Centering Educational Administration

In this book, Starratt enters the national conversation among educational administration scholars and practitioners about what constitutes the core of their knowledge and practice. In Part I, he develops three main themes--cultivating meaning, community, and moral responsibility--which he then positions against national themes about the core of educational administration: school improvement, democratic community, and social justice. Rather than focusing on the routine managerial tasks normally associated with school administration (budgeting, personnel and legal problems, time and resource management, etc.), this text asks aspiring school leaders to reflect first on the underlying philosophical and sociological perspectives that constitute the substance of administrative work in education. Centering Educational Administration provides: *A Unique Perspective on Leadership--The author views leadership as organically related to teaching and learning, as concerned with internal capacity building in response to state-imposed accountability pressures, and as an existential process of writing one's autobiography through their day-to-day work. *An Interdisciplinary View of Educational Administration--Centering Educational Administration asks educational administrators to bring contemporary philosophical, ethical, and anthropological issues, as well as learning theory, social theory, and political theory into their thinking about the daily operation of the school. *A Unique Perspective on School Improvement--This text asserts that school improvement narrowly defined as improving results on high-stakes tests can likewise place the nation at risk. An equally important agenda is teaching the young the basic satisfactions, norms, and potential of using their knowledge in the service of the community and of a wider humanity. *Exercises in Reflective Practice--This book challenges the reader to use the ideas of each chapter to analyze the current practices in their school and to propose concrete changes to improve the teaching and learning environment of their school.

Student-Centered Leadership offers a timely and thoughtful resource for school leaders who want to turn their ideals into action. Written by educational leadership expert Viviane Robinson, the book shows leaders how they can make a bigger difference to the quality of teaching and learning in their school and ultimately improve their students' performance. This book is based not on fad or fashion but on the best available evidence about the impact of different types of leadership on student outcomes. The book includes examples of five types of leadership practice as well as rich accounts of the knowledge and skills that leaders need to employ them with confidence. Filled with practical lessons, clear information, and much inspiration, Robinson encourages leaders to experiment with changing how they lead so they can transform their schools for the better. Student-Centered Leadership is part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in Education series. Praise for Student-Centered Leadership "Student-Centered Leadership shines with clarity and practical, powerful ideas. Add this book to your leadership library."—Michael Fullan, author, The Six Secrets of Change and Leading in a Culture of Change "Viviane Robinson's compelling book is both evidence based and profoundly practical."—Steve Munby, chief executive, National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services, England "This book will be an equally important resource for individual school leaders, professional developers, and administrator-preparation programs. There will be two copies on my shelf—one to loan and one for my own reference."—Karen Seashore Louis, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota

This volume contributes significantly to the ongoing international and Nordic paradigm shift in educational leadership research. It advocates for going from a contemporary, mainstream functionalist paradigm to a reflexive paradigm, based on educational values and knowledge. The volume is built on the shared basis, that the purpose of education is, and must be, fundamental for school leadership practice. However, that is often forgotten in educational governance and policy. The basis of the argument is, that educational leadership needs to change from focusing on effectiveness and narrowly defined accountability towards focusing on leadership that is contributing to the general education of students. That entails that leadership research need to focus on complex perspectives like context, relations, trust, sense making and social and human values, and less on control, outcomes, accountability and testing. The volume reminds readers about the need to raise awareness of the contexts of education and research, be they political, cultural, economic or ideological. Chapters analyze, discuss and compare research from Nordic educational leadership research systems: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The cross-system insights clarify the fundamental relations between policy/governance and research/practice are and discuss forgotten dependencies and opportunities.

Educational leadership today needs to focus on our teachers and support staff implementing a student-centred pedagogy in their daily classroom instruction. We need to train our educators to adapt their lesson plans to the everyday realities of their students. This is the main building block in securing student success for each academic year. What is a student-centred approach? This is the main focus of the book and the reader will be introduced to a variety of teaching success stories at the elementary, secondary, college and university levels in education. Building Student Success: Educating your staff on the necessity of building student success is crucial because at different levels of the students academic career we are not aware of all the experiences the student has been through throughout their journey in education. Furthermore, we may need to re-build the students confidence, trust, and find ways to improve the joy of learning that was lost. In this way we are able to sustain and maintain a true spirit of life-long learning and maximize their unlimited potential. This student-centred pedagogy is critical for todays student and diverse methods are examined in detail in this text. The text provides a step by step guide to help administrators, policy makers, and staff implement this pedagogy. This pedagogy can be adapted at all levels of academia. Within this book there are success stories and strategies that will enhance and empower your staff and will empower the educator. Within its pages your confidence will grow and you will have a positive outlook on the future of education. This text will make you a believer that we can make a sustainable positive impact in the lives of our students.

In this important new collection Murphy and Hallinger bring together descriptions of a wide range of the new models in use in educational administrative training. Most of these eleven models have developed in response to contemporary criticism of the educational administrative theory movement, and each, in its own way, strives to bridge the chasm between educational theory and practice. The approaches represented here stress the importance of the administrators' engagement in the daily life of the school, and encourage administrators to learn from one another. While some models have come from leadership academies, others have been developed and tested in state departments of education, professional associations, and educational institutions. The book represents an important resource for those working with pre- and inservice administrators as they learn ways in which their involvement can improve the nation's schools.

Many new approaches to school improvement are being proposed in the current climate of assessment and school accountability. This book explores one of these approaches, a new model of leadership training known as Learner-Centered Leadership (LCL). It is built around the fundamental idea that learning and learning communities are natural processes that, when properly harnessed, can lead to the highest levels of professional engagement and problem solving. Key features of this exciting new approach to school leadership include the following: Broad-based and Generative—The book’s narratives vividly illustrate the extraordinary ability of LCL to generate new approaches to leadership development. For example, encouraging and assisting school leaders to reflect on their own leadership attributes relative to the implementation of the school mission to ensure high teacher efficacy and student learning. In this respect the volume contributes significantly to the field of school leadership and professional development by extending above and beyond a narrow focus on instructional leadership. Practice Oriented—By creating communities that encourage conversation and analysis the new data-driven models of school improvement are more likely to be successfully implemented. Without analytical discourse, the process of interpreting school data and transforming it into practice would be largely lost. Conceptually Appropriate—The realization that everyone within a school (students, teachers, administrators) belongs to the same learning community minimizes status differences and encourages teamwork. The LCL administrator is much less likely to be authoritarian and power-oriented and much more likely to be transformative and student outcome focused. This book is appropriate for master’s level courses and certification seminars, and for inservice workshops dealing with school leadership.

Focusing on educational leadership and school administration, offers over six hundred alphabetically arranged entries covering theories, terms, concepts, and histories.