Leading Teachers, Leading Schools Series – serie

This practical book deals with the emotional and moral dimensions of school leadership. The author sets out the intra-personal and interpersonal attributes, attitudes and behaviours necessary to develop emotional and moral leadership within the school community. The book provides a range of person-centred strategies for building communities of professionally committed, relationally competent, collaborative individuals.

This practical book deals with the emotional and moral dimensions of school leadership. The author sets out the intra-personal and interpersonal attributes, attitudes and behaviours necessary to develop emotional and moral leadership within the school community. The book provides a range of person-centred strategies for building communities of professionally committed, relationally competent, collaborative individuals.

'Overall, and as one has come to expect from Fink, this is a readable text that thinks outside the box of leadership theory... I have no doubt that the text will be welcomed by many readers for an engaging style that places human interest at the heart of the discourse in the field' - Mark Brundrett, writing in Educational Management Administration and Leadership

'It is a 'must read' for those in educational leadership roles in schools, both to gain invaluable insights and to draw on a framework for individual reflection' - Professor Brent Davies, University of Hull

`I enjoyed reading this book. The combination of critical reflection of his experience in the light of relevant literature makes for a lively and thought-provoking book. I was going to say "little" book, because at times I would have liked to have read more. But on the other hand, it is the sort of book one - the academic and the leader - could read in one sitting, enjoy and come back to for some ideas. I recommend you to do so' - ESCalate

`This book provides a refreshing alternative to the rhetoric about 'superheads', and 'mavericks' that has been prevalent in some of the recent discourse about leadership. Dean Fink draws heavily upon the work of Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan and his own research with Louise Stoll so some of the ideas are familiar. However, what makes Leadership for Mortals interesting is the way in which he untangles the complexities of leadership by using genuine examples alongside the theory. Dean Fink's writing is accessible and his anecdotal style should resonate with his intended audience of current and prospective leaders' - LDR, The Magazine for School Leaders

`This book is a welcome antidote to the notion of school leaders as heroic figures. Dean Fink's commitment to enhancing the life chances of young people shines through the pages' - Kate Myers, Times Educational Supplement

`With great wisdom and insight, Dean Fink invites us into his leadership stories to masterfully illustrate that school leadership is no longer a person but an intricate network of 'mortals' working together to enhance learning experiences for students. They are truly leaders of learning, where commitment to successful learning for all students is the locus of their passion, perseverance and persuasion. Balanced with connections to respected leadership literature, this lucid and eloquent book will inspire current and future school leaders to reflect and develop their leadership practice to higher levels of effectiveness. An outstanding and optimistic read for all school leadership mortals, practitioners and scholars alike. I enjoyed it immensely' - David Eddy, Director, First-time Principals Programme, The University of Auckland

`Practitioners will find this book at the same time reassuring and challenging. Fink includes stories of leadership that highlight effective strategies and some approaches that have gone wrong. They are real and ring true and therefore credible and instructive' - Ken Thompson Principal, Gladstone Park Secondary College, Australia

`A great story about schools and their leaders progressing towards a knowledge driven world and the roads they choose to travel. Building sustainable communities of practice and the credible and varied examples of how the combination of leadership behaviour and enabling and disabling processes can make or break a successful school are clearly illustrated in Leadership for Mortals. A significant read for all aspirant and accomplished leaders' - - Jenny Lewis,Executive Officer, Australian Council for Educational Leaders

'Dean Fink brings together a wealth of learning from his own experience as a leader and learner to provide some powerful messages. This is a well-informed book with a strong theoretical basis but it is also personal and real, making sense of educational leadership in a way that is both profound and down-to-earth. School leaders in the UK and elsewhere will find inspiration, reassurance and challenge in this book' - Steve Munby, Chief Executive, National College for School Leadership

'Grounded in solid knowledge base and profound lived experience, Dean Fink's Leadership for Mortals provides deep insights on how ordinary practitioners could become great and sustainable leaders of learning. Fink's book is not a "quick-fix" how-to-do-it manual. It stimulates us to reflect on education leadership both as a personalized, value-laden journey and an art as well as reminds us of the imperative issues of extraordinary commitment, effort and determination in making a difference on leading students and teachers' learning. This is a must-read book for aspiring and serving leaders in the field of education' - Professor John Chi-kin Lee, Dean of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

