Viviane M J Robinson

Excellent leadership matters Without excellent leadership, school improvement is impossible, or at least impossible to sustain. But what are the characteristics of an excellent leader? Is general leadership experience and knowledge enough? And how do you practically grow and develop leadership in yourself and others so you can all have a bigger impact on student outcomes? This integrated, holistic resource explores the virtues that are integral to achieving excellence in educational leadership, while offering practical guidance on how to do the right work in the right way—no matter what challenges you face or student inequities you’re trying to overcome. Features include: Practical, research-based applications of virtue theoryExamples of school leaders’ thinking and actionsIn-depth yet accessible theoretical analysisDetailed analysis showing theoretical concepts in practiceSummaries and reflection questions The success of your students and teachers is directly linked to your influence, your knowledge and ideas, your personal character, and your ability to focus on the proper purposes of education.

Denne boken presenterer ny forskning på skoleledelse og gir et grunnlag for refleksjon rundt hvordan skoleledere kan bidra til å utvikle en profesjonell læringskultur. Forfatterne forklarer grundig hvorfor strategiene og tenkningen som introduseres, kan bidra til å skape en profesjonell læringskultur og dermed øke sannsynligheten for læreres pedagogiske utvikling. Boken bygger på Argyris, Schön og Robinsons mangeårige forskning på elevsentrert ledelse og ledelse som er åpen for læring. Til grunn ligger også et forskningsprosjekt der Emstad og Birkeland over tid jobbet med skoleledere på både kommune- og fylkeskommunenivå. Sammen har de bygget empirisk forskning knyttet til ledelsens rolle i å utvikle en profesjonell læringskultur som et viktig premiss for profesjonelle læringsfellesskap i egen skole. Robinson bidrar med to kapitler i boken, ett teoretisk og ett empirisk, basert på norske data. Boken er et viktig bidrag for både forskere og praktikere som jobber med leder- og skoleutvikling, og for skoleledere selv.

Reduce Change to Increase Improvement provides a practical structure for helping system and school leaders increase improvement while reducing ineffective change and innovation. By drilling down to the beliefs and values that inform the actual practice of change leaders, Robinson identifies the mindset, processes, and actual behaviors that contribute to successful reform efforts and, importantly, provide school leaders with concrete tools that enable them to be more effective.

How can educational research make a greater impact on educational practice? "Problem-Based Methodology: Research for the Improvement of Practice" explains why educational research has contributed so little to the understanding and resolution of educational problems, and how, with a different methodology, its contribution could be significantly greater. The book offers an alternative problem-based methodology (PBM) which is better matched than either empiricist, critical or interpretive approaches to the generic features of educational problems, to the way practitioners seek to resolve those problems, and to the normative requirements of any practical activity. In addition, PBM incorporates a politics of inquiry which shows how researchers and practitioners can reach warranted agreements about the nature of problems and solutions, through dialogue that is simultaneously critical and collaborative. Two original school-based studies illustrate this new approach to educational and social research.