Nigel Bennett – författare

This book focuses upon the relationship between effectiveness and improvement in schools and colleges. The main theories and research findings concerning organizational effectiveness and improvement are brought together within this single volume. The book aims to provide an understanding of the way in which organizational effectiveness is conceptualized, measured and realized in practice. It also explores the ways in which change associated with organizational improvement is effectively managed. The emphasis throughout the book is upon making theory accessible and of practical use to those concerned with organizational effectiveness and improvement. It will assist practitioners and managers to understand how improvement can be initiated, managed and sustained at all levels within the organization.This volume forms part of the Leadership and Management in Education series. This four book series provides a carefully chosen selection of high quality readings on key contemporary themes in educational management: professional development, reflection on practice, leadership, team working, effectiveness and improvement, quality, strategy and resources. The series will be an important resource for classroom teachers and lecturers as well as those holding designated management posts in schools and colleges and will provide a valuable basis for professional development programmes.

The charismatic transformational leader, who creates a ′vision′ for the future of their organization and persuades others to follow their path towards it, is now the dominant viewpoint that underpins government policies towards leadership development in the English-speaking world.

This book offers a much-needed corrective to this orthodoxy by focusing on current research and thinking about ′leadership′ rather than ′leaders. A wide range of prominent international contributors present a rare self critical look at their own assertions and test alternative leadership models against recent research projects. They also demonstrate how their analysis is relevant to all countries where leadership is an issue.

Major features include:

]alternative theories to understanding

the nature of leadership

]how leadership could be analyzed

]re-analysis of recent research carried out by contributors in the light of one or more of the alternative theories examined

]implications of the alternative perspectives for leadership training

This book is recommended to all staff and students involved in educational leadership, management or administration programmes.

Drawing together current thinking and research by leading writers in the field, this Reader will help you to understand and critically analyse key strategic aspects of educational leadership, including:

-leadership perspectives and values

-external and internal contexts

-autonomy and accountability

-partnership and collaboration

-leading strategy and change.

The book explores major challenges for educational leaders in managing the increasingly permeable boundary between educational organisations and their external contexts and reconciling environmental expectations and internal priorities. The Reader will encourage you to positively problematize the field and reflect on current debates and issues.

This book will be an essential resource for providers and students of postgraduate level courses in educational leadership and management, as well as those involved in undertaking professional development programmes. It will also serve the reflective practitioner as personal reference when occupying or aspiring towards leadership roles in schools, colleges and other educational organisations.

Dr Maggie Preedy, Professor Nigel Bennett and Dr Christine Wise have taught, researched and published widely in the field of educational leadership and management. Maggie Preedy and Christine Wise are Senior Lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at The Open University, UK. Nigel Bennett is Emeritus Professor of Leadership and Management in Education at The Open University.