Developing and launching a new scholarly periodical in an age of nearly ubiquitous research journals--particularly electronic journals--takes a certain vision, or madness, or a mixture of both. Launching a new scholarly journal that aims to be rigorous, accessible, and actually accessed by various audiences, into a highly competitive and unstable…

The author argues that leadership is a cultural construct embedded in symbolic processes. By culture, the author refers to the informal codes and shared assumptions of individuals who participate in an organization. An organization's members shape and are shaped by the symbols and rituals of the institution as well as the unique history from which…

In this article, the author discusses two major conclusions about initial preparation programs in the United States. On the upside, a good deal of energy and hard work is being poured into attempts to revitalize preparation programs. On the downside, people are not seeing much in the way of real improvement; that is, most of the change is on the…

Societal leadership in general and educational leadership in particular, in all parts of the world, requires persons of high moral character with ethical values that favor people of color. The United States and other countries throughout the world are in desperate need of leadership that results in social justice. As part of the growing…

Too many school leader development products currently doing the rounds in East Asia are grounded in a set of cultural assumptions about what leadership means according to Anglo-American English speaking ideals. When such perspectives and programs are used presumptuously with leaders from other cultures, whose values may be quite different, their…

One of the most influential experiences in the author's development as an educational leadership professor has been the opportunity to work with educators outside the United States. His international experiences have caused him to observe distinct and subtle differences between leadership education in the United States and other countries. The…

Leadership, like diversity, is often used in education as an all-encompassing notion, applied to a wide variety of situations, or at times, used rather loosely. The danger with such an approach is the lack of specificity. Yet, specificity can set the boundaries so narrow that one is led to believe one approach is better than another or that "one…

In the United Kingdom, a hegemonic view of the purpose of educational leadership is summarised by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) as "transform[ing] the quality of learning for all pupils." School leaders are assumed to be committed to this aim, leading to a view of schools, embedded in preparation programmes, as benign places,…

Confusion and furies about issues such as gender and sexuality present themselves as counternarratives about schooling. Rather than treat them as situations for educational administrators to manage or evade, the author proposes to use these counternarratives to fundamentally reframe educational leadership to be a profession proud of and skilled at…

Leading the modern university in the twenty-first century is a nearly impossible task. According to Parker Palmer (2006), the answer for all university presidents and faculty alike lies not in looking outward at competing demands, but in facing inward. Palmer would agree that new leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from…

Three counterbalancing realities confront the contemporary school principal and each one has the capacity to produce psychic highs and lows in the conduct and vision of principals as they lead schools to higher levels of instructional improvement and community engagement. First, contemporary principals are expected to provide an organizational…

In 1993, a Special Interest Group, "Teaching in Educational Administration" (TEA/SIG), was born at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association as a result of work of the Division A (Administration) Task Force on Teaching and Learning in Educational Administration and the particular efforts of Jane Lindle and Paul Bredeson.…

As individuals contemplate a new worldview of leadership education, they must step back to reflect on what now shapes and constrains leaders in schools. Their understandings of traditional leadership are rooted in organizational theory that is focused on rationality, effectiveness, and efficiency of bureaucratic institutions, defining the…

Leadership education has become the public education reform strategy of the new century. Spotlighting leadership education presumes that improved leadership preparation and development will yield better leadership, management, and organizational practices which, in turn, will improve teaching, student learning and student performance in schools…

Over the past 20 years two lines of argument have fostered global interest and investment in the preparation and development of school leaders. First, policymakers have increasingly come to the conclusion that education is a critical lever in social, economic, and cultural development, and that leadership is a necessary factor in creating quality…