Routledge Leadership for Green Schools: Sustainability for Our Children, Our Communities, and Our Planet

Leadership for Green Schools provides aspiring and practicing leaders with the tools they need to facilitate the design, leadership, and management of greener, more sustainable schools. Framed by theory and research, this text draws from the fields of sustainability science, built learning environment, and educational leadership to explain what green schools look like, what role school buildings play in advancing sustainable organizational and instructional practices, and why school leaders are "greening" their leadership. Sustainability can often seem like an unreachable, utopian set of goals, but this important resource uses illustrative examples of successful schools and leaders to show how establishing and managing green schools aligns with the work they are already doing to restore engaged learning within their schools and communities. Leadership for Green Schools is a unique and important resource to help leaders reduce the environmental impact of school buildings and immerse students in purposeful, meaningful learning for a sustainable, just future. Special Features: Examples from award-winning schools and leaders―best-practices and illustrative examples throughout make whole school sustainability come to life and show how green leadership is a real possibility for the reader. Aligned with Professional Standards for Educational Leadership―provides the tools necessary for leaders to advance sustainability goals while at the same time fulfilling the core purposes of their job. End-of-chapter discussion questions―valuable pedagogical tools invite personal reflection and conversation. Review   An unparalleled contribution to school leadership. Hugely significant, perfectly timed, and wonderfully accessible. Joseph Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Chair of Education and Associate Dean, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University If Leadership for Green Schools was required reading for every school administrator and pre-service teacher, education as we know it would be transformed. Kensler and Uline make a tremendously compelling case for why green schools are indistinguishable from a 21st century education. What a tremendous contribution to our growing movement to ensure every student can learn in a school that is healthy, safe and inspiring. Rachel Gutter, Senior Vice President of Knowledge, U.S. Green Building Council and Director, Center for Green Schools. The green, healthy, sustainable schools movement is perhaps the most important educational initiative of our time. Leadership for Green Schools does a magnificent job of conveying not just the importance of this movement but the significant role school leaders play in shaping the vision, purpose, shared leadership, and vibrant learning environments for teachers as they prepare young people for an uncertain future. Jennifer Seydel, Executive Director, Green Schools National Network About the Author Lisa A. W. Kensler is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Auburn University. She received her EdD in Educational Leadership from Lehigh University in 2008 and a Master’s degree in biology from Old Dominion University in 1996. Prior to returning to her childhood stomping grounds in Pennsylvania to earn her doctorate, Lisa spent a decade serving as a secondary science teacher and teacher leader in Norfolk, VA, Annapolis, MD, and St. Louis, MO. She taught in public schools and an independent school. In all cases, she worked to create the sort of classrooms students would choose to attend, even if their attendance was not required. She empowered students to lead in the classroom and beyond. She and her students were active in Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program, designing and leading initiatives for making the world a better place. Prior to her work as an educator, Lisa was an ecologist. Early in her career she worked for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service s