Sustainable School Leadership : Portraits of Individuality

"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 through 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."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables Introduction Chapter 1: Leadership Sustainability: Meanings and Threats Introduction Is this important, and if so, why? Prescriptive and descriptive meanings of sustainability Threats to sustainability Conclusion: Do we only want certain kinds of leaders to be sustainable? CHAPTER TWO Sustainability and the ‘Wicked’ Reality of Educational Leadership Chapter 2: Sustainability and the ‘Wicked’ Reality of Educational Leadership Introduction A fabled golden past? New regimes, new demands An unrealizable need for certainty The tame and the wicked The limitations of the tame, the embrace of the wicked Leadership sustainability in a wicked world Conclusion: From conceptualizing to investigating the wicked reality of individual leadership CHAPTER THREE A Window into Understanding Leadership Sustainability Chapter 3: Portrait Methodology: Window into Understanding Leadership Sustainability Introduction The distinctiveness of this variation Constructing the methodology Producing a written portrait The range of portrait uses so far Benefits of this approach Leadership and confidentiality Conclusion Part 1: The Micro-Context of Sustainability Chapter 4: Individuality and Leadership Sustainability Introduction Tensions in policy imperatives for leadership Conclusion Chapter 5: Leadership, Challenges and Resilience in Two Cultures Introduction The ‘Harry C.’ portrait The ‘Emily W.’ portrait Conclusion Part 2: The Meso-Context of Sustainability Chapter 6: The Singular Contexts of Organizations Introduction The three organizational elements to be examined Introduction Organizational forms and personal sustainability Organizational focus The control of organizational discourse Discourse control and the loss of sustainability Conclusion Chapter 7: Locating Personal Sustainability within Two Organizational Contexts Introduction The organizations Organizational forms in the two organizations Sustainability in the two organizations: Forms and focus Discourse and sustainability in the two organizations Threats, support and improvement to organizational sustainability Individual sustainability: Threats, support and improvement Conclusion: Locating the micro- and meso- within macro-contexts Part 3: Macro-Contexts of Sustainability Chapter 8: Cultural Influences On Leadership Sustainability Introduction Defining ‘culture’ Western and Asian philosophical inheritances and cultural differences Issues of cognition Independence and interdependence Implications for educational leadership Cultural differences and leadership sustainability Possible remedies East Asian cultural threats to leadership sustainability? Conclusion Chapter 9: Patterns of Individual Responses to Challenges Across Two Cultures Introduction Educational leaders’ attitudes and responses to legislation Educational leaders’ attitudes and responses to inspection procedures used by their governments Educational leaders’ attitudes and responses to school numbers, parental choice and competition Effects on Time and Energy What were individual priorities when it came to their leadership? Managing personal priorities in the leadership role Conclusion: What do these patterns of response say about role sustainability? Global Influences On Leadership Sustainability Chapter 10: Global Influences On Leadership Sustainability Introduction From the national to the global Conclusion Part 4: Responses and Conclusions Chapter 11: The Impact of the Research: Tales of the Unexpected Introduction The impact of the research Why did the process have such positive effects? The first P: The person The second P: The peer The third P: The private Conclusion Chapter 12: The Contextualization of Sustainable Leadership: No Simple Answers Introduction The importance of contexts The range of wicked demands on educational leaders Managing the impossible Sustainability and the leadership role References Index 'Finalist' 2019 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award - Education Practice and Theory 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.