Connecting Leadership and Learning

Book excerpt: Leading schools is becoming almost daily a more complex and demanding job. Connecting Leadership and Learning reassesses the purpose of schools, the nature of learning and the qualities of leadership that make schools authentic places of learning. Starting with a review of what we can claim to know – and not know – about learning, leadership and their inter-relationship, this book explores what it means to lead schools that place learning at the centre. Drawing on research from seven different country projects - including the United States, Australia and five European countries – the authors offer five key principles for practice: a focus of learning an environment for learning a learning dialogue shared leadership accountability; internal and external. These key principles have been tested by teachers, senior leaders and school students and found to be applicable across cultural and linguistic boundaries. The challenges faced by in inner city schools, whether in London or New Jersey, prove a stern test for the five principles yet, as these schools testify, they bring a new sense of hope and resolve that learning is for everyone. Based on rigorous research yet thoroughly grounded in practice, this book aims to challenge the reader with big ideas about learning and leadership, and to break new ground in thinking about where leadership and learning meet so that practitioners can see how it works in school and classroom practice. It should be of interest to all school leaders and those aspiring to the role.