Repositioning Educational Leadership: Practitioners Leading from an Inquiry Stance

This groundbreaking volume encourages today’s educational leaders to reposition the way they think about leadership and its challenges. Experienced school and district leaders reveal how they conceptualize their roles, how they learn by posing and solving problems of practice, and how they cope with increasing expectations and complexity in their work. This compilation of compelling narratives demonstrates the power and efficacy of what can happen when school, district, and other educational leaders position themselves as inquirers, bringing forth broader social justice and equity implications. Readers see how leadership can illuminate and improve many aspects of institutional life and create intellectually demanding and rich learning environments for both adults and children. At its heart, Repositioning Educational Leadership is an invitation to practitioners and scholars to make space for new critical questions and perspectives. This book nurtures an expanded discourse about leadership, generated by leaders themselves, and arising from some of the most vexing and often invisible aspects of their important work.

Book Features:

• Focuses on how taking an inquiry stance can shape the work of leaders as they address issues and challenges in day-to-day practice.
• Offers an evidence-based approach to knowledge generation that is not only productive for the specific educational institutions involved but for the field more broadly.
• Includes a range of compelling narratives that demonstrate the power and efficacy of repositioning educational leadership in a variety of roles and organizations.
• Shares the experiences of educational leaders working across sectors in a wide variety of public, independent, charter, and private settings.

James H. Lytle is a former urban school superintendent and practice professor of educational leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE). Susan L. Lytle is professor emerita of education at Penn GSE. Michael C. Johanek is senior fellow at Penn GSE and directs their Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Kathy J. Rho is assistant director of the Mid-Career Program at Penn GSE.