Book Review: The New Work of Educational Leaders

THE NEW WORK OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS –
BOOK REVIEW

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE
Book Title: The New Work of Educational Leaders – Changing leadership practice in an era of school reform
Author: Peter Gronn, Faculty Member of Education Department at Monash University, Australia.
Author’s Profile: A researcher, a professor and a writer. Published books extensively on aspects of school, educational and organizational leadership. His research interests include all aspects of leadership, in particular, learning leadership and the development of leaders, distributed leadership etc.
Publisher: Sage Publications, London in 2003.
Other Details: Book contains 11 different figurative explanations and two tables while the whole book is consisting of 176 pages. The book seems a result of an extensive study as the author has given 741 references of different books, articles and research papers.
RATIONAL
After having assigned the task, we all group members approached library in search of a suitable book to review. We found many books related to leadership and to have a skim through reading, we borrowed three different books and next day we all found that the books borrowed were not suitable for review as a book was the collection of different articles written by various authors, while other two were also not purely related to ‘educational’ leadership. So, the next day we found Peter Gronn’s book and it seemed very much related to our aim as the book’s main focus (in my opinion) was on ‘distributed leadership’ and it was published recently. Secondly, we were very much lucky to know that IED Library has three available-on-shelf copies of this book and it was convenient for us to borrow an individual copy. But when we (group members) all gone through the book we found that it is not an easy read as the language used was very much difficult and our existing vocabulary was not accommodating the words. Finally to have an expert view and guidance we approached our worthy facilitator Ms. Zubaida Bana with the book, while keeping two more books with us. We told madam about the difficult language used in the book but she very nicely convinced us to work on this book by accepting it as a challenge and she further authenticated that the book is very much relevant and we should work on it. So, after having confirmation from the expert we had to go through the book.
CONTENTS/THEME
The new principal-ship and leadership standards highlighted by the author make, ‘The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform’ a possible resource for principals and leaders in educational administrative preparation of programs. For those involved in educational leadership and policy making should go through this book as it is an essential reading for educational leadership and policy development.
Book Structure
The book is articulated in two different parts: the 'architecture' and the 'ecology' of leadership. In Part I, three chapters outline a new building of leadership by developing the themes of design, distribution and disengagement, while in Part II author discusses in five chapters about What do Leaders do?, Leaders’ Committees and Meetings, Leadership Teams, the Emotions of Leaders and lastly Leadership as Greedy Work.
Part I
Designer-leadership means producing leaders according to design specifications is characterized by the increasing imposition of sets of standards and competences around the performance of leaders. In our context we can relate it to the policy that unless one doesn’t get the M.Ed or MA (Education) degree he is assumed incapable to become leader or principal specifically in government sector educational institutions.
Distributed-leadership means interdependency of the work roles of leaders and their colleagues in schools is presented as an alternative to focused leadership to reflect changing divisions of work and workplace to achieve the common goals. Researches show that it is the new trend increasing after 1980. In the context of Pakistan, we can relate this leadership theme to private educational institutions or self managed organizations.
Disengagement means inability of school systems to attract principals from among the teaching ranks because teachers are becoming more reluctant to take on leadership positions is explored, with particular reference to work intensification. Teachers use to be in their own comfort zones and because of challenging tasks and responsibilities they hesitate to take initiative and the fear exists in their minds. But keeping our context, I was not convinced of this debate, as in our background we struggle a lot to gain the relevant experience so that we would get a chance to become the leader in our institutions. Perhaps it is the general trend in Pakistan.
Part II
Five chapters map an 'ecology' of leadership in this part. Author asks, 'What do leaders do?' and then proceeds to offer a detailed synthesis and critical review of research findings since the 1950s across a number of different countries. Then, author focuses on committees/meetings and teams, respectively, as clear manifestations of distributed leadership. The author picks up on the contemporary theme of the range of emotions experienced in the workplace, with implications for leadership. Finally Gronn draws on earlier concept of 'greedy institutions' to propose that leadership is being reconstructed as 'greedy work', which demands one to be constantly and fully there. Gronn proposes it the core of a new 'grammar' of educational leadership. Although there are many aspects of this representation that are immediately identifiable but there is some misunderstanding between 'greedy work', 'greedy practices', 'greedy occupations', 'greedy policies' and 'greedy rulers and policy makers' such that there is not always clarity about who or what is being greedy. Are educational leaders the victims of greediness, or both? However author defines school leaders' work today as "greedy work". Although greedy work may be addictive owing to the profession's increasing demands, the author believes it is unlikely that younger generations of teachers will embrace it as a career prospect.
REFLECTION
In general terms, I was not entirely convinced that the relationship between Parts 1 and 2 is constructed as clearly as it might be. In my opinion only distributed leadership was concerned with the Part two, not the other two chapters.
Overall the book draws on a wide range of international literature and highly theoretical work, including some detailed reports of empirical researches done by others and, as such, is a very comprehensive synthesis of the field. Author maintains a productive balance between emphasizing conceptual themes and practical issues around leadership. In my view, the book would offer challenges for the beginners in this field as there are some implanted understandings of leadership, which perhaps I could not grab fully as a beginner and going through this book to review. Once again I will emphasis here that Gronn's highly theoretical work is not an easy read for a beginner. I can say this book might be a valuable contribution to understanding changing leadership practice in the modern era and I propose for myself that this book needs to be re-read after some time, when I will get more experience in this field.SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES