In the exciting new edition of this bestselling book, Michael Fullan looks at how much has changed in the world of headship and school improvement in recent decades, and offers key guidelines for being a successful head teacher in the 21st century.

Policymakers and school reformers have increasingly pointed to the headteacher as the most important agent for change in our schools. The first edition argued that there was little point waiting for the system to improve, and urged headteachers to take charge and to assume that on any given day the system may not know what it is doing. Since then the situation has become even more complex.

The good news is that finally the role of head teacher is being recognized by politicians and policymakers as key, but the bad news is that they are overloaded with initiatives and expectations that serve only to fetter deep action. The irony is that as the head teacher is elevated as critical to success, the headship is sinking - overloaded and pulled down at the same time.

In this completely rewritten and updated new edition, Fullan furnishes six action guidelines for heads, and six for systems to enable them to make dramatic improvements in schools. He seeks a way out of the current dilemma, helping incumbent and would-be head teachers in leveraging action that will positively change the system in both small and large ways.