Annual Review of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Volume 2, 2005.

BOOK REVIEW: THE ESSENTIALS OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

REVIEWED BY: AHMED ALZAIDI

          Leadership and management of educational institutions, schools in particular to a great extent, have proved to be unique with remarkable differences compared to other organisations. The Essentials of School Leadership brings together a wide range of educationalists’ perspectives to explore the modern nature of school leadership that might be effective in the current rapidly changing world. The book draws on the experience of experts from the developed world who have a high reputation in education. In this collection, authors give a variety of leadership approaches that not only come from their experience as educationalists but also from researches as academicians. In fact, the book gives a massive contribution to the leadership and management of effective schools. It aims to equip the guides of the children, whom the editor likens to the message we send to the future in the introduction, and these leaders play an essential role in guiding them as they embark on their journey.
          Authors of this book have reputable profiles in educational leadership and management. Brent Davies, who is also the editor of the book, is a Professor of Leadership Development at the University of Hull, UK. Brent is co-authoring Strategic Leadership with Barbara J. Davie, a PhD holder who specialises in primary education. Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi, the authors of Transformational Leadership are respectively, Professor of Educational Administration and Associate Dean of Research for OISE, University of Toronto, and a senior research officer at the OISE, University of Toronto. John M. Novak, who is a Professor of Education at Brock University in St. Catherine, Ontario, Canada authors Invitational Leadership, while Robert J. Starratt, who is a Professor of Educational Administration at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College author’s Ethical leadership. Geoff Southworth, who is a Professor at the University of Reading and Director of Research at the National College for School is the author of Learning-centred Leadership.
          Others include Linder Lambert, who is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Hayward and president of Lambert Leadership Development. She wrote Constructivist Leadership. Terrence E. Deal, who is the author of Poetical and Political Leadership, is a former teacher, principal, police officer and administrator who received his PhD in Educational Administration and Sociology from Stanford University. Brenda Beatty wrote Emotional Leadership, and she teaches, consults and conducts research on emotions of leadership, school improvement etc. Brenda is also a graduate researcher for Dr. Andy Hargreaves at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) University of Toronto. Entrepreneurial Leadership, which is in chapter 9, is authored by two educationalists; Gilbert C. Hentschke, who is professor of Education and Management at the University of South California and Brian J. Cardwell, who is Managing Director of Educational Transformations in Melbourne and Dean of Education at the University of Tasmania. Alma Harris, who is Professor of School Leadership and Director of Leadership, Policy and Improvement Unit at the Institute of Education, University of Warwick, wrote about Distributed Leadership in chapter 10. Finally, the topic of Sustainable Leadership was written by Andy Hargreaves, the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, in chapter eleven.
          As indicated in the introduction of this review, all chapters aim at embedding sustainable, effective and efficient leadership in schools. However, the reviewer is interested in five of the chapters, which in fact, are also representing the rest of the book. Strategic, Transformational, Ethical, Distributed and Sustainable Leadership are the approaches which seem to be the solution to the current and future leadership problems in schools. Despite the fact that the book draws experience from the developed world, it is suggested that these chapters are practical and effective in the developing world as well. Strategic leadership, which is based on people, contextual and procedural wisdom (p.23), strives to place emphasis on future organisational affairs, as well as sorting out current issues. This is backed by Sustainable leadership in chapter eleven, whereby the author suggests that the only remedy for educational leadership crisis brought on by a pervasive collapse of trust in our communities, lack of qualified leaders and challenge from globalisation (p.176). This concedes that strategic leadership is possible, for it also emphasises on the future of the organisation.
          Meanwhile, Starratt in chapter four builds on what is emphasised in chapter one and eleven by insisting leaders should be ethical. This is to maintain sustainability of leadership quality as he argues that leaders should act humanly by enabling and supporting teachers, non-teaching staff and pupils (p.62). Moreover, Harris in chapter ten gives a clear suggestion on how to distribute leadership among both teaching and non teaching staff in schools. She suggests the staff should be empowered by being entrusted and authoritative in their areas of expertise (p.162). Truly, this builds teachers’ self-esteem, confidence and leadership experience, and at this point Distributed Leadership coincides with sustainable, ethical and strategic leadership. Finally chapter two gives the idea that leadership should not be only transactional but transformational. This is important approach in a situation whereby leaders need to make major changes in a school to bring about effectiveness and efficiency.
          However, this book, which has come about in the early years of this century, fails to cover other important leadership matters in education. For example, as far as Millennium Development Goals are concerned, authors’ experience, findings and perspectives did not accurately reflect the role of leadership in achieving the MDGs in Education for All. This is also due to the reason that the book did not focus on a setting in developing countries where education is suffering from poor leadership. In addition, most of the authors leave some of the important concepts/ideas undefined. For example, Harris informs us that there is no exact definition of the concept distributed leadership. This may lead to different interpretations, which in the end might divert the whole concept. Lastly, some of the leadership approaches seem to be imaginary since the authors do not really provide concrete examples of where they have worked and how effective they proved to be.
          Despite these shortcomings, still the book holds enough water to make educational leaders to guide pupils to a better future. Also, the content of the book can still be translated into a global context, especially in developing countries like those in Africa, Arab countries and Latin America.