Educational Leadership: Enabling Positive Planetary Action Through Regenerative Practices and Complexity Leadership Theory

Marie Beresford-Dey ()
Additional contact information
Marie Beresford-Dey: Social Science & Law, School of Humanities, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK

Challenges, 2025, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Uniquely rooted in regenerative leadership and complemented by Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT), this conceptual essay offers a theoretical exploration of how educational institutions can act as dynamic systems that catalyze adaptive, community-led responses to anthropocentric socio-environmental crises. Rather than sustaining existing structures, educational leadership for regeneration seeks to restore ecological balance and nurture emergent capacities for long-term resilience. Positioned as key sites of influence, educational institutions are explored as engines of innovation capable of mobilizing students, educators, and communities toward collective environmental action. CLT offers a valuable lens for understanding how leadership emerges from nonlinear, adaptive processes within schools, enabling the development of innovative, collaborative, and responsive strategies required for navigating complexity and leading planetary-positive change. Drawing on a synthesis of the recent global literature, this paper begins by outlining the need to go beyond sustainability in envisioning regenerative futures, followed by an introduction to regenerative principles. It then examines the current and evolving role of educational leadership, the relevance in enabling whole-institution transformation, and how this relates to regenerative practices. The theoretical frameworks of systems thinking and CLT are introduced before noting their application within regenerative educational leadership. The final sections identify implementation challenges and offer practical recommendations, including curriculum innovation, professional development, and youth-led advocacy, before concluding with a call for education as a vehicle for cultivating planetary-conscious citizens and systemic change. This work contributes a timely and theoretically grounded model for reimagining educational leadership in an era of global turbulence.

Keywords: education; leadership; regenerative; complexity; complexity leadership theory; sustainability; systems thinking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/3/32/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/3/32/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jchals:v:16:y:2025:i:3:p:32-:d:1701985

Access Statistics for this article

Challenges is currently edited by Ms. Karen Sun

More articles in Challenges from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().