Are schools really special places, or simply organizations that share the features and characteristics of all other organizations? In Leadership for the Schoolhouse, Thomas J. Sergiovanni shows that schools are indeed unique places that require their own theories and practices. And, if schools are to improve, these theories and practices cannot be imported from corporations or business schools, but must emerge from and be central to what schools are like, what they are trying to do, and who they serve.
This book provides school administrators and reform activists with a comprehensive framework for creating unique leadership for the schoolhouse that is more community-like, more democratic, and more responsive both to what we know about human nature and what know about how students learn and develop. This can be accomplised, Sergiovanni shows, by replacing the politics of division—which emphasize contracts and deals, and winning and losing—with the politics of virtue which emphasize a shared commitment to the common good.
Arguing that teacher development is the single most important key to improving schools in the long run, Sergiovanni explains how we can change school cultures so that they become learning and inquiring communities for teachers as well as students. Throughout the book, Sergiovanni draws on numerous ideas and real-life examples from a variety of schools and school districts to sort out what does and does not make sense when thinking about leadership for our schools.
