Sustainable School Leadership: Portraits of Individuality

by George Ngai (Author), Mike Bottery (Author), WongPing-Man (Author)

New
Paperback
2018
$54.36

We live in a complex age, with multiple challenges to the practice of educational leadership, and where there is widespread evidence of individuals wanting to retire early from leadership positions, and of fewer wishing to take up the role. This highly experienced team of cross-cultural researchers combine scholarly research with over a decade of extensive empirical research using an innovative `portrait' methodology to investigate the challenges that educational leaders on two continents currently face. The kinds of challenges described include: * the personal (e.g. being new to the job, coping with the role, approaching retirement) * the inter-personal (e.g. power relations, personal challenges with staff, parents and children) * the local (e.g. issues faced by the school in the community) * the national (e.g. government initiatives, inspection) * the global (e.g. the impact of economic forces on political and institutional management). Sustainable School Leadership then contributes to the field of educational leadership in several ways. First, the authors bring scholarly enquiry to life by providing detailed descriptions of the challenges which individual educational leaders face in different cultures in a globalised world. Second, they show how the combined insights from individual portraits provide important and meaningful critiques of national policies and organizational functioning. Such critiques can then inform current and future leadership research by a better understanding of how links between the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of education promote or discourage school leaders' sustainability. Finally, the authors present important cross-cultural comparisons of eastern and western approaches to educational leadership, suggesting that sustainability - or a lack of it - may have different roots in different cultures. Sustainable School Leadership is relevant to students on educational leadership and management courses, academics and researchers and school leaders.

Synopsis

We live in a complex age, with multiple challenges to the practice of educational leadership, and where there is widespread evidence of individuals wanting to retire early from leadership positions, and of fewer wishing to take up the role. This highly experienced team of cross-cultural researchers combine scholarly research with over a decade of extensive empirical research using an innovative `portrait' methodology to investigate the challenges that educational leaders on two continents currently face. The kinds of challenges described include: * the personal (e.g. being new to the job, coping with the role, approaching retirement) * the inter-personal (e.g. power relations, personal challenges with staff, parents and children) * the local (e.g. issues faced by the school in the community) * the national (e.g. government initiatives, inspection) * the global (e.g. the impact of economic forces on political and institutional management). Sustainable School Leadership then contributes to the field of educational leadership in several ways. First, the authors bring scholarly enquiry to life by providing detailed descriptions of the challenges which individual educational leaders face in different cultures in a globalised world. Second, they show how the combined insights from individual portraits provide important and meaningful critiques of national policies and organizational functioning. Such critiques can then inform current and future leadership research by a better understanding of how links between the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of education promote or discourage school leaders' sustainability. Finally, the authors present important cross-cultural comparisons of eastern and western approaches to educational leadership, suggesting that sustainability - or a lack of it - may have different roots in different cultures. Sustainable School Leadership is relevant to students on educational leadership and management courses, academics and researchers and school leaders.

$54.36

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 28 Jun 2018
ISBN 10: 1350005223
ISBN 13: 9781350005228
Book Overview: Uses a novel methodological approach to investigate the challenges facing school leaders as they plan for the future.

Media Reviews

A powerful and well-written text on a topic of significant contemporary interest to practitioners, students, and academics in the field of educational leadership. The writers are at the top of their game in exploring the many challenges that face school leaders across a number of countries. * Mark Brundrett, Professor of Educational Research, Liverpool John Moores University, UK *
Bottery, Ping-Man and Ngai offer an in-depth analysis of the complexity of sustainable school leadership. Through the development of portraits of school leaders in the UK and Hong Kong, the authors reveal the wicked problems of sustainability. This book is essential to the study and understanding of school leadership. * Patricia A.L. Ehrensal, Assistant Professor in the Educational Policy and Leadership Department, Cabrini University, USA *
A book that all new senior leaders should be required to read. It is both well written and challenging. Taking a cross-cultural, research focused approach, the authors have put together a challenging yet inspiring book, which offers leaders help in framing their own leadership sustainability and that of others. * Megan Crawford, Professor and Director of the Plymouth Institute of Education, University of Plymouth, UK *
This comparative study uses narrative and portraiture to uncover the deep dilemmas facing principals in the distinctive cultural contexts of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Many rich dimensions of sustainability are explored as these school leaders describe how this experience with narrative has transformed their thinking and action. The further vivid self-reflection of the authors make this a compelling read for all who are concerned about schooling and the environment. * Ruth Hayhoe, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada *
A much-needed book that presents an eloquent portrayal of the challenges characterising 21st-century school leadership. It is also a clarion call for conventional approaches to educational leadership to be revaluated if leaders are to be sustained in their roles into the future. The argument is complemented by the `lived' experiences of school leaders themselves. These portraits inject their own validity and assertiveness in conveying the complexity of contemporary school leadership, how individuals make sense of this complexity and the various ways they deal with it. Written with both passion and incisiveness, the commentary is a powerful entreaty for school leaders to engage in new ways of learning, new dispositions and new behaviours. As such, it is one of those rare expositions that carries sufficient weight to help nudge the field of Educational Leadership in a slightly different direction. * Simon Clarke, Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia, Australia *
Focuses on school leaders as individuals but refreshingly is not just an individualised analysis. Instead, compelling accounts of particular school leaders and their experiences are matched with a deeply thoughtful commentary that locates leadership within cultural, political and organisational contexts, and locally, nationally and globally as well. The complexities of school leadership come to life through the portrait methodology used and the contextual specificities highlighted. In a timely corrective to standardisation, Bottery, Ping-Man and Ngai suggest that leaders often do their best work when their individuality is supported rather than suppressed. In defying easy answers, this book is chock-full of insights for leadership practice today. * Martin Thrupp, Head of Te Whiringa School of Educational Leadership and Policy and Research, and Professor, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of Waikato, New Zealand *
An elegantly written book which analyses why so many talented school Leaders leave their jobs early and why many others are not willing to take up their role. The sensitive and comparative approach used allows the authors to go beyond the superficial and trite attempts which have prevailed. The nuanced analysis and recommendations should be compulsory reading for Government ministers planning their next new policy initiative. * Paul Morris, Professor of Comparative Education, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK *

Author Bio

Mike Bottery is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Hull, UK. He has published eight books on issues of educational leadership, values and sustainability, including The Challenges of Educational Leadership (2004) and Educational Leadership for a More Sustainable World (2016). Wong Ping-Man is Adjunct Professor of Education Administration at the University of Macau, China. He was director of leadership courses at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, China, and is currently Adjunct Professor of the Education University of Hong Kong, China. He has a long list of notable journal articles. George Ngai is Assistant Professor in educational leadership in the Education University of Hong Kong, China. He is a qualified headteacher, a school manager and has written a variety of articles in this area.