Educative Leadership

Improve overall school performance from start to Finnish! Exploring and analyzing how Finland consistently places at or near the top of international student assessments, especially PISA, has become popular in recent years. Pasi Sahlberg now explores this phenomenon from the perspective of the educational leader. With the culture of general and educational leadership in Finland as a backdrop, this resource is packed with strategies and tools that travel well. Rooted in four main ideas, this book covers topics such as: Enhancing equity is an essential component of success Physical activity is crucial for substantial learning Embedding ideas into your current leadership practices takes perseverance

The new career for teachers which is currently developing, encourages responsibility for self-development. The learning needed for this new career focuses on personal competencies, which make teachers highly effective. This book outlines personality and identity, motivation and reward strategies, the emotions of leadership and the values and ethics which underpin professional integrity. Using a practical but evidence-based approach, the author outlines how to develop creativity, assertiveness and emotional intelligence using techniques such as neuro-linguistic programming to model excellence. The author shows how teachers can use work on effective people to develop their own performance and

This book explores the limits to rational management. The authors develop the idea of organizational irony as a central concept for analyzing and explaining management activity in a managerialist environment. Drawing on international research as well as their own extensive experience in educational organizations, the authors show that effectiveness is not necessarily the result of over-rationalistic approaches to educational management. Focusing on school leadership and management, authors Eric Hoyle and Mike Wallace suggest that major reforms have had limited success because the changes introduced have diverted school staff from their core task of promoting student learning. The result is dissatisfaction, frustration, and stress. The authors use the ironic perspective to show how practitioners respond by mediating the reforms.

In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world of education today, leaders need to take an engaged, activist, and courageous approach to help build optimistic futures for all students. Transformative Leadership in Education presents an alternative approach to leadership for deep and equitable change. Using vignettes, stories, research, and drawing on scholarship from a range of disciplines, noted scholar Carolyn M. Shields explores the concept of transformative leadership and its potential to create learning environments that are just and inclusive. Drawing on examples from transformative school leaders, Shields demonstrates that this leadership can promote academic achievement, family and community empowerment, democratic engagement, and global citizenship. Special features include: End-of-chapter guiding questions to help readers reflect on their own practice and to apply the concepts in their own contexts Vignettes and stories from students, teachers, and community members illustrate how transformative leadership can promote academic achievement and democratic engagement A robust companion website with extra resources, video and audio clips, and an author blog to further understanding and lead to sustained action toward the goals of transformative leadership. This exciting text will appeal to all aspiring and practicing leaders who want to prepare students to be successful, caring, and engaged citizens of the global community.

Pierre Bourdieu was one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He argued for, and practiced, rigorous and reflexive scholarship, interrogating the inequities and injustices of modern societies. Through a lifetime’s explication of the ways in which schooling both produces and reproduces the status quo, Bourdieu offered a powerful critique and method of analysis of the history of schooling, and of contemporary educational polices and trends. Though frequently used in educational research, Bourdieu’s work has had much less take up in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration. Educational Leadership and Pierre Bourdieu argues that ELMA scholars have much to gain by engaging more thoroughly with his work. The book explains each of the key terms in Bourdieu’s thinking tool kit, showing how the tripartite concepts of field, habitus and capitals offer a way through which to understand the interaction of structure and agency, and the limits on the freedom of an individual – in this case an educational leader – to act. Educational Leadership and Pierre Bourdieu offers an analysis of dominant trends in ELMA research, examining the kinds of questions asked, projects undertaken and methods used. It provides alternative questions and methods based on a Bourdieusian approach, further readings and a range of exemplars of the application of these tools. The book will be of interest to those whose primary focus is the utility of Bourdieu’s social theory.

This key text in educational leadership focuses on the significance of the context and culture of schools.

In this book, educational consultant and group coach Donna Reid argues that popular vehicles for improving school cultures and student achievement, such as professional learning communities and critical friends groups, too often fail because the participants are unaware or unwilling to make the required changes for successful collaboration and change. To assist facilitators and group leaders, the author presents narrative cases that examine the experiences of teacher leaders, principals, consultants, and parents as they negotiate the difficulties of reluctant team members, hostile colleagues, maintaining group interest, sharing responsibility, using technology, and cultural competency. Each case includes questions for reflection that can be used individually or in small groups to improve facilitation skills. Book Features: Addresses the roles of the facilitator and participants. Focuses on the complex contexts in which educators must work. Illustrates a range of challenges with possible ways to manage them. Offers strategies for building sustainable relationships, such as how to include new colleagues and work with difficult people. Discusses common tensions, such as sharing responsibility, respecting confidentiality, and developing cultural competence. “With its engaging and informative mix of case descriptions, discussions following the cases, and questions for the reader, this book is a welcome change from other books on facilitation and coaching. As I read, I imagined that someone had been looking over my shoulder as I coached my first CFG, and as I have supported others doing the same over the years. A must-read for all those engaging in their first few years of facilitating collaborative teacher teams!” —Gene Thompson-Grove, educational consultant and founding board member, School Reform Initiative “This book is a must-read for anyone in the practice of collaborative coaching and facilitation. By tapping into the power of story, the author provides a reflective space that allows the reader to consider coaching moves, as well as experience and reflect on common potential pitfalls in coaching or facilitating a group.” —P. Tim Martindell, president, Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, Coordinator Secondary ELA, Fort Bend Independent School District

This groundbreaking book presents a new way of looking at leadership that is anchored in research on women leaders in education. The authors examine how successful women in education lead and offer suggestions and ideas for developing and honing these exemplary leadership practices. Women and Educational Leadership shows how the qualities that characterize women's approaches to leadership differ from traditional approaches?whether the traditional leader is a woman or a man. The authors reveal that women leaders are more collaborative by nature and demonstrate a commitment to social justice. They tend to bring an instructional focus to leadership, include spiritual dimensions in their work, and strive for balance between the personal and professional. This important book offers a new model of leadership that shifts away from the traditional heroic notion of leadership to the collective account of leadership that focuses on leadership for a specific purpose—like social justice. The authors include illustrative examples of leaders who have brought diverse groups to work toward common ground. They also show how leadership is a way to facilitate and support the work of organizational members. The ideas and suggestions presented throughout the book can help the next generation fulfill the promise of a new tradition of leadership. Women and Educational Leadership is part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in Education series.