way
of the aperture. Pearls are, in many cases, the result of shell
deposition upon the eggs or even the body of some intrusive
parasite (Distoma, Filaria, etc.), and are, in some countries,
artificially produced by the introduction of fragments of sand, metal,
etc., into living Unio and Anodonta. Little joss images are made in
India and China, the nacre on which is produced by thrusting them
inside living Unionidae.
A specimen of Helix rosacea, in the British Museum, into whose
shell a piece of grass somehow became introduced, has partitioned
it off by the formation of a sort of shelly tunnel extending throughout
its entire length (Fig. 167).
 Fig. 167.—A specimen of Helix
rosacea Müll., Cape of Good
Hope, into which a piece of
grass has by some means
become introduced. The
animal has protected itself by
covering the grass with a
shelly layer. (From a
specimen in the British
Museum.)
Absorption of Internal Portions.—Certain genera have the
remarkable property of absorbing, when they become adult, the
internal portions of the whorls and the greater part of the columellar
axis. The effect of this is to make the shell, when the process is
complete, no longer a spiral but a more or less produced cone, and it
is found that in such cases the viscera of the spire lose their spiral
form, and take the shape of the cavity in which they lie. Amongst the
genera in which this singular process takes place are Nerita,[345]
Olivella, and Cypraea amongst marine forms, and nearly the whole
of the Auriculidae[346] (Fig. 168). Conus reduces the internal
subdivisions of the spire to extreme thinness. It is noticeable that
these genera are all of considerable thickness of shell, and it is
perhaps the result of the whole energy of the animal being directed
to the formation of its external protection that the internal walls of the
spire become atrophied and eventually disappear.
Fig. 168.—Auricula Judae Lam.,
showing the disappearance
of the partitions of the
whorls, which are
represented by dotted lines.
(After Fischer.)

Fig. 169.—A, Decollated (adult)

form, and B, perfect (young)
form of Cylindrella nobilior
Ad., Jamaica; the dotted line
shows where decollation
takes place.
 Fig. 170.—Development of Coecum:
A, showing the gradual formation
of septa; a, apex; ap, aperture;
ss, first septum; s´s´, second
septum. (After de Folin.) B, Adult
form of C. eburneum Ad.,
Panama. × 8.
Decollation.—In certain genera, when the shell becomes adult,
the animal ceases to occupy the upper whorls, which accordingly die
and drop off, the orifice at the top having meanwhile been closed by
a shelly deposit. Such shells are termed decollated. In some land
genera decollation is the rule, e.g. in Cylindrella (Fig. 169),
Eucalodium, and Rumina, as well as in many species of the brackish
water genera, Truncatella, Cerithidea, and Quoyia. Stenogyra
(Rumina) decollata, a common shell in the south of Europe, has
been noticed to bang its upper whorls violently against some hard
substance, as if to get rid of them.
 Fig. 171.—Four stages in the growth of Fissurella, showing how the spire
gradually disappears and the marginal slit becomes an apical hole,
A, B, C, highly magnified, D, natural size. (After Boutan.)

