Leadership and Sustainability – System Thinkers in Action

Citation

Davies, B. (2005), "Leadership and Sustainability – System Thinkers in Action", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 268-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540510591048

Michael Fullan has again written and insightful an accessible book. It is refreshing to find an academic of Fullan's standing who asserts the relevance of practice informing theory and theory informing practice. The challenge of the standards‐driven agenda in Western education systems is to move beyond the Bush administration's “No Child Left Behind” legislation, often regarded as “no child left untested” and mirrored in England by the Blair administration's increasing pressure to raise the scores of children tested in the SATs regime beyond the average! In this context Michael Fullan has risen to the challenge admirably.

Fullan uses the concept of school leaders being system thinkers in action. By this he means leaders having the ability to understand and operate in the wider education system as well as leading their own organisation. He coins the delightful phrase of “doers with big minds” for leaders who build in sustainability. The book starts with a timely reminder of the apparent success of educational reform and the danger points that it throws up. It is followed by an articulate and perceptive discussion of the nature of sustainability. This forms a powerful initial critique on which to base the subsequent chapters. These focus on leadership and how we might reinterpret leadership to build a sustainable future for all our organisations. Fullan follows this by applying his ideas to leadership at the school, district and system level.

The book is an excellent read as it provides both ideas and suggestions to empower leaders in the education system. Increasingly, more and more academics write for each other and not for the practitioners who lead our schools, so this is a refreshing book. In an era of some anti‐leadership books it is refreshing to read ideas that build bridges to practitioners in order to improve schools. The book is an outstanding contribution to the resource base for leaders in schools and the wider education system.