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.

"English successfully challenges the established educational community to rethink the current state of research on school leadership in the social sciences...The inclusion of theory, discourse, and stories of recognized leaders followed by chapter learning extensions that include key concepts, movie recommendations, and prompted reflective journaling makes this book a most valuable resource for the educational leadership community." —H.J. Bultinck, CHOICE "The Art of Educational Leadership provides one of the most complete examinations of leadership that I have encountered. I admire the way it urges students to think and reflect. The format allows individual learners to focus on those materials that best fit their learning style while the numerous presentations of a single topic through the different modalities strengthens the learning. This text is a fresh, new look at leadership..." —Louise L MacKay, East Tennessee State University "Fenwick W. English returns to themes of leadership he explored in more than 20 earlier books and dozens of presentation to educator audiences. He favors "re-centering educational leadership in the humanities," rather than acting on the recommendation of the business literature, and he emphasizes the use of films as a way to humanize leadership concepts." —THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR "Excellent cogent analysis of key concepts of leadership are presented in a reader friendly style." —Saul B. Grossman, Temple University Moves beyond established notions of leadership to recognize that effective leading is about drama and performance—artistry! The Art of Educational Leadership: Balancing Performance and Accountability stresses the human side of leadership. No other text on this topic demonstrates so ably the importance of artistry in leadership in a field that has been lopsidedly dominated by concepts informed by science. Presenting the idea that leadership is an art, this book: Exemplifies a balance between the science and the art of educational leadership: The real improvement of practice is rooted in the art of application, which is about context and represents the key to leadership practice. Connects content material to self-discovery: Exercises at the end of each chapter include creating a personal, reflective journal to engage the reader in and reflect upon theories and practices presented in the book. Films are suggested for viewing to illustrate the interaction between context, culture, decisions, and outcomes. Portrays multicultural leadership in action: Biography boxes throughout the book share how multicultural educational and political leaders who have been recognized as "expert" practitioners learned the art of leadership in the public arena. This is the first book in educational leadership to sketch out a balance between the science and the art of the field. The text illustrates how performance and practice represent the art, while the delineation of the skills and conceptual models represent the science.

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.

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.

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.