'Its style is conversational and unpatronizing, yet it makes powerful statements about the key components that contribute to successful leadership. It is always practical, and readers will come away from this book knowing they have learned something that they will be keen to try out for themselves...Readers will recognise leaders good and bad that they have come across, at times being reassured that they are getting it right and at others despairing as they identify situations in which they, too, got it wrong. Fink's writing makes it clear that leadership is not exact science! He reminds us that, although we are mortals, with good mentoring and better training our own potential has a better chance of being realised, and that this is the best way to enable our students to achieve their own potential.'

Journal of Research in International Education

Leadership in recent years has become a growth industry. Politicians demand more of it, academics decry the lack of it, and potential school leaders are deciding 'to hell with it' …..we are making the business of leadership so complicated that we seem to need John Wayne at his mythological best or Xena the Warrior Princess to run a school.

Most educational leaders are not 'heroic' but rather ordinary people who through extraordinary commitment, effort, and determination have become extraordinary, and have made the people around them exceptional. Educational leadership is more art than science; it is more about character than technique; it is more about inspiration than charisma; it is more about leading students and teachers' learning than the management of things

This resource for prospective and practising school leaders:

-motivates and inspires

-addresses the challenges of contemporary school leadership

-presents a model for leadership development, selection and succession

-challenges existing and prospective leaders to develop and live by a set of core values based on students' learning

-describes and explains the 'learnings' required by effective leaders of learning

-describes the intellectual 'tool kit' that leaders can develop

-describes the trajectories through which leaders proceed, and the 'learnings' required at each stage of the leaders evolution

-presents a template for leadership development and succession.

`It should be essential reading at the National College for School Leadership' - Michael Duffy, Times Educational Supplement, Friday Magazine

`This book continues Michael Bottery's principled and persuasive assault on the application by policymakers of fashionable, shallow and decontextualised solutions (in this case leadership) to fundamental problems and issues in the definition, design and purposes of education. It is distinguished by its embeddedness in wider social science ideas and debates, enabling the challenges that schools and teachers face to be set in context, and by its sharp assessment of the impact of decades of the erosion of trust and meaning on educational work' - Jenny Ozga, Professor of Educational Research, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh

In this book Mike Bottery presents critical issues about the purposes of educational leadership.

He examines how `official' concepts of leadership are driven by demands which are not always to the educational, political, or social benefit of practitioners.

This book will help educational leaders and aspiring educational leaders to examine their own values and practice.

`It should be essential reading at the National College for School Leadership' - Michael Duffy, Times Educational Supplement, Friday Magazine

`This book continues Michael Bottery's principled and persuasive assault on the application by policymakers of fashionable, shallow and decontextualised solutions (in this case leadership) to fundamental problems and issues in the definition, design and purposes of education. It is distinguished by its embeddedness in wider social science ideas and debates, enabling the challenges that schools and teachers face to be set in context, and by its sharp assessment of the impact of decades of the erosion of trust and meaning on educational work' - Jenny Ozga, Professor of Educational Research, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh

In this book Mike Bottery presents critical issues about the purposes of educational leadership.

He examines how `official' concepts of leadership are driven by demands which are not always to the educational, political, or social benefit of practitioners.

This book will help educational leaders and aspiring educational leaders to examine their own values and practice.

