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Leadership as Lunacy

And Other Metaphors for Educational Leadership

By: Jacky Lumby, Fenwick W. English

An imaginative approach to rethinking and revitalizing your leadership practice!

Using such thought-provoking and unexpected metaphors as "leadership as war" and "leadership as lunacy," the authors draw readers through historical perspectives and cognitive possibilities that surprise, inspire, and provoke reflection on current leadership models, behaviors, practices, and roles in education. This book helps school and district leaders:

Understand the power of metaphor and how metaphors have been used to define leadership
Reflect upon and develop a deeper connection to their roles and their approaches to leadership
Initiate change in themselves and others

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412974271
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2010
Page Count: 176
Publication date: August 17, 2012

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Description

"This book will challenge, enlighten, and transform. The authors invite us to re-examine our core values as educational leaders, reconsider our priorities, and place the humanity of children at the center of our work."
—Nancy Skerritt, Assistant Superintendent,Tahoma School District, Maple Valley, WA

"By their analysis, Lumby and English expose the power of language to shape meaning. By their skill, they illustrate the power of language to engage and enrich. Their work is an important contribution to how we understand and practice leadership in all fields."
—Steven R. Thompson, Coordinator, School Leadership Program, Miami University

An imaginative approach to rethinking and revitalizing your leadership practice!

Research has shown that metaphors inspire leaders to reflect on their mind-sets, behaviors, practices, and approaches, leading to new perspectives on their roles. Using such thought-provoking and unexpected metaphors as "leadership as war" and "leadership as lunacy," the authors draw readers through historical perspectives and cognitive possibilities that inspire, resolve, confuse, and provoke reflection on the state of leadership in education. This book examines the current discourse on educational leadership models, behaviors, and roles, and helps school and district leaders:

Understand the power of metaphor and how metaphors have been used to define leadership
Develop a deeper connection to their roles and their approaches
Initiate change in themselves and in others

By inspiring creative thinking and critical reflection, Leadership as Lunacy helps leaders achieve personal and professional growth and invigorate their professional relationships!

Key features

Various interpretations of metaphor and how metaphors have been used to define leadership

How metaphors can stimulate reflection and inspire self-growth

How metaphors and metaphorical thinking are embedded in recent policy and guidance documents and the implications for practice, for children and for communities

Author(s)

Jacky Lumby

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

Fenwick W. English

Fenwick W. English (Ph.D.) is the R. Wendell Eaves Senior Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a position he has held since 2001. As a scholar/practitioner he has held positions as a school principal and superintendent of schools in California and New York and as a department chair, dean, and vice-chancellor of academic affairs at universities in Ohio and Indiana. He is the former President of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA) and of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). His research has been reported in national and international academic forums. He edited the 2006 SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration, the 2009 SAGE Library of Educational Thought and Practice: Educational Leadership and Administration; and the 2011 SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership (2nd Ed.). In 2013, he received the Living Legend Award from NCPEA for his lifetime contribution to the field of educational leadership.

Table of Contents

Preface

About the Authors

1. The Presence and Power of Metaphors

Not Just Words

From Gilgamesh to Obama: Metaphors Communicate and Connect

How Metaphors Work

Why a Book About Metaphors for Educational Leaders?

Structure

Toward a New Kind of Wisdom

2. Leadership as Machine

Running the Factory

Leaders Running the Machine

Evaluating the Machine

On Being a Machine

The Machine Metaphor

3. Leadership as Accounting

The Relentless Pursuit of Rationality and Waste

Educational Hyperrationalization

The Cheating Culture: Corrosion of the Means/Ends Accountability Continuum

The Accounting Metaphor: A Chimera Wrapped Up as an Ideology

4. Leadership as War

Preparing for a Board Meeting

The Ambivalence of War Metaphors

Military Admonitions, Educational Situations, and Contradictions

The Way of the Warrior Is Death: Education Is Life

5. Leadership as Sport

Sports: Language and Action

The Little ?Closed-System? World of an Athletic Team

The Problem of the Charismatic Coach as a Model for the CEO

Understanding the Nature of Power

The Sports Metaphor: An Impossible Dream

6. Leadership as Theater

The School as Stage: What Lies Beneath?

The School as Staged: Long Run or Repertory?

The School as Staged: Acting Leadership

The School as Ritual Performance

School as Theater

7. Leadership as Religion

The Concept of the External Supreme Being

Towards Perfection: The Idea of Progress

Manifestations of Religion in Management and Educational Leadership

The Presence of ?Managementspeak? and Religious Rituals in School Practices

Warring Metaphors

The Power of Religious Metaphors: The Universal Versus The Dogmatic and Partisan Experience

Learning How to Lead Outside the Command and Control Model

8. Leadership as Lunacy

Lunacy as a Form of Toxicity

Leaders as Lunatics

The Lunatic Psyche

Symptoms, Signs and Pathologies

The Lunacy Metaphor

9. Metaphors of Leadership

The Uses of Metaphors

Grand Narratives

Positive Metaphors

So, Where to Now?

References

Index

Reviews

"Lumby and English have exposed the power of language to shape meaning, engage, and enrich. Their work is an important contribution to how we understand and practice leadership in all fields."

Steven R. Thompson, Coordinator, School Leadership Program
Miami University

"This book will challenge, enlighten and transform. Ultimately, the authors invite us to re-examine our core values and place the humanity of children at the center of our work."

Nancy Skerritt, Assistant Superintendent
Tahoma School District, WA

"Authors Jacky Lumby and Fenwick English look at educational leadership through the lens of language and how metaphors have sometimes limited and stymied the true meaning of education and what educational leaders can and should be working to achieve."

Lydia Cross, Director, Graduate Academic Services Center
Georgia Southern University

Other Titles in: Leadership | Reflective Practice

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This book is not available as a review copy.