Repositioning Educational Leadership


Book Description

This groundbreaking volume encourages today’s educational leaders to reposition the way they think about leadership and its challenges. Experienced school and district leaders reveal how they conceptualize their roles, how they learn by posing and solving problems of practice, and how they cope with increasing expectations and complexity in their work. This compilation of compelling narratives demonstrates the power and efficacy of what can happen when school, district, and other educational leaders position themselves as inquirers, bringing forth broader social justice and equity implications. Readers see how leadership can illuminate and improve many aspects of institutional life and create intellectually demanding and rich learning environments for both adults and children. At its heart, Repositioning Educational Leadership is an invitation to practitioners and scholars to make space for new critical questions and perspectives. This book nurtures an expanded discourse about leadership, generated by leaders themselves, and arising from some of the most vexing and often invisible aspects of their important work. “This book unpacks a smorgasbord of real-life work situations that will allow the reader to reflect on these experiences and extract the best practices of leadership.” —Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, AASA “Provides invaluable insights into what the complex work of leading from an inquiry stance looks like in different contexts.” —Irma Zardoya, NYC Leadership Academy “This book is a key contribution to the reinvention of the field of educational leadership, and it is crucial for preparing future leaders.” —Michael A. Copland, deputy superintendent, Bellingham (WA) Public Schools




Repositioning Educational Leadership


Book Description

"This book will demonstrate that when leaders pose previously unnamed problems, and find ways to bring together working groups of students, principals, central office administrators, school faculties, parents, and/or members of the community for joint inquiry, it is more likely that new, effective solutions can be found through participatory processes of rethinking educational practices, categories, policies, and expectations. The argument is that when school, district, and other educational leaders position themselves as inquirers, their leadership can illuminate and improve many aspects of institutional life and create intellectually demanding and rich learning environments - for both adults and children"--




Questioning Leadership


Book Description

Questioning Leadership offers a diverse mix of cutting-edge research in the field of educational leadership, with contributions from expert and emerging leadership scholars. It contextualises school leadership within broader social and historical contexts and traces its influence on school performance through time, from its relatively modest role within a systems theory paradigm to its growing influence from the 1980s onwards, as exercising leadership came to be perceived as being largely responsible for improving educational outcomes. This book invites the reader to challenge the current orthodoxy of leader-centrism and instead reflect more broadly on the various structural and institutional interrelationships that determine how a school functions successfully. It poses challenging questions, such as: Is leadership really necessary for high-quality school performance? Can schools function effectively without leadership? Is it possible to describe the work that principals do without using the word ‘leadership’? How do we challenge the assumption that leadership simply exists and that it is seen as the appropriate default explanation for school performance? This book does not assume that leadership is the key to organisational performance, although it acknowledges the work that principals do. It goes against current orthodoxy and offers varied perspectives on how leadership might be repositioned vis-à-vis organisational and institutional structures. It also suggests some new directions for leading and learning and throws open a discussion on leadership that for too long has been captured by the assumption that the leader is the cause of organisational performance and learning outcomes in schools. At a time when leadership’s dominance seems unshakeable, this is a bold book that should appeal to postgraduate students of educational leadership and management, those undertaking training in educational administration and current school leaders interested in exploring the value of leadership for educational organisations.




Successful School Leadership


Book Description

Successful School Leadership identifies the characteristics, behaviours and practices of successful and effective school leaders through the adoption of a systemic view of the quality of school organizations. Edited by Petros Pashiardis and Olof Johansson, chapters explore the similarities and differences between successful and effective school leaders and across various socioeconomic contexts. Capitalizing on the experiences of the international contributor team, this book will inform the preparation and further development provided to school leaders in an era where ministries of education, universities and multinational organisations (such as the OECD) are increasingly interested in the leadership of our schools. Systematic analyses of multi-perspective data provided from around the world and offers the readers a comprehensive picture of the key behaviours and practices central to successful and effective school leadership. An original contribution to the theoretical perspectives on the subject is derived through insights from empirical research, case studies, and bibliographical literature from the field.




Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership for Equity and Diversity


Book Description

The rapid growth of diversity within U.S. schooling and the heightened attention to the lack of equity in student achievement, school completion, and postsecondary attendance has made equity and diversity two of the principle issues in education, educational leadership, and educational leadership research. The Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership for Equity and Diversity is the first research-based handbook that comprehensively addresses the broad diversity in U.S. schools by race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, disability, sexual identity, and class. The Handbook both highly values the critically important strengths and assets that diversity brings to the United States and its schools, yet at the same time candidly critiques the destructive deficit thinking, biases, and prejudices that undermine school success for many groups of students. Well-known chapter authors explore diversity and related inequities in schools and the achievement problems these issues present to school leaders. Each chapter reviews theoretical and empirical evidence of these inequities and provides research-based recommendations for practice and for future research. Celebrating the broad diversity in U.S. schools, the Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership for Equity and Diversity critiques the inequities connected to that diversity, and provides evidence-based practices to promote student success for all children.




