The Art of Educational Leadership
Balancing Performance and Accountability
- Fenwick W. English - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
No other text on this topic demonstrates so ably how the field has been lopsidedly dominated by science to the detriment of art. Leadership cannot be improved by simply defining it better; it has to be practiced. The real improvement of practice is rooted in the art, i.e., the application.
Key Features:
o Presentation of the idea that leadership is an art, the practice of leadership is not a science but an applied art
o Content material is connected to self-discovery and learning how to be critically reflective via journal writing
o Connection to films as an excellent method to learn about leading in context.
Each chapter has a glossary of critical terms and concepts which help the reader learn and understand important vocabulary.
"Fenwick W. English returns to themes of leadership he explored in more than 20 earlier books and dozens of presentation to educator audiences. He favors "re-centering educational leadership in the humanities," rather than acting on the recommendation of the business literature, and he emphasizes the use of films as a way to humanize leadership concepts."
—THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
"English successfully challenges the established educational community to rethink the current state of research on school leadership in the social sciences...The inclusion of theory, discourse, and stories of recognized leaders followed by chapter learning extensions that include key concepts, movie recommendations, and prompted reflective journaling makes this book a most valuable resource for the educational leadership community."
“The Art of Educational Leadership provides one of the most complete examinations of leadership that I have encountered. I admire the way it urges students to think and reflect. The format allows individual learners to focus on those materials that best fit their learning style while the numerous presentations of a single topic through the different modalities strengthens the learning. This text is a fresh, new look at leadership...”
"Excellent cogent analysis of key concepts of leadership are presented in a reader friendly style."
This textbook is highly recommended for any course exploring leadership at all levels in education settings.
The layout of the book is excellent, and easy for students to guide through the content. The book provides an introduction to all the major themes in education leadership, and includes an overview of all contemporary and mainstream theoretical perspectives. A particular strength of the the book is the focus on practice, which is often missing from these types of texts.
Although this book is highly recommended, and is an outstanding text in every respect, it is focused predominantly for the US education system; some focus on Europe and the UK would add significant strength to the content.
The resource is highly recommended for any course in leadership within education settings; and suitable for students from level three through to level seven. Highly recommended.
Excellent book. Maybe not suitable as a text book for this course, although I would like to have it as a supplemental book for assignment information gathering.
