The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective, 6th Edition

In its revised sixth edition, The Principalship continues to emphasize school culture, standards, and building community, while also providing a moral basis for leadership as a means of navigating contextual issues and constraints that principals routinely face. Studying The Principalship, future principals will explore in-depth the array of decisions that they will be confronted with and how those decisions will affect students, teachers, and school policy.

Extensively updated, the new edition emphasizes diversity as a part of community building; the importance of instructional and shared leadership; and the building of communities of practice, while the book’s trademark concentration on reflective practice is maintained throughout the text. The sixth edition also contains a new “Some Reflections” feature that appears in most chapters and that offers students a chance for further critical thinking and enriched class discussions.

The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective, Sixth Edition

Thomas J. Sergiovanni (0-205-57858-6)

The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective focuses on how school leaders can create outstanding schools using reflective practice and moral authority.

New to This Edition

• Expanded coverage of instructional leadership emphasizes the principal’s role in helping to plan, provide, and supervise teaching and learning (Chapters 12 and 13).
• Case studies describing effective schools encourage students to engage in decision-making about the topics discussed.
• Discussions about the building of communities of practice (Chapter 5) and shared leadership (Chapter 8) describe these as a way to move beyond collegiality to the development of a shared practice that is more effective for student achievement.
• Helping teachers become smarter at what they do, a theme of past editions, continues as a theme of this edition with an all new emphasis on the development of smart schools where individual intelligences are aggregated.   Smart schools lead to smart students.
• “Some Reflections” features have been added to most chapters as a way to involve the reader in reflection and to provide groups of readers with a shared experience that will enrich classroom discussions.
• A new online Instructor’s Manual with test questions is available to adopters of this text by contacting your local representative.

Here’s what a colleague says about this book…

“One of the best, if not the best, texts ever written for aspiring school administrators. The gentle blend of theory and practicality make it a must read for aspiring school administrators. I enjoyed teaching from this text more than any other.”

–Philip V. Bender, Indiana State University