The eight themes explored are: Securing equity and engagement Clarifying the purpose of education Middle leadership the engine room of the school Managing resources Learning and technology Education beyond the school Alternative staffing models Developing evidence based practice Suitable for school leadership teams in any setting.
Dave Harris worked for over 20 years in school leadership, including 12 as a school principal across both primary and secondary phases. During this time he developed a reputation for innovative thinking and practice. Since retiring from working in schools he now puts his ideas into practice as Managing Director of Independent Thinking Ltd. John West-Burnham was an independent writer, teacher and consultant in education leadership. He is the author, co-author and editor of many books including Rethinking Educational Leadership and Understanding Leadership and has worked in 27 countries. He was a director of three academy trusts and a trustee of two educational charities, as well as an Honorary Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Worcester.
Leadership Dialogues II has the moral imperative of education at
its heart: to create happy, confident and successful learners.
School leaders reading this book will be encouraged to focus on the
key questions they have about their own settings and to then take
action based on a holistic view of learning and learners,
collective responsibility and shared mental models. Educational
wisdom, insightful dialogue and challenge are balanced with simple
yet extremely powerful reflective tools. Leadership Dialogues II is
a flexible resource that will galvanise leadership of positive
change in schools based upon the current and future learning needs
of children and young people. Jan Gimbert, education adviser and
trainer
Leadership Dialogues was always my ago to' book when planning for
more strategic work towards school improvement. As a head teacher
it often gave me initial ideas and impetus that I could then apply
within the context of our own school. This follow-up picks up from
where the first left off, adding sections on topics such as
purpose, engagement and developing evidence based practice. On the
surface, some of the chapters are perennial favourites when it
comes to educational thinking; however, the difference with this is
the fresh perspectives and divergent thinking it provides. I
particularly like the continuing theme of doing things differently
a which other educational book would give you the idea of looking
at your school as if it were a car, as Harris and West-Burnham
have? Essential reading for those of us lucky enough to be leading
education.Keith Winstanley, Head Teacher, Castle Rushen High
School
aI would be lying if I said that my bedside table was stacked with
the latest educational must-reads. In fact, I try to approach my
reading habits with some notion of work-life balance. Thus, I am
not ashamed to say that there is always room for a bit of low-brow
Jack Reacher in my life. While it may be a bit of a reach to
compare a book on education with the rippling masculinity of Lee
Child's muscle-bound hero, Leadership dialogues II is nonetheless
his equal in terms of its lean, incisive efficiency to grapple with
complex problems. This is a nifty little book that fits easily into
my busy life: I can pick it up and put it down, and I can start at
different points and flit back and forth as my fancy takes me.
Critically, for a relatively small investment of time, the returns
can be huge. This is not a one-size-fits-all book that tells me
what to do. This is a very practical work that helps me work with
my team to fathom actionable responses to key issues in our
context. It is a thinking book that sparks values-led discussion
and decision making in devising innovative approaches to stubborn
issues in an ever-changing educational landscape. Leadership
dialogues II helps us to wrestle with eight contemporary themes
such as middle leadership, staffing models and evidence-based
practice, which are each subdivided into five sections. Offering a
neatly packaged club sandwich of ideas, research and questions for
debate, it saves time by acting like a supercharged executive
summary that would otherwise have taken some poor soul hours to
pull together. Rather like Reacher himself, this is a book focused
on action rather than words. Granted, we may not be beating up the
bad guys, but the discussion generated can be equally as
satisfying, especially when you have that breakthrough, light-bulb,
penny-dropping aoh yeah!a moment that triggers real context-based
action that improves the life chances of our kids. This book is
very quick to engage with; as the authors themselves assert, it is
a case of athink, discuss, acta. The resources contained within it,
and those which can be handily downloaded in either PDF or Word
format, offer further frameworks for discussion, debate and action.
It is also a book about action and integrity. As Harris and
West-Burnham state, athe best people to interrogate the problems
and find the answers are those people working in, leading and
governing these schools every daya. At Thistley Hough we have
debated long into the night on the thorny issue of equality for all
our students. Infuriatingly, and despite all that we do, we still
have some where we fall wide of the mark. At an SLT meeting a
couple of weeks ago we tackled this book's chapter on asecuring
equity and engagementa to focus our discussion. Team members were
guided by the section discussion, and the key questions gave us
more momentum and direction than before. The downloaded resources
then helped shape our next steps. We all then left with some
homework of our own to report back in a couple of weeks. For those
of us who are time poor, this was a very efficient way to plan a
fruitful session. Rather than drifting in the darkness, we quickly
found ourselves in the well-lit streets of new thinking. We're not
done yet, but I am hopeful that the denouement will be spectacular.
