School Level Leadership in Post-conflict Societies: The importance of context

by Clarke; Simon

• ISBN13: 9780415687096
• ISBN10: 0415687098
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

How do how different contexts influence the nature and character of school leadership? How do leaders in schools located within different environments shape their leadership according to their context? This book'¬"s concern is with leadership at the school level in contemporary post-new war societies. '¬ÜNew wars'¬" have originated in the informal wars of the second half of the 20thcentury and become prominent as authoritarian states have disintegrated. The book is predicated on the simple, yet profound, observation that leadership can only be understood within the context in which it is exercised. Schools in post-new war societies face circumstances of increasing intensity and complexity that engender a level of environmental turbulence requiring different kinds of leadership from those applying to organisations operating in less complicated and relatively stable situations. Little is known about how these contexts influence the nature of school leadership and the ways in which principals (and others) shape their leadership accordingly. This book therefore '¬Üopens up'¬" a much neglected area of research by obtaining insights from recognized experts in relation to the particular societies with which they have been most concerned in their academic and professional work. These experts provide rich and realistic portrayals of nine post-new war settings according to four main considerations: the societal context; the contemporary educational situation in the society with particular reference to schooling; the reality at the individual school level, and the nature of the leadership being provided at this level; and implications for the provision of leadership at the school level. The book will include the following depictions of post-new war settings: Angola, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Kosovo, Lebanon, Rwanda, Liberia, Ghana and Uganda. This book assembles an impressive array of international expertise that highlights the importance of context for the ways in which school leadership is understood and practised. It also reveals the challenges and influences that school leaders face as they perform their work in post-new war settings; the nature of the context within which these challenges and influences arise and the strategies school leaders adopt to deal with the complexities of their work and the reasons behind these strategies.