Chased by fate? A life history of Sheila Sadler and the founding of the Village Community School (New York)

This qualitative study focuses on the founding director of an independent progressive elementary school in New York, the particular events that led her to found a school, and the administrative and educational visions that characterized the institution. The primary method of data collection was interviews that were taped and transcribed. Sheila Sadler, the founding director of the Village Community School, was the central participant, along with her assistant, two founding parents, and one of the school's original teachers. Interviews with Sadler explored her life and formative educational experiences, her educational and administrative vision and philosophy, the obstacles she faced in pursuing her career and how she overcame them, her support systems, her relationship to the pioneering progressive founders Caroline Pratt, Elisabeth Irwin, and Lucy Sprague Mitchell, and the lessons she had to pass on to progressive educators of today.; The first chapters present the events in Sadler's that led her to found a new school, including her tenure at the Bank Street College of Education and Bank Street School for Children, and tell story of the founding of the Village Community School subsequent to her decision to leave Bank Street in 1969. The chapters that follow present an analysis of Sadler's leadership style, a thematic analysis, and the lessons that her experiences and knowledge hold for educators today.; The analysis of leadership focuses on Sadler's administrative vision, the creation of a non-hierarchical institution that was open to change, and explores the relationship between leadership and the creation of strong community bonds. Her leadership style is examined against the frameworks of Feminist leadership, Constructivist leadership, and Goleman's five components of Emotional Intelligence. The thematic analysis focuses on the themes of shared vision, shared leadership, and caring as component parts of building and sustaining a strong community. The implications of Sadler's story for policy and practice suggest that aspiring school leaders must develop a clear sense of how values are enacted in schools, and must possess the flexibility to honor the values of the community they are joining even as they seek to make improvements.