While Leadership dialogues II may not make you go weak at the
knees, it definitely has moral purpose at its heart. Suitable for
any educational setting, I imagine that most leaders will find a
fair few things to gnaw on. Fair enough, I didn't take fully to all
the downloadable resources, but I am left feeling empowered that I
too can fight the unwinnable and come out on top. In my mind,
anything that inspires creative thought in the fight to secure
social mobility is worth a go.a Click here to read the review on
Schools Weeks' website.Holly Hartley, Schools Week
Asking some of the biggest questions of our time, the hugely
influential and respected Dave Harris and Professor John
West-Burnham provide an external perspective and a range of support
materials to aid schools' internal constructive dialogues and
decision making. Their think pieces and diagnostic review tools aim
to help school leaders make value led, deep rooted, wise decisions
for the pupils and staff they lead. Far ranging and simply
brilliant, Leadership Dialogues II is a agroup reader' that all
those working in schools should use and engage with.Stephen
Tierney, CEO, Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust,
blogger (leadinglearner.me) and author of Liminal Leadership
Education is a continuously evolving profession that requires
leaders to be up to date with the changing environment to fully
equip their students for their futures and help them achieve their
aspirations and goals in their educational and social lives. There
are many changes to teaching on a weekly basis and new areas of
focus are introduced, especially to aid their students to become
happy and successful learners and global citizens. I work in an
Academy whose main vision is to help the young people to climb the
mountain to university and encourage open dialogue between all
levels of the management structure. Teaching in affluent areas or
not the same issues arise that need to be addressed at the start of
a student's educational experience and continued throughout all the
years that they are at school. Leaders have to work through many
permutations to engage as leaders. Relationships with leaders is
the only way to allow professional growth and improvement for all
people involved. This book is the second of two looking at the
dialogues that need to happen in leadership at educational
establishments. aLeadership Dialogues II: Leadership In Times Of
Change' offers many sections on current relevant issues that should
be addressed by all leaders in education beginning with the
education of vulnerable and disadvantaged children a regular item
in the media at the moment. Each section of the book has key quotes
related to research and findings and provides clear guidance on the
ways to have the discussions with leaders on this topic. This also
is supported by electronic downloads that are available to access
online and show a format of having to analyse and evaluate your own
place of work in relation to the topics discussed in the chapter.
This allows all leaders to meet on the same level to discuss and
open a dialogue on important aspects of their school and look
towards the future with help to achieve their vision. Many other
areas of a school are introduced such as cross-curricular
communication and its importance to supporting the vision of the
school and encourages the meeting of subjects and leaders to
discuss best practice and how they can move towards their
department and overall goals in the long term. I especially liked
the regular references to the importance of middle leaders and
their essential input and support for the whole school's future. As
work-life balance is particularly important the section addressing
this is enlightening and extremely helpful given the current Ofsted
announcement in the press. There are many sections in the book
looking into the effects of the outside environment on the success
for learners and this is also a current discussion that has been
made in the public eye recently and again comes with the necessary
tools to evaluate a schools impact on the communities and how to
open a dialogue with them to help disengaged parents and learners.
This book stands out as it addresses many current education topics
that are being discussed a great length in all areas of the UK
including the government and many schools at the moment. The
various key quotes from research that are included in each part of
the book illuminate the discussion within. The templates and
proformas to help with leadership discussions are imperative to
help leaders open their dialogues especially in areas that they are
not familiar. As a leader in a fast-paced academy, this is an
enlightening journey through up to date relevant discussion on
leadership and should be an essential tool to encourage open
dialogue between all members of staff in education and not just
those in senior leadership positions. It has encouraged me to not
only re-evaluate my department but also the input I receive from
other subjects and parents to help my subject become part of the
one vision for education and the future of those within the system.
This is a no-brainer for any school CPD library or aspirant
leaders/teacher's bookshelf. Click here to read the full review
online.UKEdChat
From cover to cover Leadership Dialogues II provides a rich array
of highly engaging themes as well as practical tools; yet it serves
no straight answers. It is a gem of a read, a book many school
leaders have always hoped someone would write just for them in
order to boost their leadership capacity, help explore sensitive
topics through asking relevant questions, back them up when
empowering staff and stakeholders to generate optimum solutions for
students, schools and communities, and provide a shot of
inspiration to build a society centred around improved well-being.
