The Moral Imperative of School Leadership - Paperback

by Michael Fullan (Editor)

"Fullan shows how moral leadership can reinvent the principalship and bring about large-scale school improvement. This is a masterfully crafted and accessible book by North America′s foremost expert on change."
--Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Lillian Radford Professor of Education
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

"Fullan challenges all who work in education to rethink the critical role of the principal as school leader in the current era of accountability. With clarity and insight, he offers a series of strategies to reshape the culture and context of leadership in schools to create learning communities where both students and teachers can excel."
--Paul D. Houston, Executive Director
American Association of School Administrators

"Once again, the writing of Michael Fullan is a tour de force. The Moral Imperative of School Leadership is a must-read for those who want to make a difference!"
--Gerald N. Tirozzi, Executive Director
National Association of Secondary School Principals

The time has come to change the context of school leadership!

The role of the principal is pivotal to systemic school change. That is the fundamental message of The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, which extends the discussion begun in Fullan′s earlier publication, What′s Worth Fighting for in the Principalship? The author examines the moral purpose of school leadership and its critical role in "changing the context" in which the role is embedded. In this bold step forward, Fullan calls for principals to become agents as well as beneficiaries of the processes of school change. In an effort to make the position more rewarding and exciting, he shifts the principal′s role from one of a site-based superman or superwoman, and recasts it as one in which principals figure prominently both within their school and within the larger school system that surrounds them.

Concepts explored in-depth include:

• Why "changing the context" should be the main agenda for the principalship
• Why barriers to the principalship exist
• Why the principal should be seen as the COO (chief operating officer) of a school
• Why the role of the principal should figure more prominently within the system
• What individuals and the system can do to transform school leadership to a powerful new force

The challenge, and moral imperative, for today′s principal is to lead system transformations to resolve the top-down/bottom-up dilemma that exists in systemic change. To end the exodus from the principalship, and for great school leaders to evolve in large numbers, the time to redefine the position is now!

Author Biography

Michael Fullan, Order of Canada, is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative. Michael served as Premier Dalton McGuinty's Special Policy Adviser in Ontario from 2003-2013. He received the Order of Canada (OC) in December 2012 and holds five honorary doctorates from universities around the world. His 'interim autobiography, ' Surreal Change, covers his pre-Covid-19 era to 2018. Michael and his colleagues are now working diligently on field-based comprehensive system change in several countries. Under the umbrella of what they call the 'humanity paradigm' --equitable-equal deep change that integrates local (school and community), middle (district/regional), and centre (policy) entities. Michael's latest books are Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration (with Mark Edwards, 2022), The Principal 2.0 (2023), The Drivers (with Joanne Quinn, 2023), and The New Meaning of Educational Change, 6^th Edition (2025).

For more information on books, articles, videos, podcasts please go to: www.michaelfullan.ca