Canute S. Thompson – författare

In Reimagining Educational Leadership in the Caribbean, Canute S. Thompson contends that postmodernism ought to be the guiding construct in considering leadership in education and management. Postmodernism challenges convention, embraces otherness and champions the diversification of authority. Educational leadership in a postmodern era must be informed by an approach of radical inclusivity and power sharing. This approach is predicated on the assumption that students are capable of offering meaningful suggestions for improvements in the processes of teaching and delivery of learning and that practitioners possess the knowledge and experience to inform policy. At the heart of this proposed new approach to educational leadership is the contention that zones of exclusive expertise have been overturned by the advent of postmodernism: the focus of assessments and the usefulness of ideas should not be on whose ideas they are but on the merits of these ideas, regardless of source.Drawing on his original theory of Proposition MRM (modelling, respect, motivation), Thompson explores issues that face educational and other leaders in the Caribbean in a manner that has not yet been undertaken so extensively. The author examines the relationship between Proposition MRM and various elements of educational policy and practice, including critical thinking, ethics, pedagogy, sustainable development, and technical and vocational education and training.Reimagining Educational Leadership in the Caribbean is practitioner-sensitive and is written in a non-technical style to be accessible to educators at all levels and others interested in social change.

Canute S. Thompson examines the nexus between the place and scope of the educational enterprise of a country and a country's developmental prospects and experience. His central claim is that the sustainable development of a country is a function of the quality of its education system and the levels to which its citizens are educated. He argues that in this calculus, the quality of post-secondary and tertiary education systems is a determinant of a country's prospects for development. In examining the issue of underdevelopment facing the Caribbean, Thompson explains that institutions of higher learning in the region face the imperative of finding ways of becoming both more accessible and more relevant to the developmental needs of the region. Taking account of the provisions of the General Agreement on Trades in Services, he points to the disadvantages this trading arrangement poses for higher education institutions in small developing states and suggests ways in which the vulnerabilities these institutions face may be addressed.While asserting that higher education institutions, including and especially the University of the West Indies, must find ways to remain viable in a highly competitive marketplace, Thompson argues that governments of the region have a duty to ensure the survival and success of these institutions. In this vein, he advances recommendations for the public funding of access to higher education.Thompson also examines impediments to development – such as crime, the decline in social activism, weak institutional processes and leadership, and public mistrust – and explores their connection to education. He concludes that the path to sustainable regional development is dependent on improving the quality of, and access to, education, and that such improvements will in turn help contain crime, inspire social activism, strengthen institutional processes and leadership, and ultimately restore public trust.

The best leaders harness the potential of people and ideas to achieve their organization’s goal. In Reimaginative Leadership, a reconceptualization of leadership in the twenty-first century is posited. Focussing on the Caribbean, Canute S. Thompson advances a new narrative and offers a different lens from which to view leaders and workers.Divided into three parts, Reimaginative Leadership examines the origins, nature and application of a reimagined leadership based on care, courage, trust and accountability in response to the new generation of workers. Building on his earlier work in Leadership Reimagination: A Primer of Principles and Practice (2013) and Locating the Epicentre of Effective Educational Leadership in the 21st Century (2015), Thompson takes a humanistic approach and articulates nine concepts as the fundamental basis for a new theory of leadership.Intended for the leader and worker alike, Reimaginative Leadership provides a guide to navigating challenging and complex issues in the twenty-first-century organization.