Developing Effective School Management

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This popular book has been thoroughly updated for its fourth edition, and is even more directed towards the leadership demands on managers, both within the school and in its community setting.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book considers a number of key epistemological, ontological and methodological questions exploring the effectiveness of school leadership and management development training programmes for school leaders in a range of settings and for a range of people. Consideration is also given to practical concerns associated with this topic, such as the importance of management and Leadership Development programmes supporting school leaders to become effective leaders supporting school effectiveness. Effectiveness of School Leadership and Management Development in Cameroon addresses key methodological issues including the rationale for adopting a qualitative mixed-methodology research approach with elements of literature and documental analysis; surveys; ethical considerations and challenges with sampling techniques in considering the impact that school leaders in Cameroon have on researchers’ findings; and the production of knowledge. In addressing such topics, it answers important questions about how reliability can be ensured, how rigour can be safeguarded and what impact documental analysis and school leaders’ views have on the validity and interpretation of research findings. This book is the first of its kind to combine practical leadership theories in developing leadership development frameworks reflections with clearly presented recommendations about how the approach can be used. It will be invaluable to academics, practitioners and other agencies wishing to adopt participatory research methods which place school leaders and their schools at the centre of this research. This book is also an essential read for academics and students with an interest in qualitative mixed methodologies on leadership development of school leaders, and will become a key text for school leadership research methods courses, given its concern with practical leadership models as well as more complex leadership development theories.

This book is quite different from existing 'Western' books on school effectiveness. It describes and analyses the way in which schools operate in developing countries and also tries to explain why they are as they are. Examining them at three levels - the macro, the meso and the micro - the authors use a theoretical framework that they have termed 'post-bureaucracy.' The book has four interlinked sections. First the authors examine the existing economic and theoretical contexts around school effectiveness, including an analysis of the causes of economic crisis and its impact on school management. In the second section the analysis of schools as bureaucratic facades is proposed. The reality of school life, from which any theory of school effectiveness must derive, is illustrated by an ethnographic account of the job of the headteacher in developing countries. The third section explores different ways to understand this reality, operating on three levels: global relationships, national and community cultures, and individual agency. In the final section Haber and Davies draw these levels and realities together. They argue for the democratization of schools as the only way forward for effective education fordevelopment.

`This edition is more focussed on the leadership demands of managers both within the school and its community. This book can be used as a source of reference for anyone on a school manager position, written by people who practice management on educational organizations themselves, it deals with the fundamentals of what management is the many roles of the manager' - Headteacher Update `The book is clearly structured, with an informative table to contents. Each chapter ends with practical tasks which could be sued either by an individual at home or by groups in a training session. The book is worth adding to any staffroom library for the section of "time-management techniques" alone. If only I has acquired the habit of "starting each day by writing list of all the things that should be done that day and starring them to indicate importance" in recognition that "the critical distinction is between what is urgent and what is important"!' - Education Review `This book provides a thoroughly comprehensive guide to managing staff, meetings, motivating people, managing conflict, health and safety and much more' - Nursery Equipment This popular book has been thoroughly updated for its Fourth Edition. Targeting the contents directly to the needs of today's school manager. The book is now even more directed towards the leadership demands on managers, both within the school and in its community setting. New sections have been written to deal with emerging pressures on heads: - the increasing complexity of employment legislation - the management of risk - performance management - flexibility in the curriculum - the inclusion agenda - team development and leadership - the effect of the government's new approach to early years education. Recent research and developments have been incorporated and the content has been extensively updated. The authors' fresh and readable style, coupled with their use of proven interactive exercises, makes the book a first choice for busy heads and senior staff in all schools.

Effective School Leadership raises many questions about effective leadership and how it is seen from different viewpoints. The issues are placed in political context and in relation to a changing world scene.