The series, Educational Leadership and Leaders in Contexts, emphasizes how historical and contextual assumptions shape the meanings and values assigned to the term leadership especially in the wake of the seismic transformations all educational leaders have experienced since the COVID Pandemic reshaped the world of education forever. The series includes books along five distinct threads:
1. Coping with educational change in a post-pandemic world
2. Reconsidering the role of social justice within the contexts of educational leadership
3. Promoting a community of leadership: Reaching out and involving stakeholders and the public
4. Connecting the professional and personal dimensions of educational leadership
5. Reconceptualizing educational leadership as a global profession.
Today's educational leaders find themselves living in a world that is substantially different from what it was just a few years ago pre-pandemic and before the advent of AI. The five threads of change, social justice, community leadership, professional and personal dimensions, and globalism have created new contexts for educational leaders that are often not reflected in their job descriptions. This book series will focus on how these changing contexts affect the theory and practice of educational leaders.
Similarly, the professional lives of educational leaders have increasingly impinged upon their personal well-being, such that it now takes a certain type of individual to be able to put others before self for extended periods of their working life. This series will explore the dynamic relationship between the personal and the professional lives of educational leaders in their local contexts and aim to provide readers with insights that can impact their practice as they draw parallels to the similarities to their experience.
With respect to communities, continued educational reforms have created a need for communities to know more about what is happening inside our classrooms and schools. While education is often blamed for many of the ills identified in societies, educational leaders and their communities are generally ignored or excluded from the processes related to social development. Both the pandemic and the seismic changes, for example the impact of AI, education has undergone since then have provided school leaders unique opportunities to find new ways to work with and build community support through the notions of community and citizen leadership. Thus, leadership itself involves working with all stakeholders including teachers, students, parents, and the wider community to continuously improve schools and the relevance of the education we provide.
As for the final thread, globalism, school leaders must now work with multiple languages, cultures, and perspectives reflecting the rapid shift of people from one part of the world to another. This has been accelerated by AI and the online and hybrid models applied during and since the pandemic, so educational leaders now need to be aware of multiple global perspectives and be able to react to a world where a single way of thinking and doing no longer applies.
For further information please contact the Series Editor, Phil Quirke, or the Acquisitions Editor, Athina Dimitriou.
Cover illustration: Storm Rolling In, original work by Latricia Trites
Phil Quirke, Ph.D. (2006), Aston University, is an Education Consultant and previously Executive Dean of Education, Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE (2013-2024). He has been in Higher Education leadership positions for over twenty years and published widely on teacher education, action research, appraisal, reflective writing, and educational management and leadership.
Founding Editors:
Tony Townsend, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Ira Bogotch, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Series Editor:
Phil Quirke, Education Consultant, former Executive Dean Education at Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
Editorial Board:
Laila Boisselle, Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
Amparo Clavijo, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia
Alex Gardner-McTaggert, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, The British University of Bahrain
David Gatewood, The Chair Academy, Worldwide Leadership Development in Higher Education, USA
Gowri Ishwaran, Global Education and Leadership Foundation (GEL), India
David Lees, Kyoto University, Japan
Rosina Merry, Te Rito Maioha ECNZ Director Teaching & Learning and Research, New Zealand
Ada Omile, E.L. Africa magazine, USA
César Taboada Varela, Ecola de Arte e Superior de Deseño ESAD Director Departamento de Programas Internacionales, Spain
Educational Leadership researchers and their students
Call for Contributions to a new Volume: “Educational Leadership and Leaders in Context: A Caribbean Perspective, edited by Freddy James and Laila Boisselle. Read full information here.