The nature of school leadership [electronic resource] : global practice perspectives / Paul Miller.

Includes bibliograpical references and index.

The global imperative of quality school leadership : Introduction -- towards a definition of leadership -- Cross-cultural research in educational leadership -- School leadership research from school leaders' viewpoint -- Design and methodology -- The themes of the book -- Analytical approach -- Structure of this book -- Participants -- References. 2 School leadership is personal and internally motivated : Introduction -- The issue in context: leadership, beliefs and values -- Values and leadership -- Situating leadership -- The evidence -- Personal factors -- Personal values/purpose -- Personal but a collective endeavour -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- References. 3 School leadership is policy driven and mediated : Introduction -- The issue in context: an emergent policy context -- The global policy environment -- National policy environment -- Policies as roadmap and fuel -- Policy overload and filtering -- The evidence -- Necessity of policies: providing guidance and direction -- Policy filtering and mediation -- Political environment and educational policy -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- references. 4 School leadership is change oriented : Introduction -- The issue in context: the role and purpose of education -- Education/schooling-transforming individuals -- Education/schooling-transforming national development -- The value of education -- The evidence -- Change starts with schools -- Change at the level of an individual -- Change at the level of community/society -- Change and resistance -- Change and the policy environment -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- References. 5 School leadership is teacher dependent : Introduction -- The issue in context: the work of teachers -- Teachers: agents of change -- Distributing leadership: teachers matter -- The evidence -- Teachers as partners -- Teachers as leaders -- Teachers as learning leaders -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- Reference. 6 School leadership is enterprising and entrepreneurial : Introduction -- The issue in context: identifying entrepreneurial school leadership -- Drivers of entrepreneurial school leadership -- Entrepreneurial school leadership: key attributes -- The evidence -- Market conditions: being entrepreneurial -- Marketing schools -- Creativity: being enterprising -- The political dichotomy of entrepreneurial school leadership -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- References. 7 School leadership is context dependent : Introduction -- The issue in context: identifying context -- The evidence -- Locating a school's context: place, people, system -- Context and leadership practice -- Context and purpose -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- References. 8 School leadership is partnership dependent : Introduction -- The issue in context: educational partnerships -- Partnership drivers -- Benefits of partnership working -- International school partnerships -- The evidence -- Home-school partnerships -- School based partnerships -- School-community partnerships -- Partnership benefits -- Partnership drivers and enablers -- Sustaining partnerships -- Evidence summary -- Making sense of it all -- References. 9 The nature of school leadership : Introduction -- Asserting the nature of school leadership -- Identifying the nature of school leadership -- Evidence summary.

This book explores school leadership through a cross-cultural comparative lens, drawing on data from 16 countries located on five continents. The book gives a voice to both primary and secondary school principals, who discuss the nature of their work and explain their understanding of school leadership, strategies used to support their leadership, and how they 'do leadership' in a time of unprecedented change. The book highlights a number of important elements in school leadership: that it is personal and internally-motivated; change oriented and entrepreneurial; dependent on the qualities and motivations of school teachers; dependent on environmental factors related to economy, geography, political stability; heavily influenced by policies within and outside the field of education; and dependent on partnerships within and outside education. The book provides an authoritative cross-cultural account of what school leaders regard as school leadership. It will be essential reading for students, researchers and policy-makers in the fields of educational leadership and management, in particular those with an interest in comparative and international research, school leadership, and education policy.