Trapped between an encroaching tide of privatization and a rocky theoretical shore, educational leadership in America's public schools is ardently researched and professionally practiced, but frequently besmirched and poorly understood. Despite the intentions of public educators to engage all students with the original power of education, disconnections caused by mandates, ideologies, and theoretical fuzziness render educational leadership unreliable. The capacities necessary for school leadership to function reliably on behalf of all students are well within the grasp of present-day public educators. But, the action or agency sufficient to enacting educational leadership reliably is on hold. Educational leadership throughout US public schools is submarined when disconnections and ideological misdirection impede the primary purpose and the moral obligation of public education. To fulfill the promises of public education and restore the intentions of educational leadership requires that educators, policymakers, and proponents of US public education reimagine the interconnections that yield the primary purpose and moral obligation of public education. Functional educational leadership is examined throughout this book as the agency necessary and sufficient for public education to discard the forces and factors that impose unreliability.
Jeff Swensson served in traditional public education across the Midwest as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent for 45 years. He graduated from Amherst College, received his MAT from Northwestern University, and earned his PhD from Indiana University. Lynn Lehman served in public schools and universities in Indiana as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent, university lecturer, and assistant professor for 50 years. He earned BS, MAT, EdS, and EdD degrees from Indiana University.
Preface Introduction Chapter One. The Issue with Educational Leadership What Is Leadership, Anyway? From the Factory Floor to the Classroom: Educational Leadership Where Does Educational Leadership Begin? So, What Does a School Leader Sign Up For? Virtue and Educational Leadership Virtue: An All-Encompassing Excellence Virtue and the Worth of Leadership Crucial Relationships and Leadership Relationships: First Among Equals Relationships: Over-Choice Relationships: Disconnected Relationships: Imposed Relationships: Limited What's A School Leader to Do? Is Leadership a Pattern-Seeking Device? Theories and Styles and Patterns, Oh My! What Should Leaders Know to Serve All Students? Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Two. It's NOT All About You An Intervening Note The Troubled History of Educational Leadership Organizational Leadership First and Foremost Virtue-Free Leadership Virtue Kidnapped in the Free Market Standards: Meeting the Needs of the Educational Market Mirror, Mirror, on My Wall: A Leadership Syndrome The Origins of Educational Leadership The Commitments of an Educational Leader Commitment #1: Moral Obligation of Public Education Commitment #2: Poly-Collegial Leadership The Conjunction of Leadership Commitments: Leading-Out A Reimagining of Educational Leadership The Greater Good and Educational Leadership A Coda to this Cautionary Tale Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter 3. I Don't Think I've Ever Seen So Many Trees Educational Leadership: Tree Identification The Pitfalls of Educational Leadership Old Growth, Second Growth, and the Weeds Old Growth Educational Leadership Second Growth Educational Leadership Educational Leadership Down in the Weeds Management as Product Educational Leadership Is Stuck Is there a Forest Among those Trees? The Forest: Functional Educational Leadership Educational Leadership in the Indeterminate Zone Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Four. Wheat and Chaff: Educational Leadership Uncovered The Advent of Function of Leadership Educational Leadership as an Ecological System The Double Helix and Functional Educational Leadership A Return to 9th Grade Biology The Theory and Utility of the Double Helix Toward Functional Educational Leadership: A Definition The Double Helix: Shaping Educational Leadership Harvesting Educational Leadership Can Educational Leadership Function Reliably? Learning is Leadership Fuel Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Five. Our Students Deserve-Dynamic Instruction The Case for Dynamic Instruction as Function Why Leadership and Instruction Disconnect Leadership of Instruction and Leadership for Instruction Leadership of Instruction Leadership for Instruction The Original Power of Education If Instructional Leadership Fell in a Classroom, Would It Make a Sound? The Interminable Cacophony of Standardized Testing Marooned on the Island of Default Culture Transforming Backward in the Default Culture Functional Educational Leadership: Agency and Action Action for Functional Educational Leadership Dynamic Instruction in a Leader's Day The Pedagogies of Dynamic Instruction Complex and Soundly Structured Pedagogy Complex Pedagogy and All Students Can Educational Leadership Pivot? Pivot Opportunity #1 Pivot Opportunity #2 Pivot Opportunity #3 Nuancing the Leadership Differential Dynamic Instruction: A Rung that Students Deserve Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Six. Our Students Deserve-Ethical Leadership The Rationale for Ethics in Leadership Using Ethics Is Not the Same as Being Ethical US History and Upside Down Ethics in Education Present-Day Upside Down Ethics Singularity and the Hard Work of Being Ethical Is there a "How" of Being Ethical? Integrity and Being Ethical A Different Leadership Responsibility Reflection as Ethical Agency Choosing Ethics Intentionally Direct Effects and Ethical