Fig. 172.—Three stages in the growth of Cypraea

exanthema L. (From specimens taken at Panama.)
Special Points in the Growth of Certain Genera.—In the young
of Coecum the apex is at first spiral, but as growth proceeds and the
long tube begins to form, a septum is produced at the base of the
apex, which soon drops off. Soon afterwards, a second septum
forms a little farther down, and a second piece drops off, leaving the
shell in the normal cylindrical form of the adult (Fig. 170). The
development of Fissurella is of extreme interest. In an early stage it
possesses a spiral shell, with a slit on the margin of the outer lip of
the last whorl. As growth advances, shelly matter is deposited on
both margins, which results in the slit becoming a hole and the spire
a mere callosity, until at last they appear to coalesce in the apex of
the adult shell (Fig. 171). The singular formations of Magilus and
Rhizochilus have already been described (pp. 75, 76). Cypraea, in
the young stage, is a thin spiral shell with a conspicuous apex. As
growth proceeds, the surface of the whorls, which are nearly
enveloped by two large lobes of the mantle, becomes overlaid with
new layers of shelly matter, until eventually the spire becomes
embedded, and ultimately disappears from view (Fig. 172).
Patella, when young, has a nautiloid shell (see Fig. 45, p. 134),
but it is a remarkable fact that we are entirely ignorant, in this
commonest of molluscs, of the transition stages which convert the
nautiloid into the familiar conical shell. The young shell of Pteroceras
is deceptively unlike the adult, and is entirely devoid of the finger-like
processes which are so characteristic of the genus (chap. xiv.).
Among the bivalve Mollusca, Anomia in a young stage is not to be
distinguished from Ostrea. Soon a small sinus appears on the
ventral margin, which gradually deepens and, as the shell grows
round it, forms a hole for the byssus, eventually becoming fixed
beneath the umbones (see Fig. 173). In Teredo the two valves of the
shell proper, which is very small, become lodged in a long
calcareous tube or cylinder, which is generally open at both ends
(see chap. xvi.). In Aspergillum a somewhat similar cylinder is
developed, but the valves are soldered to the tube, and form a part
of it, the tube itself being furnished, at the anterior end, with a disc,
which is perforated with holes like the rose of a watering-pot. In
Clavagella the left valve alone becomes soldered to the tube, while
the right valve is free within it (see chap. xvi.). Fistulana encloses the
whole of its shell in a long tapering tube, which is not at any point
adherent to the shell.
 Fig. 173.—Development of the byssus or
the plug-hole in Anomia. (After Morse.)
Terms employed to denote various Parts of the Univalve
Shell.—The apex is the extreme top of the spire, and generally
consists of the embryonic shell, which may often be recognised by
its entire want of sculpture. When the embryonic shell happens to be
large, the apex is often mammillated, e.g. in Fusus, Neptunea, and
some Turbinella; in the Pyramidellidae it is sinistral.
The suture is the line of junction between any two successive
whorls. It may be deep, and even channelled, or very shallow, as in
Fig. 150 B (p. 246).
The spire is the whole series of whorls except the last or body
whorl. A whorl is a single revolution of the spiral cone round the axis.
The spire may be subulate (as in Terebra, Fig. 150 C), turreted
(Scalaria), depressed (Polygyratia, Fig. 150 A), conical (Trochus),
globose (Ampullaria, Natica, Fig. 150 B), with almost all conceivable
gradations between these types. The number of whorls is best
counted by placing the shell mouth downwards, and reckoning one
for every suture that occurs between the extreme anterior point of
the shell and the apex.
 Fig. 174.—Illustrating the technical terms applied to the various parts of a
univalve shell.
The mouth or aperture may be (a) entire, as in Helix, Natica,
Ampullaria, when its peristome or margin is not interrupted by any
notch or canal, or (b) prolonged at its anterior and sometimes also at
its posterior end into a canal. The anterior canal serves as a
protection to the siphon,[347] the posterior canal is mainly anal in
function, and corresponds, in part, to the hole of Fissurella, the slit in
Pleurotoma and Emarginula, and the row of holes in Haliotis. The
mouth presents every variety of shape, from the perfect circle in
Cyclostoma and Trochus, to the narrow and prolonged slit in Conus
and Oliva.
 Fig. 175.—Anal slit in
Pleurotoma.
The right margin of the mouth (the left, in sinistral shells) is termed
the outer lip or labrum, the left margin the inner lip, labium, or
columella lip.[348] In young shells the outer lip is usually thin and
unfinished, while in the adult it is generally thickened into a rib, or
furnished with more or less prominent teeth, or given an inward or
outward curve. In some genera, especially the Strombidae, the outer
lip of the adult develops long finger-like processes, which sometimes
attain an extraordinary size (chap. xiv.). As growth proceeds, these
marginal teeth and ribs are either dissolved and disappear, or are
permanently incorporated, in the shape of varices, with the
framework of the shell. Some shells, e.g. Natica, Turritella, Actaeon,
have a permanently unfinished outer lip, even in the adult stage. The
columella lip varies in shape with the mouth as a whole; thus it may
be straight, as in Conus, or excavated, as in Sigaretus, Struthiolaria,
and Bulla. Frequently it is continued by part of the body whorl, as in
Ficula, Dolium, and Fasciolaria.
 Fig. 176.—Solarium
perspectivum Lam., from the
under side.