Bending the Arc Towards Justice


Book Description

School districts are experiencing increasing economic, racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender and sexuality, cultural diversity across the United States and globally. With increasing diversity and persistent social inequities widening (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019; U.S. Census Data, 2018), educational leaders face immense challenges and must actively work to build an equitable, healthy school climate. Educational leaders are critical for ensuring positive student outcomes and success, but often report feeling inadequately prepared for current challenges (Coalition for Teacher Equality, 2016; Jordan, 2012; Miller, 2013; Mitani, 2018; Papa, 2007). Unfortunately, growing challenges are contributing to high school administrator turnover rates and shortages (Gates et al., 2006; Jacob et al., 2015; Mordechay & Orfield, 2017) as well as perpetuating social inequities among preK-12 students instead of dismantling them (Beckett, 2018; Fuller, 2012; Manna, 2015; Rangel, 2018; Shankar-Brown, 2015). A research study by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) reveals that public schools with higher percentages of low-income students and students of color are more likely to experience administrative and teacher turnover, which compounds equity issues affecting already vulnerable students (Levin and Bradley, 2019). This book provides educational leaders with a deeper understanding of equity-focused and inclusive leadership practices, while offering intersectional views on social inequalities and stark reminders of the work still ahead. Connecting theory to practice, this book offers needed encouragement and inspiration to both in-service and practicing educational leaders. Rooted in social justice and weaving together diverse voices, this edited volume systematically examines equity-focused PreK-12 and higher education leadership practices. Shankar-Brown (Ed.) calls on educational leaders to collectively rise and mindfully work together to bend the arc toward justice.




Decision Making in Educational Leadership


Book Description

The increased focus on raising standards in education requires leaders to engage in complex decision making about teacher assessment, mandated accountability measures, and the collection and use of large amounts of data. Showcasing exemplary practices of school and district administrators, Decision Making in Educational Leadership covers issues concerning the role of emotion, ethical and legal ramifications, the use of data, and complexity in decision making. Chapter authors in this research-based volume explore what administrators and school leaders actually know about educational problems, how they draw upon and revise theories of action for responding to problems, and which theories are tenable in educational decision making. This important resource provides a broad and international perspective on effective models and methods of educational decision making and shares valuable knowledge about how theory can be translated into practice in a variety of school settings.




Mindfulness for Educational Leadership in the 21St Century


Book Description

This book proposes a method for making educational systems and their curriculum leaderships in Sub-Saharan Africaparticularly Ugandarelevant, functional, and generative in the current unfolding of a fast-paced, technology-driven future that prompts questions about educational leadership in a society where many traditional educational systems are failing. The book poses the following question: What might constitute effective leadership in our heightened global nexus of realities often described as globalization? Nonhuman technologies are moving people away from connections that once strengthened human relationships and fostered collective actions. Too many workplace pressures and demands cause educational leaders to function on autopilot without involving others in the process of mindful leadership of educational reform. Focusing on mindfulness, its application in different educational settings, and its advantages for educational leadership, this book argues that contemporary meditation practices and their benefits can inform effective, successful twenty-first-century leadership practices in Africa, particularly Uganda. It draws on numerous theories from literature in the fields of business and management, medicine, psychology, theology, and the social and behavioral sciences. The selected theories represent the growing research grounded in contemporary thoughts on leadership epistemology, with inclination toward the mindfulness that grows out of regular practice of meditation. The book concludes with the argument that collective, mindful educational leadership emerges when all stakeholders are able to participate in the leadership of their institution or school and contribute to the entire systems development. If practiced regularly, mindfulness would conduce to healthier collaborative behavior that would markedly improve Ugandan and other African educational systems. This kind of mindful leadership requires each stakeholder to lead from inside the self and interconnection with others in a profound way. This means leading by listening attentively and intently and embracing one anothers voice nonjudgmentally for the common good.




The Nature of School Leadership


Book Description

This book explores school leadership through a cross-cultural comparative lens, drawing on data from 16 countries located on five continents. The book gives a voice to both primary and secondary school principals, who discuss the nature of their work and explain their understanding of school leadership, strategies used to support their leadership, and how they 'do leadership' in a time of unprecedented change. The book highlights a number of important elements in school leadership: that it is personal and internally-motivated; change oriented and entrepreneurial; dependent on the qualities and motivations of school teachers; dependent on environmental factors related to economy, geography, political stability; heavily influenced by policies within and outside the field of education; and dependent on partnerships within and outside education. The book provides an authoritative cross-cultural account of what school leaders regard as school leadership. It will be essential reading for students, researchers and policy-makers in the fields of educational leadership and management, in particular those with an interest in comparative and international research, school leadership, and education policy.




Flux Leadership


Book Description

In these times of rapid change, including a global pandemic, educational leaders need tools and frameworks that can adapt to evolving shifts in real time. What might happen if a leadership framework could make sense of this complexity in ways that are humane, ethical, culturally responsive, and multifaceted? This book examines how a flux leadership mindset and corresponding tools promote the conditions for educational change that uplift stakeholders and generate contextualized data during emergency situations. The educational leaders at the heart of this book employed a flux leadership tool through a process called “rapid-cycle inquiry,” which allows for collaborative inquiries to take place in real time to answer tough questions and surface stories that are often silenced in times of sudden change. Featuring narratives of what happened to schools during COVID-19, Flux Leadership introduces a generative framework for agile, responsive, anti-racist, trauma-informed, healing-centered leadership for times of crisis and beyond. Book Features: Provides a framework and set of real-time strategies for leaders to engage in critical leadership practice and crisis leadership with attention to equity.Addresses vital school and district-based leadership issues in various contexts, including reflexivity, identity, positionality, racial literacy, brave space leadership, equity-focused professional development, and critical collaboration.Covers a range of vantage points and intersectional social identities in succinct, accessible, and pragmatic ways.Creates a new approach for leaders to get at context and drive homegrown metrics that speak back to and challenge top-down metrics in schools and districts.