Educational administrators know that leadership requires hundreds of judgments each day that require a sensitivity and understanding of various leadership strategies. Bridging the gap between the academic and practical world, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories provides an exploration of ten dominant leadership strategies to give school leaders a solid basis in theory and practical application. Demonstrating the advantages and drawbacks of each theory, readers are encouraged to discover the most appropriate strategy, or combination of strategies, that will best enable their school to achieve positive results. Each Chapter Includes: Introductory vignettes grounding the leadership theory in practice Discussion of the history, development, and utility of the strategy Research findings for further exploration of the theory End-of-chapter questions and activities designed to connect theory to practice This book is essential reading for aspiring and practicing school leaders who wish to have a better understanding of their leadership role. Providing a focused, up-to-date introduction to the current themes and dimensions of educational leadership, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories presents all the tools necessary to analyze and implement effective leadership in readers’ own settings.

Educational administrators know that leadership requires hundreds of judgments each day that require a sensitivity and understanding of various leadership strategies. Bridging the gap between the academic and practical world, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories provides an exploration of ten dominant leadership strategies to give school leaders a solid basis in theory and practical application. Demonstrating the advantages and drawbacks of each theory, readers are encouraged to discover the most appropriate strategy, or combination of strategies, that will best enable their school to achieve positive results. Each Chapter Includes: Introductory vignettes grounding the leadership theory in practice Discussion of the history, development, and utility of the strategy Research findings for further exploration of the theory End-of-chapter questions and activities designed to connect theory to practice This book is essential reading for aspiring and practicing school leaders who wish to have a better understanding of their leadership role. Providing a focused, up-to-date introduction to the current themes and dimensions of educational leadership, A Guide to Effective School Leadership Theories presents all the tools necessary to analyze and implement effective leadership in readers’ own settings.

Educational leadership has a rich history of epistemological debate. From the ‘Theory Movement’ of the 1950-1960s, through to Greenfield’s critique of logical empiricism in the 1970s, the emergence of Bates’ and Foster’s Critical Theory of educational administration in the 1980s, and Evers’ and Lakomski’s naturalistic coherentism from1990 to the present time, debates about ways of knowing, doing, and being in the social world have been central to advancing scholarship. However, since the publication of Evers’ and Lakomski’s work, questions of the epistemological preliminaries of research have become somewhat marginalised. This is not to suggest that such discussions are not taking place, but rather that they have been sporadic and piecemeal. In New Directions in Educational Leadership Theory, the contributors sketch possible alternatives for advancing scholarship in educational leadership. The coherence of this volume comes not from the adoption of a single theoretical lens, but rather from its engagement with epistemology, ontology, and methodology. The choice of the plural ‘alternatives’ is deliberate, and its use is to evoke the message that there is more than one way to advance knowledge. The approaches adopted across this collection offer fruitful directions for the field and hopefully will stimulate substantive dialogue and debate in the interest of advancing knowledge. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

The field of Educational Leadership and Management originated and grew to maturity in the Western societies of the USA, UK and Australia. However, since the mid-1990s, scholars in east Asia have asserted the need to ground leadership theories and practices in the 'local contexts' in which school leaders practice. Mastering Theories of Educational Leadership and Management is one of the first volumes published which seeks to do this. The edited chapters illustrate and elaborate how perspectives on key concepts and theories of educational leadership are being interpreted and enacted in East Asian societies. By doing so the book makes a valuable contribution which will hopefully reduce the gap between theories as explained by Western scholars and practices as enacted in East Asian societies. ~ Professor Dr. Philip Hallinger

This book moves forward the agenda significantly. It enables educational leadership and management discourse to be informed by the latest views that are becoming well established in business and organisational literature in practice.

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.