Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges, and Promises: Conjectures, Challenges, and Promises - Softcover

This important book chronicles the transformations that must occur in university-based leadership preparation programs to fully embrace the imperative for pedagogically centered leadership. The authors argue rightly for bringing together preparation of leaders and teachers, with its promise to establish a more humane vision of education and schooling in our nation, and above all, a commitment to the well-being of all our children. -- James G. Cibulka, PhD, Past President, Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) "The greatness of this book lies in its carefully woven argument that past discourses concerning school leadership which divide pedagogy from leadership only serve to truncate the authentic efforts of school reform that center on understanding educational leadership as a discipline in which education and leadership are interdependent. It is a must read for aspiring school leaders, those who prepare school leaders, and those who claim to understand what school leadership IS." -- Autumn Tooms Cypres, Chair, Department of Educational Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University "Readers: let go of your assumptions. This book is a guide to wondering where Educational Leadership must go. Dismantling managerial hierarchies? Pedagogically-centered leadership? Social justice leadership? These authors help us imaging how to discuss these questions. They point to the demands of global connectedness, the "net generation," the challenges to the legitimacy of dominant knowledges and power structures as well as the scary scenarios ranging from destabilized jobs to "food insecurity." Rather than holding on to add-ons to outdated assumptions, readers need to take on the intellectual challenges to move our field forward." -- Catherine Marshall, Professor of Educational Leadership, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges and Promises is a visionary piece of scholarship written by an insightful group of scholars. They call for us to question our assumptions--about learning, about schooling, and about leadership and remind us not to lose sight of each person's uniqueness as systems around the world hurtle toward standardization and hyper-organization. This book is a must-read for educational researchers, policy makers and practicing educators. It will remind you that learning is about joy, discovery and invention--for all students and for all levels of education." -- Jeffrey S. Brooks, professor, RMIT University The authors of Educational Leadership at 2050, all of whom have served as prominent leaders in the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA), have given those of us interested in educational administration as a field of study that overlaps with social justice agendas a special gift. I picked it up to skim it only to become so caught up in its content that I couldn't put it down. Why? The authors' attention to the history and moral philosophy of educational administration helped me celebrate once again social justice as a vision for democratic organizations in general and educational leadership in particular. I say "once again" as this was the raison d'etre shared with me by my father, a Methodist minister, my mother and mentors-George S. Counts, George Axtelle and Seymour Sarason. The book's authors brought me home again with a framework that must be understood in order to be practiced everyday by educational leaders. Understanding the tradition of educational leadership is an essential but insufficient condition for meeting today's challenges. We must also decide what must be conserved or embraced and changed in order to create a better world in which educational leaders can make a positive difference that honors the dignity of all persons. Drs. English, Papa, Mullen, and Creighton give attention to the relationship between the art and science of our work. Art has traditionally focused on the uniqueness of each creation whereas science has helped us build conceptual frameworks in the interest of efficiency. The authors explore in a stimulating way how new technologies can help educational leaders work creatively and productively with others to enhance teaching and learning within and across systems. This book gives me great hope for the future of educational leadership and for continuing conversation in the important areas discussed. -- Dale L. Brubaker, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Greensboro Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges and Promises is packed with information about the current status of American education and how these current trends may manifest themselves in the future. . . . The information presented gives a clear picture of the critical education policy issues in public education today and provides the reader with a wealth of information for future reference. Educational Leadership at 2050 would be very useful as a discussion focus for professors of educational leadership who want to prepare for the future and a great resource for superintendents who want their management team to understand the forces impacting public education today and then develop a cohesive vision for the future. * AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice *

This is a practical, bold, no-holds barred look at challenges facing educational leaders and the university programs that prepare them through mid-century. It examines key continuities and discontinuities of current times for school, education, and society. Both practice and preparation occur in contested social space, the implications of which are explored in a postindustrial, digital age. The stark warning signs of the conflict roiling educational leadership includes the re-segregation and marketization of the public schools; the demonization of teacher unions; attempts to de-professionalize professional preparation; the continuing achievement gap which ignores larger social inequalities; the debasement of education degrees by online diploma mills; the escalating culture of numbers and cheating scandals; and the erosion of full-time, seasoned faculty providing leadership to university preparation programs. The promise of social justice leadership anchored in a fast-changing demographic portrait of increasing national diversity is encapsulated in the construct of leadership accoutrement's which awakens the art and science of leadership. . Finally, the authors propose the pedagogically centered leadership for creating a functional bridge between leadership and learning in preparation and practice.