This is an essential guide for all school leaders, aspiring school leaders and leadership educators to help them incorporate positive psychology in their practice. It provides teaching professionals with the necessary knowledge to understand the gap that currently exists in educational leadership along with a starting point to address it. Research indicates that less than 10% of texts in educational leadership convey positive aspects of leadership. Therefore, we know more about problems, deviance and disengagement, than how to create a positive climate in schools, and help teachers to thrive and to achieve their optimal human potential.This accessible, evidence-based guide to fostering trust, authenticity, growing leadership wisdom, spotting employees' potential, strength-based leadership, developing team's resilience, psychological capital, job crafting, positive identities and many more, is an invaluable resource and must-read for all teaching professionals.

This landmark book translates positive and asset-based understandings of organizations to develop a powerful model of school leadership that is grounded in both existing research and the complexities of life in schools. The authors—both senior scholars in educational leadership—apply insights from positive psychology to the role and function of educational leaders. The Positive School Leadership (PSL) model draws on the strengths of relationships among staff and the broader school community to communicate and instill shared values and a common mission. This book builds a compelling case for creating a more inclusive, less “mechanistic” approach to leadership. Designed to engage both the hearts and minds of readers, the text is organized around reflective questioning of educational practice and current assumptions about the purposes and goals of leadership in schools. “This integrated theory of leadership is compelling, useable, and grounded in research . . . an essential and inspiring read.” —Michelle D. Young, University Council for Educational Administration “Murphy and Louis offer a hopeful vision of leadership for those facing the enormous challenges of school improvement.” —Daniel L. Duke, University of Virginia “Let the renewal of leadership and organizations begin, and let it be guided by this fine body of work.” —Alan J. Daly, University of California, San Diego “In a world of education reforms that have fallen short of expectations, Murphy and Louis make a strong case that positive leadership can create the foundation for sustainable change.” —Philip Hallinger, Mahidol University

Most educators will agree that they would love to see each student and staff member in schools flourish. Furthermore, it would be great to see entire communities experience the transformative power of circumstances that feature happy and vibrant learning. However, what does it mean to experience flourishing in schools? What is the role of positive leadership in this process? What can we learn from inquiring into the positive emotional and social aspects of the work of school leaders? Building on our research on flourishing in schools, this book highlights the stories and perspectives of educators and school leaders at all levels of the school system and demonstrate the intricacies of how positive leadership contributes to well-being in schools and encourages flourishing in these schools. This book aligns with a growing shift in psychology and organizational studies to frame research using phenomena and constructs such as resilience, compassion, hope, efficacy, self-determination and meaningfulness at work and in other areas of life. Research findings from the disciplines of both positive psychology and positive organization studies bring these positive research intelligences into the field of education to study what works in school leadership practices, what goes well, what supports growth, and what brings vitality to people in school organizations. Research in positive psychology contends that attending to the strengths, positive outlooks, habits and mental models, as opposed to a deficit-oriented perspective, is beneficial to increasing subjective wellbeing, by increasing resilience, vitality, and happiness and decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression. How we imagine leading, teaching and learning in schools are implicated in these understandings and help us to contemplate the benefits of focus positive leadership in school organizations. Powerful insights into human inquiry and positive psychology are gained through qualitative study and most of the chapters of this book are grounded in such research. Importantly, chapters in this book provide a varied repertoire of answers to the question that underpins this shift in research toward a positive organizational perspective: How does positive leadership leverage what works well to instill in each community member a sense of their value and capacity to contribute, encourage wellbeing for all and create school contexts of flourishing? This edited collection provides many examples, invitations, and inspiration for readers to notice in their own contexts in ways that encourage them to shift and grow through moving toward appreciative, strengths-based, positive approaches to teaching, learning, and, especially, leading in all school contexts.

The Science of Positive Psychology, Student Performance and Wellbeing is dedicated to pre-kindergarten and all school aged children and young adults. It is a support to parents and to educational organisations on how we can support our children to develop to be confident, happy and thriving individuals. The theory is based on the La Mer Wellbeing Model, a framework developed by Christina Aloisio. LA MER WELLBEING MODEL To live a life to ones ultimate capacity our 3 chambers of the La Mer Wellbeing Model are equally important as the other and they should all be balanced.

Positive Psychology and Change explores how areas of positive psychology such as strengths, flow, and psychological capital can be applied to the everyday challenges of leading a dynamic and adaptive work community, and how collaborative group approaches to transformational change can be combined with a positive mindset to maintain optimism and motivation in an unpredictable working environment. Articulates a unique vision for organizational leadership in the 21st century that combines positive psychology, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), and collaborative group technologies Focuses on four specific co-creative approaches (Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, World Café and SimuReal) and the ways in which they surpass traditional methods for organizational change Explains the latest theory, research, and practice, and translates it into concrete, actionable ideas for meeting the day-to-day challenges of effective and adaptive leadership and management Includes learning features such as boxed text, short case studies, stories, and cartoons

This book provides an explanation of the key tenets of Positive Psychology and examines the practical application of this research to education. It balances academic findings from the thriving field of Positive Psychology, whilst exploring the adaptation of this science into an innovative radical new approach to teaching called Positive Education.

In an increasingly complex and ever-changing education landscape, school leadership is a rewarding but multifaceted profession. In order to survive in the job long term, school leaders need to understand how they can lead with positivity and purpose, all the while avoiding stress, coping with adversity, and taking better care of themselves physically and mentally. With teacher wellbeing and retention a growing concern, it is essential school leaders pass on this confidence and optimism to their staff members too. In this thought-provoking book, James Hilton explores ten traits of resilience and demonstrates to school leaders how they can embed these traits into their own practice and into their school to create a climate of resilience in every classroom. Ten Traits of Resilience is packed with practical advice, tips and reflective questions to help school leaders evaluate and improve their current practice, and threaded throughout are also perspectives from a number of education experts, including Ross Morrison McGill, Patrick Ottley-O'Connor, Viv Grant and Kim Johnson. With a foreword by happiness expert, Dr Andy Cope, this book is ideal for all school leaders and aspiring school leaders looking to promote and maintain a culture of resilience in their schools, in order to improve their own mental health and wellbeing, and that of their staff and pupils too.