School Leadership in India

This book explores how school leadership plays a significant role in addressing the issues of poor learning among students in India. It identifies and analyses the factors that impact school leadership processes and styles practiced by schools and school leaders. The book presents in-depth discussions on critical leadership styles that are influenced by the processes, practices, and behaviours of school leaders. It provides the theoretical as well as conceptual underpinnings to address school leadership in the Indian context by analysing the school leadership styles arising from the interaction between leadership behaviours and functions for the overall improvement of schools, student learning and self-development of leaders. While highlighting the issues and challenges faced by schools, the book explores the national initiatives undertaken to transform instructional and pedagogical leadership of principals and improve students learning. Drawing from the empirical data, the book characterises vignettes created from the data on various aspects of school leadership practices indicating the styles, behaviours and functions in every chapter. The nature of the analysis is also unique to the discourse on educational leadership as it culminates in tracing the path traversed by the school leaders. The analysis is thematically organized into purpose-process-outcome that spreads across seven chapters. The book will be of interest to researchers of education, leadership education and development, and school education in university departments of education, management, and public administration that use interdisciplinary approaches. It will also be useful for school educators, academicians, school leaders, policymakers and teacher educators.