Reliable School Leadership

Jeff Swensson served in traditional public education across the Midwest as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent for 45 years. He graduated from Amherst College, received his MAT from Northwestern University, and earned his PhD from Indiana University. Lynn Lehman served in public schools and universities in Indiana as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent, university lecturer, and assistant professor for 50 years. He earned BS, MAT, EdS, and EdD degrees from Indiana University.

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One. The Issue with Educational Leadership

What Is Leadership, Anyway?

From the Factory Floor to the Classroom: Educational Leadership

Where Does Educational Leadership Begin?

So, What Does a School Leader Sign Up For?

Virtue and Educational Leadership

Virtue: An All-Encompassing Excellence

Virtue and the Worth of Leadership

Crucial Relationships and Leadership

Relationships: First Among Equals

Relationships: Over-Choice

Relationships: Disconnected

Relationships: Imposed

Relationships: Limited

What’s A School Leader to Do?

Is Leadership a Pattern-Seeking Device?

Theories and Styles and Patterns, Oh My!

What Should Leaders Know to Serve All Students?

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Two. It’s NOT All About You

An Intervening Note

The Troubled History of Educational Leadership

Organizational Leadership First and Foremost

Virtue-Free Leadership

Virtue Kidnapped in the Free Market

Standards: Meeting the Needs of the Educational Market

Mirror, Mirror, on My Wall: A Leadership Syndrome

The Origins of Educational Leadership

The Commitments of an Educational Leader

Commitment #1: Moral Obligation of Public Education

Commitment #2: Poly-Collegial Leadership

The Conjunction of Leadership Commitments: Leading-Out

A Reimagining of Educational Leadership

The Greater Good and Educational Leadership

A Coda to this Cautionary Tale

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter 3. I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Seen So Many Trees

Educational Leadership: Tree Identification

The Pitfalls of Educational Leadership

Old Growth, Second Growth, and the Weeds

Old Growth Educational Leadership

Second Growth Educational Leadership

Educational Leadership Down in the Weeds

Management as Product

Educational Leadership Is Stuck

Is there a Forest Among those Trees?

The Forest: Functional Educational Leadership

Educational Leadership in the Indeterminate Zone

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Four. Wheat and Chaff: Educational Leadership Uncovered

The Advent of Function of Leadership

Educational Leadership as an Ecological System

The Double Helix and Functional Educational Leadership

A Return to 9th Grade Biology

The Theory and Utility of the Double Helix

Toward Functional Educational Leadership: A Definition

The Double Helix: Shaping Educational Leadership

Harvesting Educational Leadership

Can Educational Leadership Function Reliably?

Learning is Leadership Fuel

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Five. Our Students Deserve—Dynamic Instruction

The Case for Dynamic Instruction as Function

Why Leadership and Instruction Disconnect

Leadership of Instruction and Leadership for Instruction

Leadership of Instruction

Leadership for Instruction

The Original Power of Education

If Instructional Leadership Fell in a Classroom, Would It Make a Sound?

The Interminable Cacophony of Standardized Testing

Marooned on the Island of Default Culture

Transforming Backward in the Default Culture

Functional Educational Leadership: Agency and Action

Action for Functional Educational Leadership

Dynamic Instruction in a Leader’s Day

The Pedagogies of Dynamic Instruction

Complex and Soundly Structured Pedagogy

Complex Pedagogy and All Students

Can Educational Leadership Pivot?

Pivot Opportunity #1

Pivot Opportunity #2

Pivot Opportunity #3

Nuancing the Leadership Differential

Dynamic Instruction: A Rung that Students Deserve

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Six. Our Students Deserve—Ethical Leadership

The Rationale for Ethics in Leadership

Using Ethics Is Not the Same as Being Ethical

US History and Upside Down Ethics in Education

Present-Day Upside Down Ethics

Singularity and the Hard Work of Being Ethical

Is there a “How” of Being Ethical?

