A Guide To Effective School Leadership Theories

Educational administrators know that leadership requires hundreds of judgments each day that require a sensitivity and understanding of various leadership strategies. Bridging the gap between the academic and practical world, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories provides an exploration of ten dominant leadership strategies to give school leaders a solid basis in theory and practical application. Demonstrating the advantages and drawbacks of each theory, readers are encouraged to discover the most appropriate strategy, or combination of strategies, that will best enable their school to achieve positive results. Each Chapter Includes: Introductory vignettes grounding the leadership theory in practice Discussion of the history, development, and utility of the strategy Research findings for further exploration of the theory End-of-chapter questions and activities designed to connect theory to practice This book is essential reading for aspiring and practicing school leaders who wish to have a better understanding of their leadership role. Providing a focused, up-to-date introduction to the current themes and dimensions of educational leadership, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories presents all the tools necessary to analyze and implement effective leadership in readers’ own settings.

Educational administrators know that leadership requires hundreds of judgments each day that require a sensitivity and understanding of various leadership strategies. Bridging the gap between the academic and practical world, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories provides an exploration of ten dominant leadership strategies to give school leaders a solid basis in theory and practical application. Demonstrating the advantages and drawbacks of each theory, readers are encouraged to discover the most appropriate strategy, or combination of strategies, that will best enable their school to achieve positive results. Each Chapter Includes: Introductory vignettes grounding the leadership theory in practice Discussion of the history, development, and utility of the strategy Research findings for further exploration of the theory End-of-chapter questions and activities designed to connect theory to practice This book is essential reading for aspiring and practicing school leaders who wish to have a better understanding of their leadership role. Providing a focused, up-to-date introduction to the current themes and dimensions of educational leadership, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories presents all the tools necessary to analyze and implement effective leadership in readers’ own settings.

This book offers a nuanced understanding of how two different theories of leadership can be applied to achieve better results within schools. These leadership theories – Instructional Leadership and Leadership for Learning – have assisted our recent understanding of school leadership. This book interrogates the theories themselves as well as their impact on education systems around the world. It also looks at how they can be practically applied to educate school leaders within their schools and beyond, building partnerships with families, schools and other community agencies serving students. In doing so, the book considers the possibility that these theories are not opposed, but two sides of the same coin. Both are underpinned by the question ‘how do we provide the best educational experience for students?’. The answer to this question will determine the way leaders go about the task of leading schools. This important book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational leadership, as well as educational leaders themselves.

This essential guide for new and veteran school leaders explores 15 vital topics, strategies, and examples for achieving successful school leadership through effective management.

A proven framework for whole-school improvement The School Leadership Playbook is a practical guide foreducation leaders looking to push their school's and students'achievement to the next level. Developed by renowned leadershippreparation program New Leaders, the Transformational LeadershipFramework focuses on the five categories that drive a school'ssuccess: Learning and Teaching, School Culture, Talent Management,Operations and Systems, and Personal Leadership. This bookillustrates how each of these factors contributes to breakthroughgains, and outlines a plan for implementing changes in your ownschool. You'll learn how to accurately diagnose the current stateof your school's academics and culture and create an action planfor the year ahead. The TLF is grounded in the latest research andcase studies of the highest-gaining turnaround schools, and showsyou the specific actions you can take to attract, retain, andsupport high-performing teachers; improve school culture;successfully involve parents and the community; and ultimatelydrive student success. New Leaders developed the UEF to pinpoint what schools achievingsignificant student academic gains were doing, and how they weredoing it. This book provides a practical breakdown of the frameworkto help you begin leading these changes in your own school. Ensure rigorous goal- and data-driven teaching andlearning Build and manage a high-performance faculty aligned to theschool's vision Implement effective and efficient operations and systems Model the tone you would like to see from students and teachersschool-wide By matching the needs of the school to effective principalactions and school practices, leaders can create a plan fortransformational change.

The introductory volume in the Peabody Educational Leadership Series, Successful School Leadesrhip provides readers with a solid overview of the primary topics that current and aspiring leaders will be faced with when making decisions regarding education organizations. Blending leadership theory and practice, this foundational leadership text provides cutting edge content in each of the key domains of responsibility facing current and aspiring school leaders while weaving case studies, current media articles, and reflection point into each chapter to enhance student synthesis and application. The book is divided into four frames of reference for optimal learning: Planning, Politics, Performance, and Power -- the functions with which educational leaders must continually grapple. In each section, readers are presented with information about what school leaders need to know to successfully surmount the modern challenges to education and instruction. Section one provides a foundation for the book by discussing the evolving context of educational leadership and proposes a strategic orientation to leading educational organizations through continual cycles of appraisal, analysis and action. Section two delves into the important issues of governance, politics, finance and law as major contributors to the context of education, and as levers by which school leaders can shape institutions. Section three explores the various ways in which school leaders can assess and enhance the performance of their schools and educational organizations. The final section of text provides students with information about educational leader strategies in the development of people, partnering with communities, and uses of power, while the final two chapters give practical insights into the preparation for practicing strategic education leadership.

Educational leadership has a rich history of epistemological debate. From the ‘Theory Movement’ of the 1950-1960s, through to Greenfield’s critique of logical empiricism in the 1970s, the emergence of Bates’ and Foster’s Critical Theory of educational administration in the 1980s, and Evers’ and Lakomski’s naturalistic coherentism from1990 to the present time, debates about ways of knowing, doing, and being in the social world have been central to advancing scholarship. However, since the publication of Evers’ and Lakomski’s work, questions of the epistemological preliminaries of research have become somewhat marginalised. This is not to suggest that such discussions are not taking place, but rather that they have been sporadic and piecemeal. In New Directions in Educational Leadership Theory, the contributors sketch possible alternatives for advancing scholarship in educational leadership. The coherence of this volume comes not from the adoption of a single theoretical lens, but rather from its engagement with epistemology, ontology, and methodology. The choice of the plural ‘alternatives’ is deliberate, and its use is to evoke the message that there is more than one way to advance knowledge. The approaches adopted across this collection offer fruitful directions for the field and hopefully will stimulate substantive dialogue and debate in the interest of advancing knowledge. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

This book will show principals how they can change daily practices to invest more time in the improvement of teaching and learning. It redirects leadership to effective practices in instructional leadership.