Schools can be exciting, fun, challenging, fulfilling places - if educators, administrators, and students believe in themselves enough to make them that way. The role of a leader is to build that confidence in the people around them. This thought-provoking book is for principals and teachers who are striving to exercise leadership in the ongoing work of school renewal. Starratt presents a new vision and theory of educational leadership and examines the essential elements of leadership. With a distinct and unique focus, he takes an in-depth look at what "vision" means for educational leaders. Starratt discusses the many factors that can impede a school's vision--policies, programs, and organizational arrangements, not to mention the daily "messes" that are forever demanding the attention of school leaders. He shows how leaders can rise above these distractions, carry the vision into the daily routines of school life, invite others to compose a communal vision that energizes the entire community, and help others to continually refresh the vision by reflective practice. The author also focuses on students and the leadership possibilities for them within the school community; how schools are affected by the larger political, economic, social, and cultural forces in society; the challenges of educating for a mature citizenship; and how these challenges speak to the moral leadership of the principal.
