Book chapter
Caring School Leadership: From Catchphrase to Conceptual Depth
The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse, pp.1891-1906
Springer International Publishing
01/01/2022
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-99097-8_109
Abstract
Interpersonal relationshipsAlthough education is understood to be a caring endeavor, explorations of caring leadership have often taken caring as either a taken-for-granted background condition or a means to an end. Caring, though, is complex, and well-intended efforts to care often fall short or, worse, have the opposite of their intended effect. Recent scholarship has increasingly sought to move understanding of caring from an empty buzzword to a meaningfully defined and bounded idea. Over the past decade, an increasing number of studies have placed caring leadership at the front and center (see Bass L, Int J Qual Stud Educ 25:73–87, 2012; Bass LR, Educ Adm Q 56:353–395, 2020; Louis KS, Murphy J, J Educ Adm, 2017; Louis KS, Murphy J, Smylie M, Educ Adm Q, 52(2), 310–348, 2016; Lumby J, Azaola MC, Br Educ Res J 40:30–44, 2014; Sanzo KL, Sherman WH, Clayton J, J Educ Adm, 2011; Smylie MA, Murphy J, Louis KS, Am J Educ 123(1):1–35, 2016; Rivera-McCutchen RL, Educ Adm Q, 2020; Tichnor-Wagner A, Allen D, Leadersh Policy Schools 15:406–447, 2016; van der Vyver CP, van der Westhuizen PC, Meyer LW, Educ Manage Adm Leadersh 42(1):61–74, 2014). Most of this scholarship responds to a sense that the research and practice of educational leadership had become too focused on administrative emphasis on academic press (that is, expectations to maintain or raise academic standards of performance), to the detriment of the way that leader-affective support influences the organizational environment and relationships in the school. These strands of scholarship emphasize that, despite a policy environment heavily focused on accountability and narrow measures of student success, social support for adults and the creation of a caring school environment are important functions of school leadership as such, and not merely as an instrumental approach to improved student achievement. The purpose of this chapter is to ground scholarship in caring leadership in past and ongoing discussions about leadership, examine cleavages and disconnections within current conceptualizations of caring leadership, and explore potential future directions and avenues of inquiry in caring school leadership.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Caring School Leadership: From Catchphrase to Conceptual Depth
- Creators
- Jeff Walls - Washington State University SpokaneJamie Kudlats - University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Contributors
- Fenwick W. English (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse, pp.1891-1906
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing; Cham
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-99097-8_109
- Number of pages
- 16
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2022
- Academic Unit
- Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984701823502771
Metrics
1 Record Views