Educational Leadership: Culture and Diversity - Paperback

by Clive Dimmock (Author), Allan David Walker (Author)

Clive Dimmock and Allan Walker′s books is a valuable addition to the overcrowded literature on leadership. This is a useful and important book because citizenship, globalization and the tensions with nationality should be the concern of all who lead any school; even monofaith, monoethic and monolingual schools′ - Tim Brighouse, TES Friday

′The authors offer a rigorous and systematic analysis based on careful definition, illustration and discussion which demonstrates the importance of understanding culture, leadership and their interaction in different contexts: in doing so they provide a powerful antidote to the simplistic export of ideas and lay foundations for a more sophisticated conceptual framework for the study of educational leadership′ - John West-Burnham, International Leadership Centre, University of Hull

This key text in educational leadership focuses on the significance of the context and culture of schools. The book addresses the growing recognition of cultural differences between societies and the resultant differences in schooling. It also deals with vital issues relating to multicultural education and the leadership of multicultural schools. Drawing on their first-hand experience, the authors explore the differences evident in classroom teaching and learning, as well as organizational, leadership and management aspects of schools. They show how such differences can make over-reliance on Anglo-American approaches misleading, ineffective and restrictive.

Key features of the book include:

- a methodology to support the emerging field of international and comparative educational leadership and management

- in-depth comparative analysis of Anglo-American and Asian schooling and educational management

- the leadership of multi-cultural schools

This book is essential reading for professionals and students of educational leadership and management, as well as administrators.

Author Biography

Clive Dimmock is Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership and Management (CELM) at the University of Leicester, UK. He has previously taught at Cardiff University, and held professorial positions at The University of Western Australia and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has authored and co-authored (largely with Allan Walker) many books and journal articles on cross-cultural comparative educational leadership, school design for improvement, strategic leadership, new methods of researching the principalship - such as life history, and the leadership of multi-ethnic schools. He has won many competitive research grants and also acted as a consultant to various governments, including Hong Kong, various Australian states, Brunei and Cyprus.

Allan Walker is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also Associate Director of the Hong Kong Centre for the Development of Educational Leadership. Allan has experience as a teacher, school principal, university teacher and administrator, and consultant in a range of local and international settings. He has worked in universities in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong and conducted principal development courses and/or research in various countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and the United Kingdom. At present, Allan is working with group of Hong Kong principals in designing and implementing innovative professional development activities for aspiring, newly-appointed and experienced principals. His most current research project involves investigating the worklives of assistant principals as they strive and prepare for principalship. His general research interests include principalship preparation and development, cultural influence on school leadership, school improvement, professional learning communities and leadership needs analysis.