Global Ed Leadership’s Book Recommendations

Maxie & Paula in Bogota! (March 2020)

We are excited to share a special blog on five recent educational leadership books we highly recommend. We have selected these books since the topics they cover are what this website and our blogs are all about—supporting educational leaders who work with, and in, marginalized populations and communities throughout the world.

Latinas Leading Schools, Editors: Melissa A. Martinez & Sylvia Méndez-Morse (2021)

As the first scholarly book of its kind, Latinas Leading Schools is an edited volume that brings together educational leadership scholars and practitioners from across the country whose research focuses on the unique contributions and struggles that Latinas across the diaspora face while leading in schools and districts. The book acknowledges, explores, theorizes, and expands our understanding of how Latinas’ success as school and district leaders is informed by their racial/ethnic, cultural, and linguistic assets including their prioritizing of familia and communidad, relationship building, reciprocity, and advocacy. Thus, this volume covers four topical areas: 1) Testimonies and reflections from the field/Testimonios y reflexiones del campo, 2) Leading in relationship, comadrismo, with and for community/Liderazgo en relación, comadrismo, con y para la comunidad, 3) School community leaders(hip)/Lider(azgo) escolar y comunitario 4) Learning from the experiences of others/Aprendiendo de las experiencias de otras. 

Preparation and Development of School Leaders in Africa, Editors: Pontso Moorosi and Tony Bush (2019)

The book is based on research conducted in several African nations and reviews school leadership preparation and development, taking stock of where the field is in this geographical region and what lies ahead. The exclusive focus on sub-Saharan African countries is driven by the desire to foreground African experiences, highlighting gaps and asking critical questions about contextually relevant models of leadership that can drive towards improved educational outcomes for African children. The countries explored include Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. Written by a collective of seasoned researchers with extensive experience in the field and on the continent, this volume is timely, as the field is in need of serious political attention. For these reasons, the book is an important resource for policy-makers, school leaders and other practitioners, students, educators of school leadership preparation programmes as well as researchers in the field on the continent and the diaspora.

Neoliberalism and Education Systems in Conflict: Exploring Challenges Across the Globe, Editors: Khalid Arar, Deniz Örücü, and Jane Wilkinson (2021)

Neoliberalism and Education Systems in Conflict: Exploring Challenges Across the Globe explores how neoliberal values are imprinted onto educational spaces and practices, and by consequence, fundamentally reshape how we come to understand the educational experience at the school or system-level. Countries across the globe struggle with the residual effects of increased accountability, choice/voucher systems, and privatization. This book is essential reading for educators, scholars and faculty of educational leadership and policy globally.

School Leadership for Refugees’ Education, Author: Khalid Arar, Ph.D. (2020)

School Leadership for Refugees’ Education examines how educational leaders shape and lead different practices to meet refugee students’ educational needs, while also considering issues of equity and social justice. It presents cutting-edge theoretical understanding and rich first-hand research findings, which point out the local idiosyncrasies and cross-national themes involved in leading welcoming schools for newcomers. The book provides a global analysis of policy guidelines and up-to-date research findings concerning refugee education. Vast populations have been forced to leave their homelands in recent years due to war, political conflict and economic collapse. The countries that provide sanctuary need to ensure quality education that will allow these destitute but hopeful children to build a new future. Through this book a comprehensive model is presented to guide culturally relevant educational leadership to welcome newcomers in their schools and society. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of educational leadership, social justice education and educational administration.

Non-State Actors in Education in the Global South, Editors: Prachi Srivastava and Geoffrey Walford (2018)

Fueled by social equity concerns, there have been vigorous debates on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals. There are further questions on the relative effectiveness of government and private schooling in delivering good learning outcomes for all. Within this debate, several empirical questions abound. Do students from poorer backgrounds achieve as well in private schools as their advantaged peers? What are the relative out-of-pocket costs of accessing private schooling compared to government schooling? Is fee-paying non-state provision ‘affordable’ to the poorest households? What is the nature of the education market at different levels? What are the relationships between different non-state actors and the state, and how should they conduct themselves? The chapters in this volume present new empirical evidence and conduct critical analysis on some of these questions.

Hope you find some of these books of interest!

Paula and Maxie

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