Book

Centering Educational Administration: Cultivating Meaning, Community, Responsibility. Topics in Educational Leadership

Starratt, Robert J

2003

Overview

This book was written out of conviction that educational administrator preparation programs need to become more responsive to changes and challenges in the complex and dynamic social arena of education. In part 1, three main themes are developed--cultivating meaning, cultivating community, and cultivating moral responsibility--which are then positioned against national themes about the core of educational administration: school improvement, democratic community, and social justice. Leadership is viewed as organically related to teaching and learning, as concerned with internal capacity building in response to state-imposed accountability pressures. Part 2 attempts to place the working out of these themes within the organizational and institutional life of the school. Educational administrators are asked to bring contemporary philosophical, ethical, and anthropological issues, as well as learning theory, social theory, and political theory into their thinking about daily school operations. The book asserts that school improvement narrowly defined as improving results on high-stakes tests can likewise place the nation at risk. Exercises challenge readers to use the ideas of each chapter to analyze current practices in their schools and to propose concrete changes to improve the teaching and learning environment of their schools. Each chapter concludes with a list of references. (RT)

• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
• Subject: Administrator Education / Administrator Guides / Administrator Responsibility / Educational Administration / Higher Education / Leadership Responsibility
• ISBN: 0805842381, 9780805842388