Fig. 177.—Section of Turbinella

pyrum L., showing the plicae
on the columella and the
growth of successive whorls.
The folds or plaits on the columella, which are often characteristic
of the genus or even family (e.g. Fasciolariidae, Mitridae,
Turbinellidae) are not merely external, but continue down the whole
spire (see Fig. 177, which also shows how successive fresh growths
have thickened the columella).
 The whorls may be wound in a spiral, which is either hollow, as in
Solarium, or quite compact, as in Oliva, Terebra, Cypraea, with every
possible intermediate grade. This concavity, which varies in depth
and width, is known as the umbilicus, and shells are accordingly
spoken of as deeply (e.g. most Trochidae and Naticidae), narrowly
(e.g. Lacuna, Littorina), or widely (e.g. Solarium) umbilicated. When
the spiral is quite flat, as in Planorbis and some Helix, the umbilicus
vanishes entirely. Shells in which the whorls are so compactly coiled
on an ascending spiral that there is no umbilicus, are termed
imperforate.

Fig. 178.—The slit in A, Hemitoma, B, Emarginula, C, Macroschisma, D,

Craniopsis, E, Puncturella, F, Fissurella.

The Slit.—Many shells are furnished with a slit in the last whorl,
which opens, in most cases, on the outer lip, and is sometimes of
considerable depth, at others a mere notch. In the patelliform shells
it is always in front of the apex. The function of the slit appears to be
mainly anal, the excretory products being thus allowed to escape by
a passage of their own, without soiling the clean water taken in by
the branchiae. The posterior canal of some Gasteropoda probably
performs a similar function. In the adult Fissurella the slit becomes
an apical hole (see Fig. 178 F), in the allied genera it is either
immediately in front of the spire (Puncturella), or half-way between
the spire and the anterior margin (Rimula), or on the margin and well
marked (Emarginula), or a mere indentation of the margin
(Hemitoma). In Pleurotomaria it is exceptionally long, and is well
marked in Bellerophon, Schismope, Scissurella, Murchisonia, and
Pleurotoma (where it is sutural). In Haliotis and Polytremaria it is
replaced by a series of holes, which are closed up as the animal
grows past them. Some of these holes (at least in Haliotis) certainly
serve the purpose of admitting water to the branchiae, while others
are anal. In Trochotoma there are only two holes, united by a narrow
fissure.
The Tubed Land Operculates.—A group of the Cyclophoridae,
which is restricted to Further India and the great Malay Islands, has
developed a remarkable sutural tube on the exterior of the last whorl,
near the aperture, A similar tube, but more obscure, exists in
Alycaeus. Several stages in the development of this tube may be
noticed, beginning with the elevation of part of the peristome into a
simple irregular shelly plate, which is continued, first into a short, and
then into a long tube, which becomes soldered to the shell; finally,
the tube becomes free, and the anterior part of the last whorl is
disconnected from the spire (Fig. 180 A-D).

