1st Edition
Connecting Leadership and Learning Principles for Practice
Leading schools is becoming almost daily a more complex and demanding job. Connecting Leadership and Learning reassesses the purpose of schools, the nature of learning and the qualities of leadership that make schools authentic places of learning.
Starting with a review of what we can claim to know – and not know – about learning, leadership and their inter-relationship, this book explores what it means to lead schools that place learning at the centre. Drawing on research from seven different country projects - including the United States, Australia and five European countries – the authors offer five key principles for practice:
- a focus of learning
- an environment for learning
- a learning dialogue
- shared leadership
- accountability; internal and external.
These key principles have been tested by teachers, senior leaders and school students and found to be applicable across cultural and linguistic boundaries. The challenges faced by in inner city schools, whether in London or New Jersey, prove a stern test for the five principles yet, as these schools testify, they bring a new sense of hope and resolve that learning is for everyone.
Based on rigorous research yet thoroughly grounded in practice, this book aims to challenge the reader with big ideas about learning and leadership, and to break new ground in thinking about where leadership and learning meet so that practitioners can see how it works in school and classroom practice. It should be of interest to all school leaders and those aspiring to the role.
Introduction - John MacBeath and Neil Dempster 1. What do we know about learning? - John MacBeath 2. What we know about Leadership - Neil Dempster 3. Leadership for Learning - Sue Swaffield 4.Engineering the discourse: The methodology of the Carpe Vitam LfL project - David Frost 5. Leadership for Learning Schools - Joanne Waterhouse and Neil Dempster 6. A focus on learning - John MacBeath 7. An Environment for Learning (Principle 2) - Neil Dempster and George Bagakis 8. A learning dialogue (Principle 3) - Sue Swaffield and Neil Dempster 9. Shared Leadership - Joanne Waterhouse and Jorunn Møller 10. Shared accountability - John MacBeath 11. The legacy of the Carpe Vitam LfL project: helping schools to collaborate in a climate of competition - David Frost 12. A Question of outcomes - John MacBeath and Jorunn Møller 13. Leadership for Learning: towards a practical theory - Neil Dempster and John MacBeath
Biography
John MacBeath is Chair of Educational Leadership at University of Cambridge, UK.
Neil Dempster is Professor in Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Australia.
David Frost, Sue Swaffield and Joanne Waterhouse are all members of the Leadership for Learning team at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK.
Jorunn Moller is Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway, and George Bagakis is Associate Professor at the University of Patras, Greece.