Leadership Direct Effects of Being Ethical Community and Ethics The Moral Obligation of Public Education Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Seven. Our Students Deserve-Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Wherefore Art Thou, Emotional Intelligence? Intelligence and Leadership: A Blast from the Past Indifference to Emotional Intelligence Leaders and an Incomplete Map The Behaviors of Emotional Intelligence Social Skills: The Pea Under the Leadership Mattress How Annoying! Emotions Interrupt Rationality Emotional Intelligence: A Set of Abilities The Ability Model of EI Emotional Intelligence in a Leader's Day Emotional Intelligence and the Limbic System Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance Emotional Intelligence and Dynamic Instruction Emotional Intelligence and Its Influence on Colleagues The Value of Emotional Intelligence Leadership and the Emotionally Intelligent School Leadership Choices and the Emotionally Intelligent School Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Eight. Our Students Deserve-Public Life Education The Erosion of Citizenship Education Public Life and Mutuality School Leadership and Public Life Public Education: A Habit of Public Creation A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Citizenship Education Islanding: Land's End for the Intelligence of Social Balance If Everyone Is an Island The Premise of Islanding Islanding: A Group Phenomenon Islanding: An Individual Affectation Islanding: An Educational Infestation Public Life Education: A Transformational Leadership Function Enacting a Transformation Public Life Education and Democracy Public Life Education and Dissent The Gist of Public Life Education DCaR and Functional Educational Leadership The Public Thing We're Looking For Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Nine. Enacting Functional School Leadership A Return to the Indeterminate Zone of Educational Leadership Marbles Throughout the Indeterminate Zone Out of the Zone and into the Accountability Fire Echo Leadership Finding the Voice of Function of Leadership Picturing Functional Educational Leadership In the Picture: The Systemic Ecology of Intentionality Function and the Construction of Educational Leadership Functional Educational Leadership Is Public Work How to Function as an Educational Leader Misperceptions of Function and Educational Leadership Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Ten. Details, Details, Details Details Send Signals and Signals Are Messages Leadership of Details: Anticipation and Assessment Anticipation of Details Assessment of Details Trust Is a Detail Detail-Oriented Leadership Inquiring for "Returns" Surveying for "Returns" Gardening for "Returns" Indignity Can Be in the Details Attention to Detail: A Leader's Message So Many Detail-Oriented Observers Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Eleven. Reliable Educational Leadership The Ecology of Reliable Educational Leadership What Should Be the Expectations for US Public Education? The Expectation of Virtue From Virtue: The Expectation of Reliability Ecology of Leadership Reliability and the Ecology of Educational Environments Ecological Principles for Reliable Leadership The Process of Reliable Leadership The "Voice" of Reliability The Active Person and Reliable Leadership Speaking to Highly Reliable Educational Leadership What Are the Expectations for US Public Education? What Are the Expectations of Function? Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror Chapter Twelve. So Much Leadership, So Little Time Educational Leadership: Nothing Less than the Future Looking for Panaceas in Pandora's Box Expectations, Function, and the Future of Educational Leadership Function: The Ecology of Leadership and the Ecology of Thought Function as Competency Functional Educational Leadership and the good and Democracy Educational Leaders as Moral Agents Agentic Educational Leadership The Inescapable Dilemma of Leadership Agency for Functional Educational Leadership Educational Expectations Are the Future of Agency Functional Educational Leadership: Working the Work Speaking of Functional Educational Leadership Looking at this Book Through the Windshield References About the Authors Index
There is no better time to reimagine leadership in education. Swensson and Lehman's Reliable School Leadership challenges aspiring and veteran educational leaders to examine what school leadership looked like during the first twenty years of this century and, then, to transform with intentionality to best serve our students for the remainder of the twenty-first century and beyond. -- Jeff Butts, superintendent, Metropolitan school district of Wayne Township Reliable School Leadership by Swensson and Lehman helps school leaders identify ways in which to transform their leadership practices. Practical application of the complex dynamic of public school leadership is shared throughout this book. The authors elevate the profession and draw upon their own successful educational leadership careers to inform current school leaders through their understanding of professional practice and scholarship in educational leadership. -- Todd Bess, executive director, Indiana Association of School Principals In Reliable School Leadership, Swensson and Lehman offer a metaphorical bridge between theory and practice for those preparing for school leadership or for current school leaders seeking to advance their practice. Reliable School Leadership is a comprehensive guide and reminder of the core tenets of public education that opens the door to "reimagining difference-making and intentionality" in our schools and for our students. -- Laurie Mullen, dean, School of Education, Towson University