Fig. 179.—The slit in A,

Bellerophon, B, Pleurotomaria,
C, Schismope, D, Polytremaria,
E, Haliotis (not drawn to scale).
Fig. 180.—Development of the tube in the tube operculates: A, Pterocycus
rupestris Bens.; B, Opisthoporus birostris Pfr.; C, Spiraculum travancoricum
Bedd.; D, Rhiostoma Housei Pfr.
It is singular that the tube does not appear to be of any use to the
animal, since its internal extremity, in the complete form, is closed,
and does not communicate with the interior of the whorl. It may be
presumed, however, that in origin the tube served as a means of
conveying air to the animal when the operculum was closed. The
holes in the peristome of Pupina, Cataulus, and Anostoma (Fig. 154)
may be compared.
 Fig. 181.—Eburna spirata Lam.,
E. Indies. F, foot; OP,
operculum; P, penis; S,
siphon; T, tentacles, with
eyes at their base. (After
Souleyet.)
The Operculum.—The operculum is a cuticular development of a
group of cells situated on the dorsal side of the foot, exactly over the
terminal point of the fibres of the columellar muscle. It is so situated
that in crawling it is generally carried free of the shell, sometimes at
the extreme upper end of the foot, more usually somewhat nearer to
the shell (Fig. 181). In Pterocyclus it is pushed back into the
umbilicus when the animal is in motion.
The operculum is present in nearly all land, fresh-water, and
marine Prosobranchiata, absent in all Opisthobranchiata in the adult
state, except Actaeon, and in all Pulmonata, except Amphibola. It
has been lost in the following marine Prosobranchiata: many
Cancellariidae and Conidae, Oliva (though present in Olivella and
Ancilla), Harpidae, Marginellidae, Voluta proper (though present in V.
musica), nearly all Mitridae, Cypraeidae, Doliidae, Ianthinidae; and,
of land genera, in Proserpinidae. It is evident, therefore, that its
presence or absence is of limited value in classification. In some
species of Ampullaria and Natica it is horny, in others shelly. Dall
found that in a number of specimens of Volutharpa ampullacea, 15
p.c. had opercula, 10 p.c. traces of the operculigenous area, but no
operculum, the rest no trace of either. Monstrosities of Buccinum
undatum sometimes occur, which have two, or in rare case three
opercula.
As a rule, the operculum exactly fits the mouth of the shell. But in
cases where the mouth is very large (e.g. Conus, Strombus,
Concholepas, some Bullia), it only covers a very small portion and is
quite inadequate as a protection (Fig. 62, p. 155). Again, when the
shell has assumed a more or less limpet-shaped form, and habitually
adheres to flat surfaces without much occasion for locomotion, the
operculum becomes degraded and is probably on the way to being
lost altogether. This is the case with Navicella (a modified Nerita, see
Fig. 13, p. 17), Concholepas (a modified Purpura), Sigaretus (a
modified Natica). Probably the more completely patelliform shells of
Crepidula, Haliotis, Fissurella, and Patella have reached the stage at
which the operculum has been lost entirely. In Navicella, besides
becoming degraded, the operculum has actually become partly
internal, and apparently serves the purpose of separating the viscera
from the upper part of the foot, something like the shelly plate in
Crepidula. This explains why the operculum in this genus is polished
on both sides.[349]
Some authors have imagined that the operculum is homologous
(a) to the second valve in Pelecypoda, (b) to the byssus. It differs,
however, morphologically from the former in the essential point of not
being produced by the mantle, and from the latter in not being
produced by a special gland.
 Turbo (Sarmaticus) Turbo (Callopoma) Livona Ampullaria Natica
Fig. 182.—Various forms of opercula.
As regards shape and formation, the operculum has usually a
more or less well-marked nucleus which may be central (e.g.
Livona), sub-central (Ampullaria), lateral (Purpura), or terminal
(Pyrula). As a rule, both the inner and outer surfaces are fairly flat,
but in Torinia, Cyathopoma, and Pterocyclus the outer surface is
elevated and conically spiral, in some Turbo (e.g. Sarmaticus) it is
covered with raised tubercles resembling coral, while in others (e.g.
Callopoma) it is scored with a deep trench. Aulopoma, a land genus
peculiar to Ceylon, has a paucispiral operculum with hollow whorls,
deceptively like a Planorbis; it fits over the aperture instead of into it.
In Livona and most Trochidae the operculum is cartilaginous and
multispiral. In Strombus it is narrow, curved, and often serrated like a
leaf on one of the edges; in Conus it is narrowly oblong and rather
featureless; in Littorina, paucispiral and always cartilaginous. In
many cases (e.g. Paludina) there is no true spiral form, but the striae
are concentric to a nearly central nucleus, and thus give the
appearance of a spiral. The evolution of the operculum in Navicella
from Nerita has already been illustrated (p. 10). Neritopsis has a very
remarkable operculum, the striated appendage of which locks behind
the columella of the shell, like the tooth in the opercula of the
Neritidae.
Pyrula Purpura Littorina Aulopoma × 3 Torinia × 2 Neritopsis Strombus
Conus × 3/2
Fig. 183.—Various forms of opercula.
Terms employed to denote various parts of the Bivalve Shell.
—The umbo, or beak, is the apex of the hollow cone, of which each
valve may be regarded as consisting. This apex is usually more or
less twisted: it is markedly spiral in Isocardia, Diceras, some Chama,
and especially Requienia, while in Pecten, Lepton, and others the
spiral is altogether absent. As a rule the umbones point forward, i.e.
towards the anterior end of the shell. In Donax, Nucula, and Trigonia,
however, they point backward. The umbones are generally more or
less approximated, but in Arca they are widely separated.
An equilateral shell is one in which the umbones are more or less
central with regard to its anterior and posterior portion, while in an
inequilateral shell the umbones are much nearer one end than the
other. On the other hand, equivalve and inequivalve are terms used
to express the relation of the two valves to one another as a whole.
Thus nearly all bivalve shells are more or less inequilateral, but a
comparatively small proportion are inequivalve.
The dorsal margin is adjacent to, the ventral margin opposite to,
the umbones. The anterior and posterior margins are respectively
the front and hinder edges of the shell.
The muscles which serve to close the valves leave impressions
on the inner surface of each valve. These, when both muscles are
present, are known as the anterior and posterior adductor
impressions. The impression produced by the muscular edge of the
mantle, which curves downwards and backwards from the anterior
adductor impression, is known as the pallial line. In shells with only
one muscle it is represented by an irregular row of small marks, or
disappears altogether (Ostrea). The pallial sinus is produced by the
muscles which retract the siphons, and is most marked in those
genera in which the muscles are powerful and the siphons large (e.g.
Tellina, Mya). It is entirely absent in genera possessing no retractile
siphons.

