Trapped between an encroaching tide of privatization and a rocky theoretical shore, educational leadership in America's public schools is ardently researched and professionally practiced, but frequently besmirched and poorly understood. Despite the intentions of public educators to engage all students with the original power of education, disconnections caused by mandates, ideologies, and theoretical fuzziness render educational leadership unreliable. The capacities necessary for school leadership to function reliably on behalf of all students are well within the grasp of present-day public educators. But, the action or agency sufficient to enacting educational leadership reliably is on hold. Educational leadership throughout US public schools is submarined when disconnections and ideological misdirection impede the primary purpose and the moral obligation of public education. To fulfill the promises of public education and restore the intentions of educational leadership requires that educators, policymakers, and proponents of US public education reimagine the interconnections that yield the primary purpose and moral obligation of public education. Functional educational leadership is examined throughout this book as the agency necessary and sufficient for public education to discard the forces and factors that impose unreliability.
Autorentext
Jeff Swensson served in traditional public education across the Midwest as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent for forty-five years. He graduated from Amherst College, received his MAT from Northwestern University, and earned his PhD from Indiana University.
Lynn Lehman served in public schools and universities in Indiana as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent, university lecturer, and assistant professor for fifty years. He earned BS, MAT, EdS, and EdD degrees from Indiana University.
Inhalt
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One. The Issue with Educational Leadership
What Is Leadership, Anyway?
From the Factory Floor to the Classroom: Educational Leadership
Where Does Educational Leadership Begin?
So, What Does a School Leader Sign Up For?
Virtue and Educational Leadership
Virtue: An All-Encompassing Excellence
Virtue and the Worth of Leadership
Crucial Relationships and Leadership
Relationships: First Among Equals
Relationships: Over-Choice
Relationships: Disconnected
Relationships: Imposed
Relationships: Limited
What's A School Leader to Do?
Is Leadership a Pattern-Seeking Device?
Theories and Styles and Patterns, Oh My!
What Should Leaders Know to Serve All Students?
Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror
Chapter Two. It's NOT All About You
An Intervening Note
The Troubled History of Educational Leadership
Organizational Leadership First and Foremost
Virtue-Free Leadership
Virtue Kidnapped in the Free Market
Standards: Meeting the Needs of the Educational Market
Mirror, Mirror, on My Wall: A Leadership Syndrome
The Origins of Educational Leadership
The Commitments of an Educational Leader
Commitment #1: Moral Obligation of Public Education
Commitment #2: Poly-Collegial Leadership
The Conjunction of Leadership Commitments: Leading-Out
A Reimagining of Educational Leadership
The Greater Good and Educational Leadership
A Coda to this Cautionary Tale
Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror
Chapter 3. I Don't Think I've Ever Seen So Many Trees
Educational Leadership: Tree Identification
The Pitfalls of Educational Leadership
Old Growth, Second Growth, and the Weeds
Old Growth Educational Leadership
Second Growth Educational Leadership
Educational Leadership Down in the Weeds
Management as Product
Educational Leadership Is Stuck
Is there a Forest Among those Trees?
The Forest: Functional Educational Leadership
Educational Leadership in the Indeterminate Zone
Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror
Chapter Four. Wheat and Chaff: Educational Leadership Uncovered
The Advent of Function of Leadership
Educational Leadership as an Ecological System
The Double Helix and Functional Educational Leadership
A Return to 9th Grade Biology
The Theory and Utility of the Double Helix
Toward Functional Educational Leader...