Principals As Maverick Leaders

Michael Chirichello; Sharron Goldman Walker

doi:10.5771/9781610483506

Summary

After her school wins the coveted United States National Secondary Education Award, a school principal embarks upon an educational odyssey. The principal discovers that the reasons for winning the award are a sham! As her school falls apart, she begins to reflect on the stagnant school organization and the ineffective prescriptions for improvement. She wonders why as a democratic nation, American schools do not model the practice of democracy for students. The principal begins her quest to unearth the flaws in her own thinking about the way schools work in her quest to create more democratic schools. Endeavoring to understand how systems really work, the principal puts her new ideas into practice and shares with the reader the lessons learned from past practices. This book presents a guide for principals in the form of rules that suggest that educational leaders must ask themselves why they do what they do. It also takes readers through a series of vignettes focused on how principals can practice democracy in the schoolhouse, while challenging themselves and their school community.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2011
ISBN-Print: 978-1-61048-349-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-61048-350-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 252
Product type: Book Titles

1. CONTENTS No access
2. INTRODUCTION No access
1. Rule 1. ASK YOURSELF WHY SOCIETYS CHOOLS CHILDREN No access
2. Rule 2. FLUSH OUT YOUR THEORY OF ORGANIZATION No access
3. Rule 3. PROBE THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE No access
4. Rule 4. EXAMINE HOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW No access
5. Rule 5. MODIFY THE THEORY OF THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE No access
6. Rule 6. KNOW THYSELF No access
7. Rule 7. UNDERSTAND THE ONTOLOGY OF CONTROL No access
8. Rule 8. NEVER ACCEPT THE CONVENIENCE OF CONTROL No access
9. Rule 9. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARTS AND WHOLES No access
10. Rule 10. UNDERSTAND INTERACTIONS: PEOPLE, DATA, SYSTEMS, AND THEORY No access
1. Vignette 1. DRIVE FEAR FROM THE WORKPLACE No access
2. Vignette 2. CONVERSATION LEADS TO DIALOGUE No access
3. Vignette 3. BUILD CULTURE THROUGH SHARED BELIEFS No access
4. Vignette 4. LISTEN TO THE SHAREHOLDERS No access
5. Vignette 5. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WHOLE THING No access
6. Vignette 6. THE YIN IN THE YANG No access
7. Vignette 7. UNBUNDLING STRUCTURES TO FIT STUDENTS No access
8. Vignette 8. UNDERSTAND INTERACTIONS: PEOPLE, DATA, SYSTEMS, AND THEORY No access
9. Vignette 9. USE DATA TO UNCOVER DEEP-SEATED DILEMMAS No access
10. Vignette 10. SKETCH A HUMAN FACE OVER THE DATA No access
11. Vignette 11. TRANSFORM POSSIBILITIES INTO ACTUALITIES No access
12. Vignette 12. GET BUY-IN FROM THE SHAREHOLDERS No access
13. Vignette 13. THE COLLECTIVE APPROACH TRIGGERS SUCCESS No access
14. Vignette 14. THE FLAW IN EVERY PLAN No access
EPILOGUE No access Pages 243 - 246
REFERENCES No access Pages 247 - 250
ABOUT THE AUTHORS No access Pages 251 - 252