Fig. 184.—Left valve of Venus gnidia

L.: A, anterior, B, posterior, C,
dorsal, D, ventral margin, AB,
length, CD, breadth of shell.
a.m, anterior; p.m, posterior
adductor muscle; p, pallial line; p.s,
pallial sinus; l, ligament; lu, lunule; u,
umbo; c, cardinal teeth; a.l, anterior
lateral tooth; p.l, posterior lateral tooth.
 Fig. 185.—Right valve of Lucina tigerina
L.: A, anterior, B, posterior, C,
dorsal, D, ventral margin; AB,
length, CD, breadth of shell.
a.m, anterior; p.m, posterior adductor
muscles; p, pallial line; l, ligament; u,
umbo; c, cardinal teeth; a.l, p.l, anterior
and posterior lateral tooth.
Right and Left Valve.—The simplest way of distinguishing the
valves as right and left is to hold the shell in such a way that the
siphons point towards the observer, and the mouth away from him; in
this position the valve to the right is called the right valve, and the
valve to the left the left valve. If, however, the animal is not present, it
may be remembered that the ligament is nearly always behind the
beaks, and that the beaks, as a rule, point forward, thus the right and
left valves can generally be named by observation of the beaks and
ligament. When the ligament is median to the valves (e.g. Ostrea,
Pecten), and the beaks are not curved, the valves may be
recognised by noting the fact that the impression of the adductor
muscle (in these cases always single) is nearer to the posterior than
to the anterior side. In a similar way the pallial impression, which
only forms a sinus on the posterior side, furnishes a guide to the
valves of Donax, in which the beaks point backward, and of Tellina,
in which the beaks are frequently central.