Successful School Leadership

Petros Pashiardis is Professor of Educational Leadership at the Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus. He has been the President of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM) (2004-2008) and a Fulbright Scholar during his doctoral studies in the USA. Olof Johansson is Professor of Political Science and chair of the Centre for Principal Development at Umeå University, Sweden, and an executive member on the board of governors of the Consortium for the Study of Leadership and Ethics in Education (CSLEE), a program center of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) based at the University of Virginia (USA).

• Introduction: What is Successful and Effective School Leadership? (Petros Pashiardis, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus, and Olof Johansson, Umea University, Sweden)Part I: Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership1. African Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Jan Heystek, North-West University, South Africa)2. South Asian Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Tai Hoi Theodore Lee, and Allan David Walker, Institute of Education, Hong Kong, and Philip Hallinger, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand3. Australian and Pacific Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Simon Clarke and Helen Wildy, The University of Western Australia)4. North American Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Elizabeth Murakami and Wowek Sean Kearney, Texas A&M University – San Antonio, USA)5. South American Perspectives- Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Candido Alberto Gomes, Brasília Catholic University, Brazil and Alexandre Ventura, University of Aveiro, Portugal, and Magali de Fátima Evangelista Machado, Catholic University of Brasilia, Brazil)6. Caribbean Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Paul Miller, Brunel University, UK)7. European Perspectives - Developing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Helene Arlestig, Umea University, Sweden) Part II: Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership 8. African Perspectives- Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Raj Mestry, University of Johannesburg, South Africa)9. South Asian Perspectives - Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Elson Szeto, Yan Ni Annie Cheng and Allan David Walker, Institute of Education, Hong Kong)10. Australian and Pacific Perspectives - Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (David Gurr and Lawrie Drysdale, University of Melbourne, Australia)11. North American Perspectives - Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Stephen Jacobson, University at Buffalo, USA)12. Caribbean Perspectives - Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Disraeli Hutton, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica)13. European Perspectives - Practicing Successful and Effective School Leadership (Stefan Brauckmann, Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, Austria and Petros Pashiardis, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus) Part III: The Impact of Successful and Effective School Leadership14. Understanding the Impact of Successful and Effective School Leadership as Practiced (Petros Pashiardis, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus and Georgia Pashiardi, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus and Olof Johansson, Umea University, Sweden)

The challenge of synthesizing and summarizing international perspectives on “successful/effective” school leadership is a daunting task that the authors have completed masterfully. The chapters within this book respect key aspects of context related to understandings of successful/effective school leadership including local, regional, national, political, cultural, historic, and economic factors. I find this book to be an excellent resource for students in leadership preparation programs with an appreciation for difference and diversity. The authors acknowledge the limitations in the various case studies of leadership presented. Yet each chapter provides important perspectives on the meaning of successful leadership and its practices within a global frame.