Leading and Managing Education: International Dimensions

'One of the difficulties with the production of a book that describes the international terrain of leadership and management is that political and social contexts in which policy and practice occur are multi-dimensional. Yet the authors have successfully woven a narrative that engages the reader and helps shape our understanding of diverse ways in which leading and managing occurs in a range of countries. In particular I found the examples regarding schools, resources and teachers' professional work from developing countries a disturbing component of what could be termed the trauma of leadership in those sites. These examples serviced to enrich my own understanding and provide further evidence that there can be no framework or paradigm for understanding leadership and management in a global context' - Educational Review

'Foskett and Lumby's book forms an important and a timely contribution to comparative international studies of educational leadership…. In challenging a range of deeply embedded suppositions about leading and managing in education the authors remind us regularly that the mightiest task of even the most accomplished transformational leader, or radical government policy, is to transform values, attitudes and professional culture. So this exposition of similarities and contrasts in practices makes a useful contribution to the literature on educational leadership in this country and beyond' - David Wood, Journal of Inservice Education

This accessible book provides a critical review of educational leadership and management from an international perspective. It addresses the expectation that practitioners and students of educational management and administration will have an international perspective on their roles, responsibilities and tasks. Increasingly, teachers as education leaders are expected to keep pace with developments in other school and college systems, and to engage with international networks to debate and exchange practical experience.

The book covers a series of key themes in educational leadership, drawing on a wide range of examples, including:

- Learners and learning

- People and communities in education

- Managing strategy and resources

- Learning futures and the changing challenges for educational leaders.

In this context the authors:

- Describe the international landscape of leadership and management.

- Provide an overview of practice in different national settings.

- Identify global patterns and trends.

- Challenge some of the accepted norms in leadership and management.

- Build managers' confidence as part of a global community of professional educators.

- Support informed choice about policy and practice from government to school.

This is a key text for students of educational leadership and management as well as for managers and administrators in schools, colleges and other educational settings.

This overview of international leadership and management approaches in education identifies global trends and challenges accepted paradigms by providing a range of perspectives and examples of practice from a variety of national and cultural settings. Foskett and Lumby (U. of Southhampton and U. of Lincoln) consider current theories and encourage educators, administrators, and policy-makers to transcend their habitual ways of thinking about the aims and practices of education. Among the topics: the role of culture in educational leadership and management, outcomes-based education, and the case for self-management. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Professor Jacky Lumby's main interests are in educational leadership and management, particularly focused on how some learners and staff may be excluded. This has led her to engage with issues of diversity, gender and power. She is concerned to explore how leaders can be supported to lead people, systems and processes which offer success to all learners and staff in the context of living a life they value. Her work encompasses a range of perspectives, including critical theory and comparative and international perspectives. She is interested in challenging the assumption of the appropriateness of Western-derived concepts, theories and suggested practice in different cultures and in an increasingly diverse UK culture. She has researched and published widely on the leadership and management of schools and colleges in the UK, Ireland, China, Hong Kong and South Africa.

Her most recent book (with Professor Fenwick English) explores the use of metaphors in the language of education and its links to the ways we think about and develop education. She has also published books on diversity and leadership (with Dr Marianne Coleman) and on 14-19 education (with Professor Nick Foskett).

Professor Lumby entered higher education after a long and varied involvement with education, having taught and led in secondary schools, adult and community and further education She also worked in a Training and Enterprise Council with responsibility for the development of managers in both business and education, managing a network which allowed the cross-fertilisation of skills and experience from education into business and vice versa.

She is co editor of two international handbooks on leader preparation and development.

Awards and Memberships

Research Advisory Panel - Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

Expert Group member - European Policy Network on School Leadership

Expert Group member - Diversity in HE Leadership, funded by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

Consultant - The Cyprus Council of Educational Evaluation Accreditation