Dave Harris and John West-Burnham have once again managed to write
a vade mecum for every school leader.Janja ZupanAiA, Head Teacher,
Louis Adamic Grosuplje Primary School
In today's ever-changing world of education, we require two
distinct varieties of leadership guides. On the one hand we require
books that identify the best current practices, which we can then
apply to our context; of equal value, and scarcer in number, are
those which frame the debates that we must have in our schools and
academy trusts in order to build our leadership teams. To address
today's issues, and those beyond the horizon, we need support in
finding solutions, and these are best constructed through
well-formed dialogue a which begins by interrogating good practice
before moving on to building consensus. This is the distinct aim of
Dave Harris and John West-Burnham's Leadership Dialogues II. So
whether you are looking at challenges as diverse as developing
middle leadership, considering alternative staffing models or
raising the achievement of disadvantaged pupils, this book will
provide evidence and research to consider, questions to help form
discussions and, finally, guidance to help you act to make your
school or trust as effective as possible.Paul K. Ainsworth, academy
adviser for a system leader multi-academy trust and author of
Middle Leadership and Get That Teaching Job!
Our leadership teams have never needed more training in their roles
as they do now during these challenging times. At Escuelas
CatAlicas de Madrid, we strongly believe that our school leaders
have realised the importance of their mission and that new
challenges demand new approaches. And as the original Leadership
Dialogues has proven to be such a powerful tool for leaders, I
believe Leadership Dialogues II will be another important step in
the process of developing and improving their skills. Harris and
West-Burnham offer a serious reflection on leadership with very
interesting resources which enable the reflourishing of previous
thinking on the topic, and they expertly tackle a wide variety of
key points a from the importance of useful meetings to the real
purpose of education a from the most particular points up to the
most general and crucial ones. It is very difficult to find
specific and practical books on the subject of school leadership,
so we have to be grateful for a title which fills this gap. We are
excited to offer Leadership Dialogues II to our leaders in
supporting their mission to build the schools we need and that our
pupils deserve.Juan Carlos GarcA-a, Pedagogical, Pastoral and
Innovation Department, Escuelas CatAlicas de Madrid
Relevant, practical and packed full of great resources, Leadership
Dialogues II is essential reading for leaders at all levels in
schools. It offers both theory and practice, which is great for
busy leaders, and provides a really good platform for reflection,
thinking and dialogue. The authors really understand the
complexities of leadership, and inspire possible solutions and ways
forward in a thoughtful but practical way. I highly recommend this
book. Stephen Logan, Deputy Head Teacher, Malet Lambert School
Today's schools are frantic, chaotic places besieged by a constant
external bombardment of initiatives and political requirements.
Given this environment, how do school leadership teams ensure that
they are performing optimally and are up to the challenges ahead?
Where does affordable, high quality leadership development come
from in this environment? Once again, Harris and West-Burnham a
like Batman and Robin a come to the rescue. In the same way that
the original Leadership Dialogues became an indispensable manual
for reviewing the fundamental aspects of school leadership,
Leadership Dialogues II takes leadership teams on similar journeys
into deeper and currently relevant areas for review; from securing
equity and engagement to analysing the use of research in
education, via a debate on the purpose of education. The book
follows the same model as the original a the establishment of
context, the exploration of research and current thinking, and a
follow-up of key questions and linked additional resources a and
such is the quality and depth of content and the ease of reading,
leadership development is unavoidable. Don't expect that this book
will give you all the answers, however a it won't. What it will do
is stimulate and structure thinking, and challenge leadership teams
to find the answers from within their own schools. This book is the
catalyst, not the solution. Leadership Dialogues II will, like
Leadership Dialogues, become an essential leadership tool, racing
to the rescue when leaders seek to further improve their schools.
You can put away the bat signal, Leadership Dialogues II is
here.Paul Bannister, Junior School Head Teacher, Jerudong
International School
Whatever you have planned by way of leadership team meetings and
whole school CPD this year, cancel it and work your way through
this resource, packed full of the very best in school improvement
wisdom. At a time when school leadership is pressurised into
consisting of leading a school to a decent set of exam results and
an inspection that keeps athem' off your back for a few more years,
Leadership Dialogues II puts the heart, the soul, the integrity and
the moral purpose back into its core. And in an environment in
which we are told increasingly, and loudly, that education should
be alike this', here is a book that is about asking questions, not
giving off-the-shelf solutions. It dares school leaders to tread a
different path a one of inclusion, social equity and success for
all students. Two of the leading proponents of school leadership
combine common sense, wisdom and research based practice to great
effect in imbuing school leaders with the tools, knowledge and
bravery to be the leaders that any education system truly deserves.
Practical and inspirational in equal measure, Leadership Dialogues
II is a book that all school leaders should hold close as they seek
to answer the many questions it poses and to lead their schools in
a way the world dearly needs now more than ever.Ian Gilbert,
founder, Independent Thinking
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