Leading Schools in Times of Change

by Day, Christopher; Harris, Alma; Hadfield, Mark; Tolley, Harry; Beresford, John; Day, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780335205820
• ISBN10: 0335205828
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Leadership of schools in changing times is fraught with opportunities and challenges. Leaders are expected to manage competing interests, to create conditions which form the foundation for lifelong learning, to sustain the motivation and morale of staff and to raise achievement levels of all students. Yet to date, there are few texts which examine how this is done successfully. This book seeks to meet this need. It considers effective leadership and management of schools from the perspectives of headteachers, teachers, students, ancillaries, governors and parents in a variety of reputationally good schools of different phases, locations and size. Through a mixture of participants' accounts and analysis of leadership theory, this highly readable book reveals a number of characteristics of headteachers who are both effective and successful: the centrality of personal values, people-centred leadership and the ability to manage tensions and dilemmas. The authors propose a post-transformational theory that reflects the complexity of leadership behaviour in the twenty-first century, suggesting that reliance upon rational, managerialist theory as the basis for training is inappropriate for the values-led contingency model that represents successful school leadership.

Author Biography

Alma Harris is Reader in Educational Management and Leadership and Co-Director of the Centre for Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Foreword	xi
Acknowledgements	xvi
Introduction	1	(5)
The changing face of headship	6	(19)
A brief historical perspective	7	(3)
The current context	10	(3)
Leadership imperatives, new directions	13	(11)
Conclusion	24	(1)
Studying leadership in schools from multiple perspectives	25	(13)
Research goals	25	(1)
Selecting the case study schools	26	(1)
Research protocol	27	(2)
Adopting a multiple perspectives approach	29	(1)
Collecting the data	30	(2)
Questionnaire	32	(1)
One-to-one interviews	32	(1)
Group interviews	33	(1)
Metaphorical response	33	(1)
Analysing the data	34	(4)
The headteachers	38	(25)
The person in the professional: linking personal ideology and educational practice	39	(5)
The leader	44	(9)
The manager	53	(5)
Costs and benefits	58	(1)
Metaphors	59	(3)
Conclusion	62	(1)
The deputies and teachers	63	(22)
The deputies	63	(1)
Leadership and management	63	(4)
The person in the professional	67	(3)
Costs and benefits	70	(1)
Managing and developing others	71	(3)
Conclusion	74	(1)
The teachers	74	(1)
Leadership and management	75	(2)
The person in the professional	77	(3)
Establishing and communicating a shared commitment to common values, ideals and standards	80	(3)
Metaphors	83	(1)
Conclusion	84	(1)
The perspectives of governors, parents and support staff	85	(25)
Leadership and management	86	(5)
Organizational management	91	(3)
The person in the professional	94	(4)
Professional leadership	98	(2)
Values and vision	100	(4)
Strategic leadership	104	(2)
Metaphors	106	(2)
Conclusion	108	(2)
The students' perspectives	110	(22)
Leadership and management	112	(3)
Organizational management	115	(3)
The person in the professional	118	(3)
Professional leadership	121	(2)
Values and vision	123	(3)
Strategic leadership	126	(1)
Metaphors	127	(4)
Conclusion	131	(1)
School leadership: tensions and dilemmas	132	(26)
Tensions and dilemmas	134	(1)
Seven tensions of school leadership	135	(11)
Three dilemmas	146	(10)
Conclusion	156	(2)
Post-transformational leadership	158	(21)
Leadership and school improvement	160	(6)
Post-transformational leadership: a values-led contingency model	166	(4)
Values-led contingency leadership	170	(5)
The future of leadership development	175	(4)
References	179	(13)
Index	192