Hear From Experts: Research Project
The Cultivating Imagination: Leading Toward a Just Future podcast and blog series is completed (for now). Use the contact form here or on the podcast website to get involved.
Books
Cultivating Imagination in Leadership: Transforming Schools and Communities (Judson & Dougherty, 2023) is now available. Get your copy here. You can read more about the book and its research in here or here. Learn more by viewing episodes in the Cultivating Imagination in Leadership webinar series.
Leadership Stories Collection
In these posts, leaders respond to an invitation to share their stories of how imagination contributes to their educational leadership practices. Some of these stories are included in Cultivating Imagination in Leadership: Transforming Schools and Communities (Judson & Dougherty, 2023).
Submit your own leadership story of imagination in action here.
- The Imagination: Hope Unscreened (By Dr. Julia Manini)
- Imagination + People = Possibility (By Tanya de Hoog)
- Family Stories: Re-envisiong the Possible in Classrooms (By Moraima Machado)
- Engaging Imagination to Develop a School Leadership Network that Includes a Pedagogy of Care (By Myra Quadros-Meis)
- What if? Walking Just Paths in Educational Leadership (By Lori Driussi)
- The MeWe: Self-care as Collective Care. Imagining a Different Way for School Leaders (By Christina Velasco)
- Leadership: Taking A Look Beyond the Obvious (By Jane Booth)
- Parking: The Imaginable (or Unimaginable) Final Frontier (By Craig Mah)
- From Panic to Possibility: The Power of Imagination to Transform (By Laurie Anderson)
- Imaginative Leadership: Building Shelves (By Jonathan Sclater)
- Building Relationships in Leadership: Empathy and Imagination (By Courtney Robertson)
- EDvent, An Event for Educators (By Rose Pillay)
- The Power of Imagination: From Possibility to Reality (By Laurie Reid and Robert Iannuzzi)
- “You belong among the wildflowers…”: A reimagined school community blooming into a new way of belonging (By Alexa Charles)
- Imagination for Inclusion in a Pandemic (By Golda Janzen)
Podcasts & Webinars
Cultivating Imagination in Leadership Series: Webinar One
Panelists: Dr. Dan Laitsch, Dr. Sara Pazur, Karen Steffensen
Cultivating Imagination in Leadership Series: Webinar Two
Panelists: Dr. Laurie Anderson, Dr. Mark Fettes, Craig Mah, Rose Pillay, Courtney Robertson, Johnathan Sclater
Cultivating Imagination in Leadership Series: Webinar Three
Panelists: Dr. Lynn Fels, Tara Preston, Dr. Katie Strom
Spark Sessions EduSpark Podcast. Host: Andrew Mowat. Episode 2: Imagination Matters (Leadership) (Gillian Judson)
The Surprising Role of Imagination in Leadership
The Imaginative School Symposium Series
Read the following posts to learn about the community engaged research project that began in the Fall of 2019. The work brings together SFU’s graduate students in the Imaginative Leadership and Imaginative Education cohorts with educational leaders from the local community.
Imaginative Schools, Imaginative Leadership, Imaginative Education Session One (By Gillian Judson)
What’s in a Name? Building an Imaginative Schools Network (ISS Session Two) (By Amanda Van Garderen and Courtney Robertson)
Research: Peer-Reviewed Articles
Dougherty, M. & Judson, G. (2025). Leading with the possible in mind: Educational leaders’ experiences engaging imagination in practice. Journal of Ethical Educational Leadership, 8(1), 25-43.
Judson, G. & Dougherty, M. (2024). Imagination as a catalyst for relational leadership: Educational leaders’ perspectives. International Journal of Leadership in Learning, 24(1), 5–35. https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll43
Judson, G. (2023). Cultivating leadership imagination with cognitive tools: An imagination-focused approach to leadership education. Journal of Research on Leadership Education. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751211022028 *OPEN ACCESS
Judson, G. (2023). A dirty little secret: Studying imagination, imaginatively, in a Leadership education graduate program. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 23(4), 74-91.
Judson, G. (2022). Engaging and cultivating imagination in equity-focused school leadership. International Journal for Leadership and Learning, 22(1), pp. 252-264. doi: https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll11
Judson, G. (2020). Conceptualizing Imagination in the Context of School Leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education. doc: 10.1080/13603124.2020.1818289
Blogs
These posts reflect early and ongoing explorations of how imagination contributes to educational leadership in action. They reveal a particular interest in the role of cognitive tools in leadership practices and their potential for leadership education.
- What’s The Story on Imagination in Educational Leadership? (By Gillian Judson)
- Mission Possible: Shifting Our Leadership Lens to See Imagination (By Courtney Robertson)
- Re-Imagining School Leadership: Beginnings (By Gillian Judson)
- Re-Imagining School Leadership With Cognitive Tools (By Gillian Judson)
- Effective Leaders are Affective Leaders: Imagination’s Role (By Courtney Robertson)
- Once Upon A Time…A Story of Learning Through Leading (By Courtney Robertson)
Imaginative Leadership Mindset?
Special series by principal and Imaginative Education MEd alumnus Jonathan Sclater.
- Leading with An Imaginative Mindset Through A Pandemic: Being Adaptable Part 1
- Leading with An Imaginative Mindset Through A Pandemic: Being Networked Part 2
- Leading with An Imaginative Mindset Through A Pandemic: Being Hopeful Part 3
- Leading with An Imaginative Mindset Through A Pandemic: Being Curious Part 4
And More
- The Leader Reader: Stories of Leadership, Inspiration, Growth, & Change (By Scott Lowrey)