`This is an important book for anyone who is serious about introducing or sustaining democratic leadership in schools. Busy practitioners will get much from it by going straight to the chapters about how democratic leadership could be made to work`- Kate Myers, Times Educational Supplement

`I found this an interesting and stimulating book. The book's ideas are a useful counterpoint to some of the daft notions of macho leadership and management being peddled in education and indeed the public sector more widely. Woods' book has the merits that, though radical, it seeks to base its recommendations in the real world and to argue that there are possibilities for change that can bring about real improvements in everyone's experience and outcomes. Matching the rhetoric of democracy with reality – or at least making them closer – might also improve the quality of our political process, and hence increase interest and reduce cynicism about politics, something which surely should be welcomed. Woods' agenda is significant and his book certainly worth reading' - ESCalate

`Philip Woods productively refocuses our attention, not on heroes and visions but on how we understand and practise within educational institutions in ways that are social and relational. He provides a realistic and yet challenging analysis of democratic leadership in ways that speak to practitioners, policy makers and researchers. We deal everyday with issues of social justice, and Philip Woods shows us how we might think differently about it, and so work for a better system of learning and schooling' - Professor Helen Gunter, School of Education, University of Manchester

'Not another bunny, but a welcome academic fox' - Kevin Avison, Steiner Waldorf Schools' Fellowship

'The theory and practice of democracy and democratic leadership have implications for how we understand what ought to be counted as `improving schools'

In this book the author focuses on the idea of democratic leadership. He examines what is meant by democratic leadership, and what forms it can take, and shows how it is relevant to school education and learning. The author shows how the ideals and theories of democratic leadership can translate into practice, and sets out some of the challenges that democratic leadership poses in the context of contemporary education .

This book challenges many of the assumptions inherent in educational policy and conventional approaches to leadership. It is about understanding and exploring both the idea of democratic leadership and its practical relevance through examples drawn from practice and research.

This book is for practitioners and students on professional development and academic courses. It will be essential reading for all policy-makers, academics and others (such as inspectors) who critically examine leadership and management of educational institutions.

'Every now and then a book is written in the field of leadership that stands out, says something different, is coherent, original and makes us really ponder and think. This is such a book - it will provoke policy-makers, academics, experienced practitioners and advanced students' - Camridge Journal & Education

`This is an important book for anyone who is serious about introducing or sustaining democratic leadership in schools. Busy practitioners will get much from it by going straight to the chapters about how democratic leadership could be made to work`- Kate Myers, Times Educational Supplement

`I found this an interesting and stimulating book. The book's ideas are a useful counterpoint to some of the daft notions of macho leadership and management being peddled in education and indeed the public sector more widely. Woods' book has the merits that, though radical, it seeks to base its recommendations in the real world and to argue that there are possibilities for change that can bring about real improvements in everyone's experience and outcomes. Matching the rhetoric of democracy with reality – or at least making them closer – might also improve the quality of our political process, and hence increase interest and reduce cynicism about politics, something which surely should be welcomed. Woods' agenda is significant and his book certainly worth reading' - ESCalate

`Philip Woods productively refocuses our attention, not on heroes and visions but on how we understand and practise within educational institutions in ways that are social and relational. He provides a realistic and yet challenging analysis of democratic leadership in ways that speak to practitioners, policy makers and researchers. We deal everyday with issues of social justice, and Philip Woods shows us how we might think differently about it, and so work for a better system of learning and schooling' - Professor Helen Gunter, School of Education, University of Manchester

'Not another bunny, but a welcome academic fox' - Kevin Avison, Steiner Waldorf Schools' Fellowship

'The theory and practice of democracy and democratic leadership have implications for how we understand what ought to be counted as `improving schools'

In this book the author focuses on the idea of democratic leadership. He examines what is meant by democratic leadership, and what forms it can take, and shows how it is relevant to school education and learning. The author shows how the ideals and theories of democratic leadership can translate into practice, and sets out some of the challenges that democratic leadership poses in the context of contemporary education .

This book challenges many of the assumptions inherent in educational policy and conventional approaches to leadership. It is about understanding and exploring both the idea of democratic leadership and its practical relevance through examples drawn from practice and research.

This book is for practitioners and students on professional development and academic courses. It will be essential reading for all policy-makers, academics and others (such as inspectors) who critically examine leadership and management of educational institutions.

'Every now and then a book is written in the field of leadership that stands out, says something different, is coherent, original and makes us really ponder and think. This is such a book - it will provoke policy-makers, academics, experienced practitioners and advanced students' - Camridge Journal & Education