Edited by: James H. Lytle, Susan L. Lytle, Michael C. Johanek, Kathy J. Rho
Publication Date: September 7, 2018
Pages: 192
Series: Practitioner Inquiry Series
This groundbreaking volume encourages today’s educational leaders to reposition the way they think about leadership and its challenges. Experienced school and district leaders reveal how they conceptualize their roles, how they learn by posing and solving problems of practice, and how they cope with increasing expectations and complexity in their work. This compilation of compelling narratives demonstrates the power and efficacy of what can happen when school, district, and other educational leaders position themselves as inquirers, bringing forth broader social justice and equity implications. Readers see how leadership can illuminate and improve many aspects of institutional life and create intellectually demanding and rich learning environments for both adults and children. At its heart, Repositioning Educational Leadership is an invitation to practitioners and scholars to make space for new critical questions and perspectives. This book nurtures an expanded discourse about leadership, generated by leaders themselves, and arising from some of the most vexing and often invisible aspects of their important work.
Book Features:
James H. Lytle is a former urban school superintendent and practice professor of educational leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE). Susan L. Lytle is professor emerita of education at Penn GSE. Michael C. Johanek is senior fellow at Penn GSE and directs their Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Kathy J. Rho is assistant director of the Mid-Career Program at Penn GSE.
“Repositioning Educational Leadership: Practitioners Leading from An Inquiry Stance is a timely addition to the leadership literature. It introduces a welcome disruption by constructively challenging the positionality of the leader. Through accounts of different leadership roles, the book builds a solid case for how inquiry fits into varied leadership functions.”
—Teachers College Record
“Strong leadership is the linchpin to a successful school district. To excel at any profession or vocation, the learning process, especially for leadership positions, should never stop. This book unpacks a smorgasbord of real-life work situations that will allow the reader to reflect on these experiences and extract the best practices of leadership. Any superintendent, district administrator, or building leader will find these narratives useful because they invite you to become, as explained in the book, ‘leaders of learning.’”
—Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
“To meet the learning needs of every child and close opportunity gaps, schools and school systems must be able to continuously learn and improve. Leaders need to see themselves as the lead learners, and the practitioner-authors in this book provide invaluable insights into what this complex work of leading from an inquiry stance looks like in different contexts.”
—Irma Zardoya, president & CEO, NYC Leadership Academy
“This book is a key contribution to the reinvention of the field of educational leadership, and it is crucial for preparing future leaders.”
—Michael A. Copland, deputy superintendent, Bellingham (WA) Public Schools
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: An Educating Leadership
Rationale for the Book
Inquiry as Stance
Genesis of the Book
Lenses for Reading the Book
Practitioner Inquiry in the Leadership Literature
Revisiting the Concept of Leading from an Inquiry Stance
Design of the Book
PART I: LEARNING FROM AND WITH STUDENTS
Chapter 1. Inquiring to Lead: Learning With, From, and About International Students in Independent Schools
Melinda Bihn
Chapter 2. Language and Third Spaces
Ann Dealy
Chapter 3. Learning to Lead from the Middle: Students' Feedback on Feedback
Martha A. Richmond
Chapter 4. "Leaders Can Be Anyone": Students and Teachers Sharing Inquiry
Peter Horn
PART II: COLLABORATING WITH TEACHERS AND THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY
Chapter 5. Deepening Engagement in the Everyday: The Collective Responsibility for Seeing All Children
Patricia Cruice
Chapter 6. School as a Community of Inquiry
Noah Tennant
Chapter 7. "Smart Like a Boy": The Experiences of Women in an All-Boys Jesuit School
Kristin Ross Cully
PART III: LEADING SYSTEM-LEVEL INQUIRY
Chapter 8. Braking and Entering: A New Chief Financial Officer's Transition into a K–12 Urban School District
David Trautenberg
Chapter 9. Using Inquiry to Drive System Change
Amy Maisterra
Chapter 10. Life After the Zone
Marquitta T. Speller
Chapter 11. Our Community, Our Schools, and Our Money
Stephen Benson
Conclusion: Leading with Eyes Wide Open
Appendix A: Reading, Writing, and Talking About Leading from an Inquiry Stance
Appendix B: The Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership
About the Editors
Index
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.