Bloomsbury Exploring School Leadership in England and the Caribbean: New Insights from a Comparative Approach

· What drives school leaders? · What do they do on a day to day basis? · What helps or constrains their decision-making? · What keeps them focused amidst challenges? Rather than applying theory to practice, Exploring School Leadership in England and the Caribbean draws on how school leaders practice and experience their own leadership. Paul Miller draws on case studies from Jamaica and England to explore what it means to be a school leader and explores a wide-range of issues, including accountability, performativity, inclusion and multiculturalism, technology, staffing and resourcing decisions. While no two school leaders will have identical experiences as a school leader, Paul Miller draws on the first-hand accounts of school leaders to show that regardless of school size, type and location there are a number of common experiences and themes. Miller acknowledges that the practice of school leadership is occurring in an uncertain economic environment, buoyed by a fast paced policy context where by targets linked to national economic development are the new normal. He concludes that school leadership is a continuous balancing act driven by and experienced through an Economic-motor model of schooling- which he proposes. Review There is much to be learned from a rigorous comparative analysis of educational leadership, and Paul Millers excellent text fully illustrates the value of such an approach. By cleverly welding together practical examples and theoretical insights, this text offers many new understandings for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in educational leadership in all contexts. Added to that, the books clear and energetic writing style makes the text readily accessible for all readers. --Chris James, Professor of Educational Leadership and Management, University of Bath, UKThis book joins the ranks of scholarly literature on school leadership. It takes the discussion in interesting pathways that highlight the similarities and differences that exist in schools in two different socio-cultural and geographical locations. Its relevance resounds in the two countries educational contexts, but more so in the Caribbean where research activities are not inscribed on educators work contracts. Thus, school leadership practices are guided by lived experiences, a practical brand of indigenised pedagogy and a healthy measure of autonomy. The comparative approach that this book has taken aptly captures the individualism and humanness of principals in both countries, attributes that are rarely noticed by most. --Gertrude Shotte, Institute of Work-Based Learning, Middlesex University, UKThe provision of a revolutionary approach towards the assessment of leadership in two different contexts is captured in this book. Against these contexts, the book focuses on the practical and theoretical approaches used, where inspirational insights into the real issues that affect school leadership are provided. In essence, it gives the template and tools necessary, to guide the development of excellent leaders in different kinds of environments. This book supports the idea that with improvement through standards in the education system and control, the emphasis is now on standards instead of structures and creativity in leading schools. Written to support excellence, it essentially indicates the need to ensure that school leaders are provided with access to research and innovations along with the ability to synthetize and utilize best practices in order to improve the quality of education in schools. Outlined by the author are practical examples of schools' real life experiences, in two entirely different contexts that can provide guidance to schools' leaders, as needed, to bring about leadership of the highest quality. Dealing with the areas of duty, accountability, social justice, diversity in addition to other real applicable issues, are enunciated, clarified and documented in such a way to provide me