1st Edition

Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence

Edited By Kenneth Leithwood, Blair Mascall, Tiiu Strauss Copyright 2009
    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    306 Pages
    by Routledge

    Although not new, the concept of distributed (shared) leadership has re-emerged in recent years as one highly promising response to the complex challenges currently faced by schools. Responding productively to these challenges far exceeds the capacities of any individual leader. If schools are to flourish in the future, they will need to enlist the collective expertise of many more of their members and stakeholders than they have in the past. The purpose of this volume is to both present and synthesize the best available evidence about the nature, causes, and effects of distributed school leadership. The book also clarifies common misunderstandings about distributed leadership and identifies promising implications for practice and for future research. Key features include…

    Expertise – Written by the most active and widely respected scholars engaged in research on distributed leadership, the book encompasses the very latest knowledge about the nature, causes and consequences of such leadership in schools.

    Comparative Models – The book compares various approaches to distributed leadership and examines the conditions under which some approaches may be better than others in improving schools.

    Evidence-Based – Much of the popularity of distributed leadership is rooted in expectations unsupported by systematic empirical evidence. Virtually all of the available evidence about distributed approach to leadership can be found in this book.

    This book is appropriate for researchers studying school leadership, instructors and students in graduate-level school leadership courses and practicing administrators at the district and building level.

    @contents:Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence

    K. Leithwood, B. Mascall, T. Strauss (Eds.)

    Chapter 1 Introduction: Distributed Leadership: New Perspectives on an Old Idea

    Section 1

    Distributed Leadership: What It Is

    Chapter 2 Hybrid Leadership, Peter Gronn

    Chapter 3 Distributed Leadership: Paradigms, Policy and Paradox, John MacBeath

    Section 2

    How Distributed Leadership Works in Schools & Districts

    Chapter 4 Districts, Teacher Leaders and Distributed Leadership, William A Firestone, M Cecilia Martinez

    Chapter 5 School Principals at Work: A Distributed Perspective, James P. Spillane, Eric M Camburn, Amber Stitziel Pareja

    Chapter 6 Positioning the Principals in Patterns of School Leadership Distribution Stephen E. Anderson, Shawn Moore, Jingping Sun

    Chapter 7 "A Job Too Big for One": Multiple Principals and Other Nontraditional Approaches to School Leadership, W Norton Grubb, Joseph J Flessa

    Section 3

    Explaining the Effects of Distributed Leadership

    Chapter 8 Conceptualizing Distributed Leadership as a School Reform: Revisiting Job Redesign Theory, David Mayrowetz, Joseph Murphy, Karen Seashore Louis, Mark A Smylie

    Chapter 9 Distributing Leadership to Improve Outcomes for Students, Helen Timperley

    Chapter 10 Distributing Leadership to Make Schools Smarter, Kenneth Leithwood, Blair Mascall, Tiiu Strauss, Robin Sacks, Nadeem Memon, Anna Yashkina

    Chapter 11 Distributed Leadership and Knowledge Creation, Alma Harris

    Section 4

    Chapter 12 What We Have Learned and Where We Go from Here

    Biography

    Dr. Kenneth Leithwood is professor of educational leadership and policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada.

    Dr. Blair Mascall is professor of leadership and educational change at the Ontario Institute for the Studies of Education of the University of Toronto, Canada.

    Dr. Tiiu Strauss is currently project director working with Ken Leithwood in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada.