In School Leadership, you will experience in vivid detail how one school struggled to create a caring school community within a traditional, bureaucratic hierarchy. The text begins with the school's historical background of having a high student drop-out rate and a reputation for crime, violence, and drug dealing. The author then examines: caring in the context of the principal's leadership as an African American woman attempting to create a nurturing atmosphere; the ways in which faculty and staff perceive the intents and actions of the principal; how teachers nurture themselves and each other; the notion of a connection between caring and power; and the potential impacts of caring power on leadership and organization of schools, particularly as educators weigh the options of various cultural and educational needs involved in school reform initiatives. Sernak makes dynamic new connections between caring, power, and leadership that will be of interest to policymakers, administrators, and all educators concerned with creating a caring school environment.
Principles and possibilities to inform and inspire caring in your leadership practices! Do you feel like something is missing in today’s schools? Do you feel student success is too focused on academic accountability, test scores, and college readiness? Recalibrate your leadership with the help of this book to promote the practice of caring which, with academic rigor, is essential to effective schooling. Caring School Leadership is a research-based collection of ideas, principles, and values illustrated with numerous examples and stories that will inform, inspire, and guide you. Evaluate your current leadership practice and evolve to lead in the way to which you aspire. In addition to insights and lessons about caring from educators and human service professions like nursing and ministry, readers will be introduced to themes of · Caring in interpersonal relationships with students · Cultivating schools as caring environments · Fostering caring in families and communities
This book analyzes education reform through the eyes of those entrenched in the process—policy makers, administrators, middle managers, principals, and teachers—in the context of care. A senior administrator, who participated in the implementation of an unprecedented series of reforms that flattened the education system in a Canadian province and rebuilt it with a new mandate, examines learning from the shortcomings of the past and provides a critical enquiry that can help determine the success or failure of future reform efforts by shedding light on the obstacles to avoid, problems to correct, and methods to embrace in order to overcome hurt and disappointment in a turbulent environment and foster more caring and effective educational organizations. Few attempts have been made to write a book about women’s work from the perspective of those in senior leadership roles in education; others have written about it but not experienced it firsthand. This book illuminates the controversial debate between women and gender in education and challenges assumptions about equity and the caring and democratic nature of education. It contributes to a broader understanding and knowledge of the complexities of leadership work within education, which in turn can lead to improvement in professional relationships as well as organizational effectiveness. The book contains enlightening and compelling stories about the unique and shared experiences of people navigating turbulence within an organization. Author Mary Green draws on her career spent teaching and learning to provide a unique Canadian perspective and context. She offers a rigorous self, social, historical, and political reflection of educators, who despite experiencing particular challenges, draw purpose from faith in the possibilities and potential of more caring practice in education. The content will prove useful to those committed to infusing more humanity into work in education with reference to individuals, institutions, and the social and political challenges in the field. Specifically, this book is relevant to graduate students in faculties of education, policy makers, principals, other administrators, and organizational leaders. Universal issues of power and politics reveal interconnections between the personal and the global workplace, underscoring the importance of care in the workplace.
The SAGE Guide to Educational Leadership and Management allows readers to gain knowledge of educational management in practice while providing insights into challenges facing educational leaders and the strategies, skills, and techniques needed to enhance administrative performance. This guide emphasizes the important skills that effective leaders must develop and refine, including communication, developing teams, coaching and motivating, and managing time and priorities. While being brief, simply written, and a highly practical overview for individuals who are new to this field, this reference guide will combine practice and research, indicate current issues and directions, and choices that need to be made. Features & Benefits: 30 brief, signed chapters are organized in 10 thematic parts in one volume available in a choice of electronic or print formats designed to enable quick access to basic information. Selective boxes enrich and support the narrative chapters with case examples of effective leadership in action. Chapters conclude with bibliographic endnotes and references to further readings to guide students to more in-depth presentations in other published sources. Back matter includes an annotated listing of organizations, associations, and journals focused on educational leadership and administration and a detailed index. This reference guide will serve as a vital source of knowledge to any students pursuing an education degree as well as for individuals interested in the subject matter that do not have a strong foundation of the topic.
The indispensable leadership companion—updated and more relevant than ever! Part leadership manual, part short novel, this unique best-seller uses dialogues between a novice and a master teacher and between a new and a seasoned principal to illuminate how the simple act of viewing a problem through different lenses—political, human resources, structural, or symbolic—can reveal better options and solutions. Featuring reflective questions and solid strategies for meeting real-life challenges, the third edition also includes New views on building morale in challenging times A revamped discussion of mandates, standards, and rubrics A celebration of educators as skilled professionals Expanded conversations about hope, faith, and parental involvement Sometimes all it takes to solve a problem is to reframe it by listening to wise advice from a trusted mentor.
Sponsored by the University Council of Educational Administration, this comprehensive handbook is the definitive work on leadership education in the United States. An in-depth portrait of what constitutes research on leadership development, this handbook provides a plan for strengthening the research-based education of school leaders in order to impact leadership’s influence on student engagement and learning. Although research-oriented, the content is written in a style that makes it appropriate for any of the following audiences: university professors and researchers, professional development providers, practicing administrators, and policy makers who work in the accreditation and licensure arenas.
Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to student failure.
"All leaders, particularly school leaders, share five essential skills: Confidence. Leaders believe in themselves and their ability to mobilize others to act. Communication. Leaders are able to articulate their goals and transform words into deeds, and rhetoric into results. Collaboration. Leaders recognize that success is a team effort. Coaching. Leaders invest time and energy into developing their team. Continuous Improvement. Leaders view change as opportunity. This book is based on the premise that there is no single ideal school leader profile or leadership style. It contains tools for activating and motivating the community on behalf of students, developing the ability to be decisive and achieve results, facilitating collaboration to improve teaching and learning, implementing detailed action plans, and balancing leadership challenges."--Publisher.
Why does it matter that our leaders care about us? What might we reasonably expect from a caring leader, and what price are we prepared to pay for it? Is caring leadership something ‘soft’, or can it be linked to strategy and delivery? International scholars from the fields of ancient and modern philosophy, psychology, organization studies and leadership development offer a strikingly original debate on what it means for leaders to care.
