Leading Schools in Times of Change

Christopher Day · Alma Harris · Mark Hadfield · Harry Tolley · John Beresford

May 2000 · McGraw-Hill Education (UK)

About this ebook

Leadership of schools in changing times is fraught with opportunities and challenges. Leaders are expected to manage competing interests, to create conditions which form the foundation for lifelong learning, to sustain the motivation and morale of staff and to raise achievement levels of all students. Yet to date, there are few texts which examine how this is done successfully. This book seeks to meet this need. It considers effective leadership and management of schools from the perspectives of headteachers, teachers, students, ancillaries, governors and parents in a variety of reputationally good schools of different phases, locations and size. Through a mixture of participants' accounts and analysis of leadership theory, this highly readable book reveals a number of characteristics of headteachers who are both effective and successful: the centrality of personal values, people-centred leadership and the ability to manage tensions and dilemmas. The authors propose a post-transformational theory that reflects the complexity of leadership behaviour in the twenty-first century, suggesting that reliance upon rational, managerialist theory as the basis for training is inappropriate for the values-led contingency model that represents successful school leadership.

About the author

Christopher Day is Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham. He has extensive teaching and lecturing experience both in the UK and internationally and has published widely on leadership and professional development.

Alma Harris is Senior Lecturer in Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham. She is also a Research Associate of the International Centre for School Effectiveness and School Improvement at the Institute of Education, University of London.

Harry Tolley was formerly Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Nottingham and currently works as a consultant in training and human resource development. He has an ongoing interest in the professional development of teachers.

Mark Hadfield is a Lecturer in Education and a Co-ordinating Director of the Centre for Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham. He is an experienced teacher, researcher and consultant.

John Beresford worked in primary schools for over twenty years before becoming Research Officer for the Improving the Quality of Education for All School Improvement project based at the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham. He is governor of a primary school and an OFSTED inspector.