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The Essentials of School Leadership Brent Davies Paul Chapman Publishing (UK) and Corwin Press (USA) ISBN 1-4129-0081-6
Keywords Leadership, Schools
Review DOI 10.1108/09513540510607770
Brent Davies has assembled an outstanding collection of contributors that makes this book a "must read" for all those involved in school leadership. In reflecting on my current leadership role, this book both reviews and develops my understanding of the key dimensions of my post. After the introduction, the book is divided into eleven chapters written by leading educationalists from around the world who have an international reputation for their work.
The first chapter by Brent and Barbara Davies sets the tone for the rest of the book. It provides a fresh perspective of the strategic dimension of leadership. Gone are the boring treatments of mechanistic strategic planning and instead the chapter focuses on a model, derived from NCSL research that seeks to build strategic leadership capability in schools. The chapter is split into three parts. The first two parts deal with "what strategic leaders do" and "the characteristics strategic leaders display". The...