Leading with a Critical Spirit

Dr. Michael E. Dantley is the recently retired Dean of the College of Education, Health and Society and Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. His research focuses on leadership, critical spirituality, and social justice especially leadership in urban school contexts.

Foreward for Leading With A Critical Spirit: New Strategies for Educational Leaders – Acknowledgments – Rationalizing A Critical Definition of Educational Leadership – The Call to Critical Educational Leadership: Anchoring, A Future Orientation, and Purpose – Aligning The Elements of Critical African American Spirituality with the Leadership Project – Critical Reflection and the Educational Leader’s Unfinishedness – Indicting Antediluvian Leadership – The Conclusion of the Matter – References – Index.

"Michael Dantley lovingly and firmly calls on scholars and practitioners in educational leadership to dig deeper in personal agency to redefine their work for greater impact. To support that 'calling,' he guides them toward a deeper examination of critical spirituality and its power to transform educational leaders."

Mark Anthony Gooden, Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Professor in Educational Leadership, Director, Endeavor Antiracist & Restorative Leadership Initiative, Chair, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University

"As we continue to live through this Dark Night of the Soul in so many areas of our lives, it is a true gift to have a text like this to enter our space to speak life to us in the field of educational leadership and beyond. Dr. Dantley has gifted us a blessing, a balm in Gilead through his words and ideas in these six chapters. Afterall six is the number of soul integration."

Judy A. Alston, Chair and Professor, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University