Re‐imagining Educational Leadership

Citation

Davies, B. (2007), "Re‐imagining Educational Leadership", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 569-570. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540710780064

Brian Caldwell has established his international reputation with three books, The Self‐Managing School (1988), Leading the Self‐Managing School (1992) and Beyond the Self‐Managing School (1998), co‐authored with Jim Spinks. These publications have made an outstanding contribution to the development of leadership practice globally so the reader can expect a significant special from Re‐imagining the Educational Leadership (2006). I do not believe the readers will be disappointed. Brian Caldwell has successfully brought together an analysis of past and current practice in leadership but, most significantly, he has outlined key thoughts, idea and perspectives to inspire leaders in their personal learning journey in the future.

The book is divided into four sections. The first deals with re‐imagining the self‐managing school. Caldwell critiques the need to re‐conceptualise and re‐think schools in the twenty‐first century and explains that the transformation that schools are going through creates a new image of what we consider as the self‐managing school. The author then moves on to consider what he calls “the new enterprise logic of schools.” He calls for a fundamental change in the operation of schools if they are to survive much into the twenty‐first century. His perceptive account of the nature and dimensions of the new school, the new system, the new profession and the new leader builds a compelling argument for change. In a fascinating piece of research Caldwell investigates three key questions for headteachers:

1. 1.

   What aspects of your work as leader are exhilarating?

2. 2.

   What aspects of your work as leader are boring, depressing, discouraging or dispiriting?

3. 3.

   What actions by you or others would make your work as leader more exhilarating and less boring, depressing, discouraging or dispiriting?

For each of the first two questions, Caldwell draws out the key factors that either make work exhilarating for headteachers or that make work discouraging or dispiriting. He then takes the significant step in building sustainable leadership by what he calls “shifting the balance to exhilaration” where he takes the “leadership voices” of headteachers in his research to establish six factors that would build in sustainable success. These focus around personal factors, professional factors, resource factors, autonomy, community, recognition and networking. To add to his own analysis of the situation, Caldwell draws on the expert views of three leading educationalists to unpack the importance of exhilarating leadership. In the final section he develops a critique of the implications for policy and practice in education of re‐imagining education.

This book will become one of the key sources of ideas for leadership in schools over the next few years. It is both accessible and thought provoking while never losing the practical relevance to schools and school leaders. This is a “must read” for all those involved in educational leadership and twenty‐first century schooling.