Leading Futures by Alma Harris

Leading Futures by Alma Harris

A first-of-its-kind book on educational leadership with a global perspective This book offers multiple perspectives on educational leadership from the viewpoint of scholars, policymakers and practitioners. It considers leadership in context and highlights the importance of cultural influences in shaping and forming leadership practices. It is primarily concerned with ‘leading futures’ and the challenges faced by leading schools and school systems in an era of fast-paced technological change. It looks at leadership practices across four different levels (system, professional, leader and learner) and explores the connections therein. The book argues that these four levels are often viewed and described independently but in reality they are inherently interconnected and integrally related. In short, this book takes a multilevel, multicultural and multicontextual look at contemporary educational–leadership practice. Through this comparative lens, it presents new ideas, knowledge and insights that would be relevant and ultimately useful to educational leaders around the globe.

School leaders can play powerful roles in igniting student learning, but all too often policy-makers have advocated technical approaches to leadership development that are blind to the cultural and contextual dynamics of schoolsLeading Futures provides the intellectual armamentarium for a refreshing contrast to this general pattern. Based upon an ambitious international study of school leadership practices—including those in under- investigated nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia—the authors provide a series of nuanced analysis in a single book that will catapult the whole field of educational leadership forward. This book is true tour de force that will be read and re-read many times by all of us endeavouring to keep abreast of the exciting new transformations in education around the world today.

-- Dennis Shirley

Leadership is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in producing successful and widespread educational change. But leadership does not look the same in all contexts and cultures. Leading Futures brings together scholars and writers on educational leadership from around the world to remind us that more and better comparative studies are needed that look at leadership from many angles. The editors of this book are themselves leaders of change on a global scale. Like them, this book challenges all of us to rethink all the things we thought were universally true about leadership and its effectiveness. A mustread for anyone who wants to extend their understanding of leadership beyond their own domain.

-- Andy Hargreaves

While it has been readily acknowledged for some time that school leaders play a significant role in educational success, their roles and quality of leadership have become even more significant in the present context of important new demands being made on schools, teachers and pupils. Significant and ambitious reform initiatives are being launched by governments globally in response to globalization’s opportunities and challenges. Leading Futures is a very welcome contribution to studying leadership challenges in this new context. Drawing on an international study of school leadership, its careful attention to the interplay of culture and context throws up interesting insights, which will move the study and practice of school leadership forward in significant ways. An important new book that deserves wide readership and careful study.

-- S. Gopinathan
This book is true tour de force that will be read and re-read many times by all of us endeavouring to keep abreast of the exciting new transformations in education around the world today. 
-- Dennis Shirley

"A must read for anyone who wants to extend their understanding of leadership beyond their own domain."

-- Andy Hargreaves,

Alma Harris is Professor of Educational Leadership at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Since September 2012, she has been the Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya (UM). In 2010–2012 she was a senior policy adviser to the Welsh Government. Professor Harris holds visiting professorial posts at Moscow Higher School of Economics, Nottingham Business School, University of Wales and the University of Southampton. She is currently Past President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Professor Harris has published many books including Distributed Leadership Matters (2013), and Uplifting Leadership (2014) with Andy Hargreaves and Alan Boyle. Michelle S. Jones is Deputy Director at the Institute of Educational Leadership, UM, where she focuses upon academic development and internationalization. In 2008, she became a school effectiveness associate for the Welsh Government and subsequently a professional education adviser assisting teachers’ and principals’ professional learning in over 2,000 schools. Dr Jones has also been working with government agencies in England, Russia, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia to contribute to the design and delivery of their professional learning programmes.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9789351502555
ISBN 10	9351502554
Title	Leading Futures
Author	Alma Harris
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
Year published	2015-12-01
Number of pages	284
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.