Principal Difference: Key Issues in School Leadership and How to Deal with Them Successfully - Softcover

Church, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551381931 ISBN 13: 9781551381930

Publisher: Pembroke Publishers, 2005

Synopsis

Principals in today's schools face the complex challenge of being both visionary educational leaders and effective managers. They struggle to meet the conflicting needs and expectations of the staff and students, the parents, trustees, and even those in the wider community. They constantly strive to create a quality school environment that encourages learning for all.

A teacher educator, researcher and consultant, Susan Church has a long-standing interest in the complexities and challenges of educational leadership. In The Principal Difference she explores the issues that confront school administrators, and demonstrates how best to provide the leadership today's schools need. It draws on the latest research and personal case studies to outline how educational leaders can:meet both external expectations and their school's own stated goals;be accessible, responsible, and accountable;respond to and make use of outside assessments;encourage and respect cultural diversity;work collaboratively with teachers and other staff members;engage students, parents, and members of the community.

While demanding and at times stressful, the work of a principal can offer great rewards. This practical book shows principals how to transform their schools into more efficient, responsive learning communities as they learn to better meet the needs of students, staff, and the whole community.

About this title

About the Author

Susan received her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, her M.Ed. degree in secondary education from Boston University, an M.A. in special education from Acadia University, and her Ph.D. from the University of South Australia.

She has served as a classroom and resource teacher, special education consultant, curriculum and subsystem supervisor, superintendent of education services, assistant superintendent of schools, and graduate and undergraduate teacher educator. She is currently a part-time faculty member at Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia. In recent years she's also worked as a curriculum consultant and writer for literacy materials in Jamaica, and recruited educators in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

"For most of the last two decades of my career in public education, I was a central office administrator," Susan says. "While that leadership work had its rewards, it took me away from teaching. Now, however, as a teacher educator, I have come full circle, back to the direct interaction with learners that I enjoyed so much when I began my career. I value the intellectual engagement, the opportunity both to share what I've learned over the years and to learn from my students, and the time I now have to read and consider the current professional and scholarly literature in a more leisurely and thoughtful manner. It's a particular delight to be working in the area of literacy again, where I can explore the pleasures and power of language with my undergraduate and graduate students and through my own reading and writing."

Edition details

• Publisher: Pembroke Publishers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1551381931
• ISBN 13: 9781551381930
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128