The Early Years of Leadership: The Journey Begins is distinctive for many reasons, chief among which is a strong commitment to honoring practitioners’ stories and empirical research. The chapters in this volume also represent the work of scholars and school practitioners from the global north and south. The fusion of diverse international perspectives allows for greater identification of local and global commonalities and trends that would provide aspiring and novice school principals with...

This book is motivated by our experiences in working with students and their families in urban communities. We are particularly concerned about the urgent imperative to address the endemic educational and societal challenges that pervade the lives of urban students, particularly those who live in poverty, are of minority and immigrant backgrounds, and are otherwise marginalized within the current educational discourses and practices. In spite of the fact that over the last 3 decades policy...

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that educational leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in uti...

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that higher education leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them i...

This edited collection of chapters from invited scholars, explores issues of social justice and micropolitics in educational institutions. More specifically, it examines the ways in which social justice workers navigate, or can navigate, (micro) political systems in their quest to promote social justice. Issues of social justice and micropolitics are particularly important in this day and age as standardizing regimes and polarizing forces continue to erode the already perilous condition of...

What happens to the liberal arts and science education when universities attempt to sell it as a form of job training? In Lowering Higher Education, a follow-up to their provocative 2007 book Ivory Tower Blues, James E. Côté and Anton L. Allahar explore the subverted 'idea of the university' and the forces that have set adrift the mission of these institutions. Côté and Allahar connect the corporatization of universities to a range of contentious issues within higher educ...

Aboriginal families and communities are losing their children to child welfare systems at an alarming rate. Such children have very poor futures to look forward to; rejection, abuse and belonging to nowhere are too often the fate of children in care. Academic failure, poor self-esteem and loss of identity accompany them, often right into life on the streets, experiencing lateral violence, homelessness, crime and ultimately jail, where 70 % of inmates are former children in care. This trage...

This book analyzes three previous major change efforts, outlines their strengths and limitations, and offers a successful and sustainable fourth way to integrate teacher professionalism, community engagement, government policy, and accountability.

We live in an age dominated by the cult of efficiency. Efficiency in the raging debate about public goods is often used as a code word to advance political agendas. When it is used correctly, efficiency is important: it must always be part of the conversation when resources are scarce and citizens and governments have important choices to make among competing priorities.Even when the language of efficiency is used carefully, that language alone is not enough. Unilingualism will not...

A sweeping assessment of the state of higher education today from former Harvard president Derek BokHigher Education in America is a landmark work--a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the current condition of our colleges and universities from former Harvard president Derek Bok, one of the nation's most respected education experts. Sweepingly ambitious in scope, this is a deeply informed and balanced assessment of the many strengths as well as th...

Why are some civic associations better than others at getting--and keeping--people involved in activism? From MoveOn.org to the National Rifle Association, Health Care for America Now to the Sierra Club, membership-based civic associations constantly seek to engage people in civic and political action. What makes some more effective than others? Using in-person observations, surveys, and field experiments, this book compares organizations with strong records of engaging people in health an...

This is a timely second edition of the enormously significant book which changed how teachers and community activists view their own practice. This edition concludes with personal essays by teachers, professors, and community activists explaining the direct impact which Culture and Power in the Classroom has had on their lives. Unlike many texts that discuss educational failure, this book provides a historical context for understanding underachievement in our nation. Thoroughly revised to ...