Unlike most businesses, universities are both capital-and labor-intensive; yet contrary to standard business practice, they wring the most use and value out of their plants and payrolls for fewer than seven months a year. University presidents may appear to be very much like chief executive officers, but their powers to change course--or even a…

Parental dissatisfaction with special education services is a national problem. This article presents two districts that have undergone systemwide changes to decrease the dissatisfaction of families who have children with disabilities. Using qualitative inquiry, the authors analyzed documents and observed and interviewed 24 informants about the…

Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors explore social justice implications of inservice principals' practices that affect attitudes and empower teachers. If a primary educational goal of progressive schooling is to create and sustain more democratic schools by enabling the growth of teachers as leaders who are responsible for their…

The possibility that women in positions of leadership need to engage in sex-role appropriate behaviors in order to be effective has been investigated recently. In order to explore whether a sex appropriate, Considerate style helps women to be more influential and effective leaders than a sex inappropriate, Dominant style, 47 mixed-sex groups…

Leadership effectiveness is related to leadership behavior in two types of situations, cooperative and counteractive. In cooperative situations, participants form an interactive group to solve a problem and usually develop shared goals. The leader decides whether to form a cooperative group, defines participants' level of involvement in…

At the beginning of the successful meeting process, the meeting leader decides on a leadership style after considering his or her own nature, the needs and desires of group members, and the characteristics of the organization and situation. In planning the meeting, the leader's first guides are the goals and purposes he or she wishes to…

All the essays in this collection explicitly or implicitly discuss the ethics of leadership. Paul Johnson's "Plato's Republic as Leadership Text" is an essay on Plato and Nietzsche that considers two fundamental issues: the use of force and persuasion and the tension between the actions that lead to a position of leadership and the actions after…

Florida Atlantic University College of Education was commissioned by the South Florida Annenberg Challenge to develop and create five diagnostic and assessment instruments for leaders that will provide candidate information about: (1) personality skills related to leadership; (2) transformational leadership potential; (3) leadership skills; (4)…

Discusses why, given the tensions surrounding who has ultimate authority over academic programs, governing boards should approach the faculty with a focus on strategic leadership. (EV)

A veteran adventure educator offers pearls of wisdom: identify those people who want/need to meet, and encourage them to do that; identify something that no one else wants to do, and do it well; failing forward with confidence regularly produces better results than confident discussion; play mitigates fear; a good idea doesn't care who has it; and…

This article serves as a review of current literature on the topic of leadership. Leadership is a dynamic process of relationship building between individuals and groups. Leadership theory can guide practice, and integrating theory with thoughtful practice has always been critical to family and consumer sciences (FCS) professionals in working…

A study conducted by Spencer Foundation examining eight US and Canadian schools found that the key force leading to meaningful, long-term change in educational institution is leadership sustainability. The seven principles defining sustainable leadership are discussed.

Successful district level institutions share ten principles for successful reforms. The crucial components of change for effective leadership include a collective moral purpose, capacity building, ongoing learning, and demanding culture among others.

The author shares that he came across "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey in the early 1990s when he was a central-office administrator in a small school district just outside of Boston. He considers the book foundational as he thinks about leadership. (He is now superintendent in a central Massachusetts…

In the instruction of the Core I course in which the objectives focus on elements of leadership, the author spends much time in having students (future leaders) begin the soul searching process of determining who they are and what they believe. This process entails developing a vocabulary that they can use to articulate their being to others who…