Leaders Who Dare: Pushing the Boundaries / Edition 1

by Linda L. Lyman, Dianne E. Ashby, Jenny S. Tripses

Overview

Here, the authors focus on educators who dare to lead their schools, districts, universities, and educational organizations to new possibilities. The leadership practices of the individuals featured contribute significantly to craft knowledge and to the discourse on contemporary issues of educational leadership. These leaders develop collaborative decision-making processes, push the bureaucratic boundaries, claim power through politics, and live and lead from values. The authors contend that the leadership practices depicted reflect a redefinition of leadership that emanates from a constructive postmodern paradigm aimed at social reconstruction. These leaders are redefining leadership by integrating doing and being.

This book is a report of the results of a collective qualitative inquiry into the leadership of eighteen impressive women educational leaders from Illinois, representing a diversity of roles, community sizes, institutional types, and racial perspectives. The chapters intertwine personal stories with the scholarship about leadership. No pseudonyms are used. Although several recent books have been published about the experiences of women as leaders, leadership studies have generally not included women or failed to point to women leaders as role models who could, even should, be emulated by leaders of both genders. It is past time to close the gender leadership gap in educational administration. This book will contribute to the ongoing redefinition of leadership and perhaps after reading this book leaders who dare will move themselves and our culture closer to gender inclusive perceptions of what leadership is and who leaders are.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578862641
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	07/21/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Linda L. Lyman is a professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State University, where she teaches in the master's and doctoral programs.

Dianne E. Ashby is professor and 10th Dean of the College of Education at Illinois State University.

Jenny S. Tripses is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Human Development at Bradley University (Peoria, IL), where she teaches at the master's level in the principal preparation program.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	vi
	Acknowledgments	vii
	Preface	ix
1	Introduction	1
2	Studying Women's Leadership: Contemporary Issues	19
3	Developing Collaborative Decision-Making Processes	37
4	Pushing the Bureaucratic Boundaries	61
5	Claiming Power Through Politics	89
6	Living and Leading From Values	119
7	Redefining Leadership: New Ways of Doing and Being	143
8	Visionary, Provocative, Integrative, by Madeline Hafner	165
9	Concluding Reflections	189
	Biographical Sketches of Leaders Interviewed	203
	References	229
	Index	239
	About the Authors	247

Editorial Reviews

Count this man an enthusiastic fan of these daring stories of eighteen inspired women leaders. A most welcome contribution to our profession.

Roland S. Barth

The authors' purpose was to record reasons why women educators of different ages, racial classifications, and backgrounds of experience achieved success and moved into positions formerly offered only to men. This book accomplishes much more. It provides inspiration to all readers that leadership is purposeful. The message delivered by the stories of these 18 outstanding educators affirms the ability of women to develop into highly effective leaders. It also confirms the belief that dynamic leadership transcends the boundaries of gender, race, culture, nationality, and creed.

Teachers College Record

For years, books on leadership, and particularly educational leadership, defined leadership in very limited ways, drawing their conclusions primarily from the activities and characteristics of white men. Leaders Who Dare is a thought-provoking book in an arena desperately in need of provocative ideas. The book presents a comprehensive and insightful analysis of leadership as described by women leaders of various ages, ethnicities, and levels of experience. Rich chapters, thick with the words of women leaders, make Lyman, Ashby, and Tripses' themes come alive. Especially important is the theme 'living and leading from values.' This theme underlies the purpose-driven leadership that is so essential to wide-spread student success. This study should be required reading for students of educational leadership.

Michelle D. Young

Based upon interviews with 18 outstanding female educators, this volume intertwines personal narrative with scholarship on leadership. The focus is on how women make decisions, how they get things done in bureaucracies, how they define and use power, and how they live their values.

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