Integrity and Being Ethical

A Different Leadership Responsibility

Reflection as Ethical Agency

Choosing Ethics Intentionally

Direct Effects and Ethical Leadership

Direct Effects of Being Ethical

Community and Ethics

The Moral Obligation of Public Education

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Seven. Our Students Deserve—Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Wherefore Art Thou, Emotional Intelligence?

Intelligence and Leadership: A Blast from the Past

Indifference to Emotional Intelligence

Leaders and an Incomplete Map

The Behaviors of Emotional Intelligence

Social Skills: The Pea Under the Leadership Mattress

How Annoying! Emotions Interrupt Rationality

Emotional Intelligence: A Set of Abilities

The Ability Model of EI

Emotional Intelligence in a Leader’s Day

Emotional Intelligence and the Limbic System

Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance

Emotional Intelligence and Dynamic Instruction

Emotional Intelligence and Its Influence on Colleagues

The Value of Emotional Intelligence

Leadership and the Emotionally Intelligent School

Leadership Choices and the Emotionally Intelligent School

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Eight. Our Students Deserve—Public Life Education

The Erosion of Citizenship Education

Public Life and Mutuality

School Leadership and Public Life

Public Education: A Habit of Public Creation

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Citizenship Education

Islanding: Land’s End for the Intelligence of Social Balance

If Everyone Is an Island

The Premise of Islanding

Islanding: A Group Phenomenon

Islanding: An Individual Affectation

Islanding: An Educational Infestation

Public Life Education: A Transformational Leadership Function

Enacting a Transformation

Public Life Education and Democracy

Public Life Education and Dissent

The Gist of Public Life Education

DCaR and Functional Educational Leadership

The Public Thing We’re Looking For

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Nine. Enacting Functional School Leadership

A Return to the Indeterminate Zone of Educational Leadership

Marbles Throughout the Indeterminate Zone

Out of the Zone and into the Accountability Fire

Echo Leadership

Finding the Voice of Function of Leadership

Picturing Functional Educational Leadership

In the Picture: The Systemic Ecology of Intentionality

Function and the Construction of Educational Leadership

Functional Educational Leadership Is Public Work

How to Function as an Educational Leader

Misperceptions of Function and Educational Leadership

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Ten. Details, Details, Details

Details Send Signals and Signals Are Messages

Leadership of Details: Anticipation and Assessment

Anticipation of Details

Assessment of Details

Trust Is a Detail

Detail-Oriented Leadership

Inquiring for “Returns”

Surveying for “Returns”

Gardening for “Returns”

Indignity Can Be in the Details

Attention to Detail: A Leader’s Message

So Many Detail-Oriented Observers

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Eleven. Reliable Educational Leadership

The Ecology of Reliable Educational Leadership

What Should Be the Expectations for US Public Education?

The Expectation of Virtue

From Virtue: The Expectation of Reliability

Ecology of Leadership

Reliability and the Ecology of Educational Environments

Ecological Principles for Reliable Leadership

The Process of Reliable Leadership

The “Voice” of Reliability

The Active Person and Reliable Leadership

Speaking to Highly Reliable Educational Leadership

What Are the Expectations for US Public Education?

What Are the Expectations of Function?

Looking at this Chapter in the Rearview Mirror

Chapter Twelve. So Much Leadership, So Little Time

Educational Leadership: Nothing Less than the Future

Looking for Panaceas in Pandora’s Box

Expectations, Function, and the Future of Educational Leadership

Function: The Ecology of Leadership and the Ecology of Thought

Function as Competency

Functional Educational Leadership and the good and Democracy

Educational Leaders as Moral Agents

Agentic Educational Leadership

The Inescapable Dilemma of Leadership

Agency for Functional Educational Leadership

Educational Expectations Are the Future of Agency

Functional Educational Leadership: Working the Work

Speaking of Functional Educational Leadership

Looking at this Book Through the Windshield

References

About the Authors

Index