Читать книгу Stories of Caring School Leadership - Mark A. Smylie - Страница 11

We organized this book as a companion to our book Caring School Leadership. While each book stands on its own and each can be read independently, we wanted to make it easy for our audiences to read across both volumes. We wanted readers of Caring School Leadership to readily find in this volume stories that illustrate practices discussed in that book. We wanted readers of this book of stories to take up Caring School Leadership and find without difficulty discussion of the concept of caring school leadership and of different arenas of caring leadership practice.

To these ends, we arranged this book to parallel the organization of Caring School Leadership. We begin this volume by introducing our concept of caring school leadership and describing key elements that make school leadership caring. We also identify and describe three broad arenas of caring school leadership practice that stories in this volume illustrate. These topics are discussed in greater depth in the Preface and in Chapters 1 and 2 of Caring School Leadership.

Following this introduction are three collections of stories—one for each of the three general arenas of caring school leadership practice described in Caring School Leadership. Collection I contains stories focusing on being caring in relationships with students. Collection II contains stories of cultivating schools as caring communities. And Collection III contains stories of providing care and fostering caring in families and communities beyond the school. The leadership practices illustrated in Collections I, II, and III are discussed in detail in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Caring School Leadership.

Stories within Collections I and II are grouped by level of school—elementary schools and secondary schools (middle and high schools). Otherwise, stories are presented in no particular order. There are fewer stories in Collection III than in Collections I and II largely because the third arena of caring leadership receives less attention in school leaders’ work. As we discuss later, much of school leaders’ time and attention is focused inward to their schools rather than outward to families and communities.

Each collection is prefaced by a short introduction that summarizes the elements of caring school leadership practice illustrated by the stories therein. We have numbered all the stories in this book sequentially, and we have indexed them by number in each of the collections according to the primary caring leadership practices they illustrate. We provide this reference system so you can easily find stories in which you may be interested. We made no effort to index all the leadership practices reflected in each of the stories. The practices in most stories are far more numerous and nuanced than we can reference this way.

As we mentioned earlier, we make no effort to analyze, interpret, or convey meaning that we might attribute these stories. It is important for you to read, reflect upon, and make meaning of these stories for your own understanding and practice. Most of the stories in this volume provide direct lessons on the nature and function of caring in school leadership. Some stories are ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. You may find some troubling, and you may disagree with the thinking and actions of the school leader. You may also argue with other readers about what particular stories mean. We include ambiguous and negative stories because, along with positive and straightforward ones, they can be important sources of learning.