Responding to Resistance : Thirty Strategies to Manage Conflict in Your School (an Educational Leadership Guide to Conflict Management in the School Community)

p>Educational leadership is never conflict free. In Responding to Resistance , author William A. Sommers acknowledges this reality and presents school and district leaders with a set of wide-ranging response strategies. Whether a conflict involves staff, students, parents, or other stakeholders, this book will help you address it openly, decisively, and efficiently, so you have more time to focus on what matters most: improving learning in your school community. Use this resource to obtain approaches and guidance for managing persistent problems when other strategies do not seem to work: Become familiar with five primary causes of conflict and four dangers of ignoring conflict. Gain foundational communication skills for clarifying issues and defining problems. Discover conflict resolution strategies for teams, individuals, and large groups. Understand the research and expertise that support each response strategy. Learn from realistic vignettes that illustrate common conflicts in schools and how a leader might react effectively to overcome resistance to change. Contents: Introduction: What's the Real Problem? Chapter 1: Foundational Skills Chapter 2: Strategies for Working With Teams Chapter 3: Strategies for Working With Individuals Chapter 4: Strategies for Working With Large Groups Chapter 5: Strategies for When Nothing Seems to Work Conclusion References Index "Educational leadership is never conflict free. In Responding to Resistance: Thirty Strategies to Manage Conflict in Your School, author William A. Sommers acknowledges this reality and presents a wide-ranging set of response strategies. This book equips school and district leaders with a repertoire of skills that will allow them to react professionally and effectively when conflicts inevitably arise. Because leaders cannot prevent or even resolve all conflict, this practical resource focuses on ways to address problems openly and decisively. Whether it involves staff members, students, parents, or other stakeholders, poorly managed conflict can consume a great deal of a leader's time and energy. The commonsense tools in this book will help leaders respond to conflict efficiently in order to provide more time for improving learning in their schools"--. Provided by publisher