Full Description
Global City School Leaders provides a new and innovative approach to understanding the policy and practice of urban educational leadership. Building on generational, global city, and educational leadership theory, the book draws on evidence from a three-year study of under-40-year-old (Generation X) principals and vice-principals in London, New York City and Toronto. In support of a truly comparative look at the new generation of leaders, the first two sections of Global City School Leaders set out a detailed strategy for developing rich profiles of the policy and practice realities of school leaders. A comprehensive profile of the city-based policy trajectories and current structure supporting the recruitment, development, and retention of school leaders serves as the foundation for an in-depth analysis of major themes emerging for the new generation of leaders. These include evolving career trajectories, professional learning, shoulder-tapping, opportunities and challenges of being a young leader, leading school improvement as well as the the important retention-related question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?".
In the final section, Karen Edge presents a ground-breaking examination of how the policies and practices shape the work of school leaders and the overall leadership pipeline. More specifically, she looks at how the following factors influence the lives and careers of school leaders: career decentralisation, the strength of the middle tier, school-level autonomy, accountability, marketisation of education support and the ambition for school-level success. She explores how the wider social policies influence the careers of leaders including health care, pensions and maternity/paternity leave. In conclusion, the author shares several recommendations for policy and practice leaders to create the conditions that will positively influence the leadership and longevity of the new generation of school leaders.
Contents
Introduction
PART I: Global Cities and Urban Educational Leaders and Leadership
1. Global Cities, Urban Education, Shifting Patterns of Educational Leadership
2. Generations at Work and the New Generation of Leaders
3. The Global City School Leaders Study
PART II: Leadership, Policy and Practice in Three Global Cities
4. London
5. New York City
6. Toronto
7. The Lives, Experiences and Aspirations of Global City School Leaders
PART III: Exploring How Systems, Structures and Policies Influence the New Generation of Leaders
8. Decentralization and the Strength of the Middle Tier
9. School Autonomy and the Locus of Hiring
10. Accountability Infrastructure and the Influence on Schools
11. Marketization of Educational Support, Intervention and Expanding Educational Actors
12. Ambition and Support for School-level Success
13. The Local, Regional and National Social Policy Landscape and the Support for Adults in the Education System
Conclusions
References
Index
