Governing Schools in Motion through Leadership Agility, Sense-Making, and Strategic Responsiveness

Abstract

This study explored how leadership agility and sense-making were associated with strategic responsiveness among school leaders in San Mariano, Isabela. A cross-sectional predictive survey design was employed with 30 school heads, principals, head teachers, teachers-in-charge, and officers-in-charge selected through simple random sampling. Data were gathered using a 36-item researcher-developed questionnaire that demonstrated strong content validity (S-CVI/Ave = 0.94) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.93). Mean and standard deviation were used to describe the major constructs, while Spearman’s rank-order correlation and bootstrap multiple regression with 5,000 resamples were applied to determine their relationships and predictive contributions. Leadership agility (M = 3.88), sense-making (M = 3.81), and strategic responsiveness (M = 3.75) were all rated high, although weaker patterns emerged in resource adjustment and timely implementation. Leadership agility was significantly related to strategic responsiveness (ρ = 0.68, p < .001), while sense-making showed a stronger relationship (ρ = 0.74, p < .001). Together, leadership agility and sense-making explained 62.7% of the variance in strategic responsiveness, with sense-making (β = 0.52, p = .002) contributing more strongly than leadership agility (β = 0.36, p = .024). The findings indicated that effective school governance depended not only on adaptive leadership action but also on the capacity to interpret complex conditions and translate them into workable responses. Strengthening policy interpretation, collaborative sense-making, resource adjustment, and implementation planning may improve strategic responsiveness among school leaders.