Abstract

Earlier international research has demonstrated that the leaders’ personal experiences of reciprocity and changing power relations in their own learning relationships ultimately impacts on the organizational culture, through the way leadership is then practiced. The understanding by leaders of their own learning processes, and the powerful experience of responsibility and ownership for their own learning through these changed practices, effectively highlights the previous culture of dependency that had been created through hierarchical, ‘one-way’ learning relationships. Research has demonstrated that knowledge of how to relate effectively in partnership positively influences the way leaders form partnerships with others, relate to those of other cultures, distribute leadership with their colleagues, and how they think about the inclusion of alternative voices and perspectives in the learning relationship. Learning leadership through professional partnership creates opportunities for boundary breaking experiences across contexts, roles and cultures that challenge leaders to rethink their ways of being and knowing in the construction of new knowledge.