opriate definition of leadership as it applies to the school principal in the context of American universal public education. Fundamentally, the chapter argues that a principal must embody a set of traits and capacities that are almost superhuman, given the multiplicity of constituencies that have grown up around today's public schools. However, the argument is parsed out into a discussion of leaders as having traits that evoke decisiveness and confidence. While some leaders may be effective on account of their personal charisma, and while examples abound of such leaders because of the images attached to them, others are effective because they lead by the example of their own behavior. More than this, however, the authors suggest that a leader is effective according as he or she can be the focal point of followers' creativity and buy-in to the leadership program; participatory formation, administration, and implementation of policy may be important in that regard.
More generally, there is the issue of a leadership vision and the ability of a leader to manage organizational and operational change (p. 138), while at the same time exercising responsible care for the existing systems that may be effective (or that others have a stake in maintaining). It is also the leader's role to bring in those who will be following various policies (whether new or newly enforced) as persons who can learn from and benefit from the ongoing process of transforming student learners into student achievers. (It is as if the leader must always have his or her eye on the ultimate objective, which is to enable students to learn, while managing the details of implementation of the objective in a way that does not upset the existing instructional/administrative/support labor pool.)
4. Theory, Research, Priniples: A Basis for Action AND
The foundational bias of the text becomes evident when the social-science theory underpinning contemporary education-orga...