Radicalizing Educational Leadership

"What you will find inside this provocative text: It should come as no surprise, as the collection of papers in this book show that we are up against it. Killing those we despise has become normative in the political minds of both the powerful and the marginalised. Framing those who are weakest as the architects of their own disgusting state ... it has become commonsense in all societies, rich and poor.... Any counter-hegemonic project that seeks to rethink social justice and reframe educational leadership is, without question, confronting the enormous power of ordinariness, the commonsense about power, inequality and violence." Jonathan Jansen

Teachers at all levels of education will find this book practical and inspiring as they read how other educators have engaged with challenges that reveal different dimensions of gratitude, and how some have discovered its relevance in gaining greater resilience, improved relationships and increased student engagement. In the first comprehensive text ever written that is solely dedicated to the specific relevance of gratitude to the teaching and learning process, Dr Howells pioneers an approach that accounts for both dilemmas and possibilities of gratitude in the midst of teachers’ busy and stressful lives. She takes a contemporary and philosophical view of the notion of gratitude and goes beyond its conceptualisation simply from a religious or positive psychology framework. Exploring real situations with teachers, school leaders, students, parents, academics and pre-service teachers - Gratitude In Education: A Radical View examines many of the complexities encountered when gratitude is applied in a variety of secular educational environments.

Educational Leadership for Transformation and Social Justice examines the relationship between the lived experiences of educational leaders at the University of the Free State in South Africa and how they think about and practice leadership for transformation and social justice. Based on biographical information, public speeches, published writings, and in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews, the book presents and analyses seven chapter-length narratives of these leaders. This book explores how some leaders at the University of the Free State – from the vantage point of various racialized and gendered identities, and generational experiences – conceptualize and enact leadership for transformation and social justice. Ambrosio argues that there are certain values, beliefs, concepts, principles, and ways of thinking that cut across their experiences and demographic differences. The narratives are presented in the leaders’ own words, and describe how their lived experiences shaped their values and identities, and inform how they think about and practice leadership for transformation and social justice. One convergence that emerged among these leaders is that their leadership is an extension of who they are, of their core values, identities and ethical commitments. Another is that they are motivated by visions of change that go beyond the University; by bigger dreams that infuse their work with meaning and purpose. With its in-depth analysis of the narratives, this book will provide educational leaders who have an orientation towards transformation and social justice with insights that enable them to think differently about how to make the policies, programs, and institutional culture of their own universities more equitable and just. It will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of education, educational justice, higher education, educational leadership and change, social justice and racial justice.

Drawing together diverse research perspectives and theoretical underpinnings, this handbook explores gender as a social category and examines cultural and social differences. Bringing together diverse perspectives from around the world, including from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the UK and the USA, the volume sets out the gender and educational leadership and management field, providing a snapshot of the field as it stands, signalling its development and directions for future development. It offers focused reviews of empirical research on particular aspects of the field and presents new insights from research findings and methodological approaches.

The International Handbook on Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice creates a first-of-its-kind international forum on conceptualizing the meanings of social justice and leadership, research approaches in studying social justice and combating social injustices, school, university and teacher leadership for social justice, advocacy and advocates for social justice, socio-cultural representations of social injustices, glocal policies, and leadership development as interventions. The Handbook is as much forward-looking as it is a retrospective review of educational research literatures on social justice from a variety of educational subfields including educational leadership, higher education academic networks, special education, health education, teacher education, professional development, policy analyses, and multicultural education. The Handbook celebrates the promises of social justice while providing the educational leadership research community with concrete, contextualized illustrations on how to address inequities and combat social, political and economic injustices through the processes of education in societies and educational institutions around the world.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume argues for the need of a common ground that bridges leadership studies, curriculum theory, and Didaktik. It proposes a non-affirmative education theory and its core concepts along with discursive institutionalism as an analytical tool to bridge these fields. It concludes with implications of its coherent theoretical framing for future empirical research. Recent neoliberal policies and transnational governance practices point toward new tensions in nation state education. These challenges affect governance, leadership and curriculum, involving changes in aims and values that demand coherence. Yet, the traditionally disparate fields of educational leadership, curriculum theory and Didaktik have developed separately, both in terms of approaches to theory and theorizing in USA, Europe and Asia, and in the ways in which these theoretical traditions have informed empirical studies over time. An additional aspect is that modern education theory was developed in relation to nation state education, which, in the meantime, has become more complicated due to issues of ‘globopolitanism’. This volume examines the current state of affairs and addresses the issues involved. In doing so, it opens up a space for a renewed and thoughtful dialogue to rethink and re-theorize these traditions with non-affirmative education theory moving beyond social reproduction and social transformation perspectives.

A provocative and authoritative compendium of writings on leadership in education from distinguished scholar-educators worldwide. What is educational leadership? What are some of the trends, questions, and social forces most relevant to the current state of education? What are the possible futures of education, and what can educational leadership contribute to these futures? To address these questions, and more, editors Duncan Waite and Ira Bogotch asked distinguished international thought leaders on education to share their insights, observations, and research findings on the nature of education and educational leadership in the global village. The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Leadership brings together contributions from authors in twenty-one countries, spanning six continents. Topics examined include leadership and aesthetics, creativity, eco‐justice, advocacy, Big Data and technology, neoliberalism, emerging philosophies and theories, critical democracy, gender and radical feminism, political economies, emotions, postcolonialism, and new directions in higher education. A must-read for teachers, researchers, scholars, and policy makers, this Handbook: Champions radical pluralism over consensus and pseudoscientific or political solutions to problems in education Embraces social, economic, and political relevance alongside the traditions of careful and systematic rigor Challenges traditional epistemological, cultural, and methodological concepts of education and educational leadership Explores the field’s historical antecedents and ways in which leadership can transcend the narrow disciplinary and bureaucratic constraints imposed by current research designs and methods Advances radically new possibilities for remaking educational leadership research and educational institutions

This authoritative handbook examines the community, district, and teacher leadership roles that affect urban schools. It will serve as a foundation for pedagogical and educational leadership practices that foster social justice, equity, and advocacy for those who have been traditionally and historically underserved in education. The handbook’s ten sections cover topics as diverse as curriculum, instruction, and educational outcomes; gender, race, and class; higher education; and leadership preparation and support. Its twenty-nine chapters offer both American and international perspectives.