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The Art of Educational Leadership
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The Art of Educational Leadership
Balancing Performance and Accountability



August 2007 | 248 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Leadership Solutions

"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." —H.J. Bultinck, CHOICE

"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..."
—Louise L MacKay, East Tennessee State University

"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

"Excellent cogent analysis of key concepts of leadership are presented in a reader friendly style."
—Saul B. Grossman, Temple University

Moves beyond established notions of leadership to recognize that effective leading is about drama and performance—artistry!

The Art of Educational Leadership: Balancing Performance and Accountability stresses the human side of leadership. No other text on this topic demonstrates so ably the importance of artistry in leadership in a field that has been lopsidedly dominated by concepts informed by science.

Presenting the idea that leadership is an art, this book:

  • Exemplifies a balance between the science and the art of educational leadership: The real improvement of practice is rooted in the art of application, which is about context and represents the key to leadership practice.
  • Connects content material to self-discovery: Exercises at the end of each chapter include creating a personal, reflective journal to engage the reader in and reflect upon theories and practices presented in the book. Films are suggested for viewing to illustrate the interaction between context, culture, decisions, and outcomes.
  • Portrays multicultural leadership in action: Biography boxes throughout the book share how multicultural educational and political leaders who have been recognized as "expert" practitioners learned the art of leadership in the public arena.

This is the first book in educational leadership to sketch out a balance between the science and the art of the field. The text illustrates how performance and practice represent the art, while the delineation of the skills and conceptual models represent the science.


 
Preface
 
1. The Leadership Challenge
Leaders and Leadership are Universal in the Human Experience

 
Pursuing Graduate Study to Become the “Complete Leader”

 
Leadership Is an Art Because It Involves a Purposive Construction of Self

 
The Importance of Individual Agency

 
Leadership Is an Acquired Set of Habits and Skills

 
Why Academic Study?

 
Is There a Difference Between Leadership and Management?

 
The Basis of Authority

 
The Use of Power and Sanctions

 
Follower Relations and Interactions

 
Role Legitimacy and Relationships

 
Creativity

 
The Necessary Alliance: Leadership and Management

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
2. Archetypes of Leadership in the Human Experience
An Example of a Personal Leadership Journey

 
The Origins of Leadership

 
Leadership is Universal —But Leaders Are Contextual and Culturally Specific Actors

 
The American Monomyth in Action

 
Gender Barriers in Mythos and Religion

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
3. Mental Prisms of Leadership
Discerning Contemporary Notions of Perception and Truth

 
How Do We Know What We Perceive Is True? Theories of Truth

 
Linguistic Difficulties with Theories of Truth

 
The Uses of Truth in Science

 
Pursuing “Truth” in Educational Leadership

 
Tracing the Influence of Herbert Simon and the Doctrine of Efficiency

 
A Final Commentary About Theories of Truth

 
Pursuing Leaning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
4. Individual Human Agency and Principles of Action
The Apex of Decision-Making: The Oracle of Delphi

 
The Gardner Cognitive Model of Leadership

 
There’s No Getting Around Who the Leader Is and What Is Important

 
The Antipodes of Moral Discourse

 
A Man of Unbending Principle Changes the Center of Gravity of a Nation

 
A Pragmatic Man of the People Saves the Nation

 
The Creation of a Moral Compass

 
A Moral Compass in Contentious Times: The Case of Ted Bell

 
The Case of the Wounded Leader

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
5. Leadership as Artful Performance
Roles vs. Traits: Popular Misconceptions of Leadership

 
Determining Role Legitimacy as the Basis of Performance

 
Is Leadership Acting?

 
Real Life Drama in Chicago: A Portrait of Power Undone

 
How Followers Look to School Leaders for What They Need

 
A Portrait of Two Types of Story Tellers as Leaders

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
6. Understanding the Landscape of Educational Leadership
Central Tenets of Modernism

 
The Pseudo Scientific Epoch: Educational Leadership and the Long Shadow of “Scientific Management”

 
The Early Scientific Epoch

 
The Behaviorism Epoch

 
The Epoch of Structuralism

 
The Feminist/Critical Theory Epoch

 
The Critical Race Theory Epoch

 
The Queer Theory Epoch

 
The Postmodern Epoch

 
Kitsch Management Texts and Educational Leadership

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
7. Balancing Performance and Accountability
A Review of the Many Forms of Life Writing

 
Third Person Forms of Life Writing

 
First Person Life Writing Forms

 
Gauging the Possibilities of Life Writing to Understand Leadership

 
Confronting the Myopia of “the Field”

 
Servant Leadership: The Mind and the Heart as One

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
8. Artful Performance and National Standards
The National Leadership Standards

 
Foucault’s Concept of Apparatus

 
Problems with the Knowledge Base: Producing an Unequivocal Platform for the Normalizing Gaze and the Policing Function

 
Re-Tracing the Steps in the Developmental Process

 
Step One: Reductionism, Rationality and Core Technologies

 
Step Two: The Erasure of Context So One Size Fits All

 
Step Three: Stifling Research Dissent by the V.C.P (Vicious Circle Principle)

 
The Metaphors of Efficiency in the ISLLC Standards

 
The National Debate on Educational Leadership Preparation

 
Pursuing Learning Extensions of the Chapter

 
Writing in Your Personal Reflective Journal

 
A Review of Key Chapter Concepts

 
References

 
 
Index
 
About the Author

"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

William J. Leary
Lynn University

"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." 

H.J. Bultinck
Northeastern Illinois University
CHOICE

“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...”

Louise L MacKay
East Tennessee State University
Reviewer Quote

"Excellent cogent analysis of key concepts of leadership are presented in a reader friendly style."

Saul B. Grossman
Temple University

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.

Mr Gavin Hatton
Sociology , St David's College
January 8, 2016

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.

Mrs Catherine Keller
Pre-Paramedic Studies, Inchicore College of Further Education
April 26, 2010
Key features
This text stresses the human side of leadership as the central feature regarding credibility in the public forums where leadership is really tested. As such, leadership is an art because it involves performance as a form of public theater. 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. Application is about context and that represents the key to leadership practice.

This text is distinguished by the following features:

  • presentation of the idea that leadership is an art, the practice of leadership is not a science but an applied art
  • content material is connected to self-discovery and learning how to be critically reflective via journal writing
  • connection to films as an excellent method to learn about leading in context
  • each chapter as a glossary of critical terms and concepts which help the reader learn and understand important vocabularly

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 5


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