Alma Harris
Alma Harris is Professor of Education and Pro Director (Leadership Development) of The London Centre for Leadership and Learning at the Institute of Education, University of London. Alma first trained as a secondary school teacher and taught in a number of challenging schools in South Wales before being seconded to the Welsh Development Agency as a Business Development Adviser. She left teaching after her secondment to complete her PhD at Bath University in 1993, and then commenced her academic career. Her main research interests are:
- Leadership and school improvement
- Organisational development
- Educational policy and change
Alma has published widely in these fields and is well known for the accessibility of her writing for educational professionals.
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Alma has written, edited or contributed to the following books from Routledge:
Distributed School Leadership
Developing Tomorrow's Leaders
Tomorrow’s schools will need new forms of leadership. The old hierarchical models of leadership simply do not fit any longer. We need to develop new…
read more2008 | Paperback: 978-0-415-41958-1 (Routledge)
Improving Schools and Educational Systems
International Perspectives
School improvement has become a dominant feature of educational reform in many countries. The pressure upon schools to improve performance has resulted in a wide-range…
read more2008 | Paperback: 978-0-415-47931-8 (Routledge)
more information about Improving Schools and Educational Systems
Effective Leadership for School Improvement
In a complex and multi-layered world, the conventional idea of great leadership being the result of the efforts of a single individual is rapidly becoming… read more2002 | Paperback: 978-0-415-24223-3 (Routledge)
more information about Effective Leadership for School Improvement
School Improvement
What's In It For Schools?
This book aims to demystify the principles and practice of school improvement by demonstrating how successful classroom and school improvement occurs. It outlines the conditions,…
read more2002 | Paperback: 978-0-415-24921-8 (Routledge)
Leading the Improving Department
A Handbook of Staff Activities
Departmental improvement is the key to whole school improvement. This book complements existing programs of professional development and training on both national and local levels.…
read more2002 | Paperback: 978-1-85346-808-7 (David Fulton Publis)
Alma Harris is best known for her work on school improvement and leadership. Her most recent publications with Routledge focus on, firstly, international perspectives on school improvement (with Janet Chrispeels) and secondly, distributed leadership practice in schools.
Distributed School Leadership: Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders focuses on the theoretical, empirical and practical components of distributed leadership. It looks at the ways in which schools have actively sought to build leadership capacity and have distributed leadership more widely and broadly. The book challenges the individualised or heroic view of leadership and argues that leadership has to be understood as collective capacity rather than individual skills, abilities or charisma. The book covers a broad range of issues including different perspectives on distributed leadership; cases of practice and exploration of the relationship between distributed leadership and student/organisational learning outcomes. The book cites a wide range of evidence - not only in the field of education - that equates distributed leadership with positive organisational outcomes. Drawing on practical insights and evidence from schools, the book takes a normative and grounded position on distributed leadership and argues that this form of leadership is now the norm rather than the exception in high performing organisations.
The book is part of the iNET/SSAT RoutledgeFalmer series Leading School Transformation, which publishes key texts on the theme of school and system transformation. Alma is co-editor of this series with Claire Mathews and Sue Williamson, both from the SSAT (Specialist Schools and Academies Trust).
Alma's next book with Routledge Raising Achievement: Transforming Learning builds on recent research work that has focused on 20 schools in a wide variety of contexts that have transformed learning and achievement and have sustained this over a five-year period. The book will create a blend of the most insightful and powerful analyses of school and system transformation and will add to the knowledge base about school turnaround and transformation.
Alma is the Editor of the international, peer-reviewed journal School Leadership and Management, also published by Routledge. Working with her deputy editor (Dr Tracey Allen, also of the Institute of Education, London and Amanda Williams, Senior Administrator for the journal) plus a distinguished board of internationally recognised scholars, Alma has helped establish the Journal as one of the leading journals in the leadership field. The Journal is currently in its 28th Volume, and is available in over 5,000 institutions worldwide, in print and/or online formats.
Alma is currently an elected board member of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) and has held the position of Chair of the Special Interest Group on School Effectiveness and Improvement for the American Education Research Association (AERA). She is an editorial board member of International Journal of Leadership in Education, Educational Administration, Teachers and Teacher Education, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, and Leadership Journal.
Joining the Institute of Education, University of London in May 2008, Alma was previously Director of the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick, for four years. She previously held posts at the University of Nottingham, Open University and University of Bath. She has visiting professor status at the University of Victoria, Canada, University of Melbourne, Australia, University of Manitoba, Canada and University of Toronto, Canada.
