School Management & Organization, Educational Reform, Educational Leadership
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Overview
Fullan provides a comprehensive examination of what leaders at all levels of the educational system can do to promote large-scale, sustainable reform.
Synopsis
Pursue long-term sustainability without jeopardizing short-term results!
As agencies have pushed for greater performance and public accountability over the past two decades, we have seen some incremental improvements. But all too often, experience reveals that these improvements are temporary. Leadership & Sustainability provides a comprehensive examination of what leaders at all levels of the educational system can do to pave the way for large-scale, sustainable reform.
Building on ideas established in his best-selling publication The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, author Michael Fullan confronts a question that has never been addressed before: How do you develop and sustain a greater number of system thinkers in action, or new theoreticians? These proactive system leaders are at the heart of the issue of sustainability, for they are the ones to bring about deeper reform while simultaneously helping to produce other theoreticians working on the same issues.
Linking abstract concepts to concrete examples, this groundbreaking work defines an agenda for the system thinker in action, including eight elements of sustainability that can be applied to any public service or corporate institution:
- Public service with a moral purpose
- Commitment to changing the context at all levels
- Lateral capacity building through networks
- Intelligent accountability and vertical relationships
- Deep learning
- Dual commitment to short-term and long-term results
- Cyclical energizing
- The long lever of leadership
See Leadership & Sustainability (Multimedia Kit)
Editorials
Richard Ackerman
"Leadership & Sustainability extends and amplifies Fullan's thinking in very powerful and practical ways, by developing a topic that hasn’t seen this kind of elegant, integrative, and comprehensive treatment before. It uses real-world examples and research literature to tackle, head on, the question of sustainability—how organizations move into the future and endure over time, as well as the equally challenging question: what about an organization is worth sustaining long term? Folks who have followed Michael Fullan's work over many years will like this book very much."Roland S. Barth
"An ambitious and provocative journey into the complexities and possibilities that arise when leadership and sustainability join."James P. Comer
"Leadership & Sustainability is a critical breakthrough. Michael Fullan has utilized findings from some of the best research and observations in education over the past fifteen years to brilliantly illuminate the challenges of creating schools capable of continuous organic change and improvement."David T. Conley
"Michael Fullan has gone beyond his past research that described the change process so insightfully to a new and exciting exploration of how systems thinking and the 'long lever of leadership' can bring about deep and lasting reforms in schools and schooling. This brand of leadership for sustainability, as described by Fullan, results in the 'deep learning' that enables schools to respond successfully to the revolution in expectations they now face. This new work will both inform and inspire educators to become the 'new theoreticians' whose impact will be felt in their schools every day."Theodore B. Creighton
"With knowledgeable savvy from both individual leadership and system transformation, and a knack for writing in 'plain-speak,' Fullan helps us understand that it will be 'leadership' (not leaders) that pave the way for great sustainability. His attempt to link abstract concepts to concrete examples of what it looks like in practice was successful."Vincent L. Ferrandino
"Efforts at education reform have taken us down a variety of paths, and Michael Fullan has consistently noted the importance of leadership to large-scale reform. In his latest book, Leadership & Sustainability, Fullan makes a solid case that such reform is a complex process involving many variables. Key among these variables is the relationship between leadership and sustainability."Philip Hallinger
"Michael Fullan has been among the most salient international observers of educational change over the past decade. In this book he draws upon a diverse knowledge base in a critical examination of the limitations of current education reform strategies in use around the world. He then answers his own challenge by seeking to identify what it will take to create sustainable educational reform. His approach will be of interest to a broad range of educational leaders, policymakers, and scholars."Andy Hargreaves
"While everyone is debating quick-fix reform in education, Michael Fullan sets out a compelling strategy for widespread and lasting improvement. Drawing on experience from around the world and examples at every level, Fullan brilliantly personifies the transformative theorist-in-action that he urges others to be. This book is essential. Don’t leave school without it!"Kenneth A. Leithwood
"In Leadership & Sustainability Michael Fullan continues to push the edge of what we understand about improving schools on a large scale. His ideas, both provocative and practical, are well worth the attention of educational reformers, policy makers, and practitioners alike."Thomas J. Sergiovanni
"No one has contributed more to our understanding of leadership and change than Michael Fullan. Leadership & Sustainability continues that tradition—a brilliant analysis of a timely topic."Gerald N. Tirozzi
"Michael Fullan does it again—providing yet another significant resolve to educational leadership. In an era marked by changing demographics, increased accountability, and a wave of anticipated retirements, Fullan offers a vision and a roadmap for designing and implementing strategies that can result in systemic reform in our nation’s schools."Tim Brighouse
"Fullan displays his usual and unique capacity to explain the complexity for improving schools and school systems. He provides vivid examples which illuminate the pathways for headteachers, policy makers and academics wishing to combine immediate results with long term and greater benefits. Fullan's books—and this is no exception—are for educational policy makers, practitioners and researchers what J K Rowling's Harry Potter books are for children and parents. This is one of the best and most useful."Principal
"Offers practical advice to school administrators, districts, and systems to prevent the sort of backsliding that jeopardizes long-term results. "Teachers College Record
"A discourse on and an inquiry into how sustainability comes to be. This book sensibly and unapologetically champions humane values that were once more commonly espoused in an era before metrics gone mad and big government in education."March/April 2006 Principal
"Offers practical advice to school administrators, districts, and systems to prevent the sort of backsliding that jeopardizes long-term results."Book Details
Published
December 1, 2004
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Pages
136
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781412904964