Reframing the Path to School Leadership: A Guide for Teachers and Principals

By Terrence E. Deal and Lee G. Bolman

Book Overview

"Novice teachers and principals, and even those with years of experience often bounce from one unpleasant shocker to another. Yet the unending challenges are predictable--if you can interpret the subtle clues. The purpose of this book is to help you decipher what is really going on in your school. The key to becoming a highly effective teacher or principal is to develop powerful habits of mind--profoundly practical ways of thinking about perplexing situations."
--From the Introduction

Powerful mental tools for navigating the complicated issues of everyday school life

Ideal for new and experienced educators, this second edition of the bestseller presents dialogues between a novice and a master teacher and between a new and a seasoned principal to illuminate how reframing challenges can generate tremendous potential for classroom and school leadership. This updated edition provides leadership lesson summaries, solid strategies, and reflective questions that help teachers and principals grow in their practice through the use of four defining lenses:

Political: individual versus group powerHuman resources: individual needs and motivesStructural: clear goals and responsibilitiesSymbolic: culture, meaning, belief, and faith

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141297819X
• ISBN13: 9781412978194
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Corwin Publishers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Good book for teachers to read, new or veteran

I would recommend this book to any teacher. It is inspiring and has a good educational base. It teaches the reader many things while you read it. I had to read this for a master's course and really enjoyed it. It is like a novel in that it has a plot to it, but also has a reference guide aspect to it as well. It was helpful to me to read.

Great book, quick read!

Bolman & Deal's Reframing the Path to School Leadership is an interesting read. They use four frames of reference--the political frame, human resource frame, the structural frame, and the symbolic frame--to discuss leadership, both on the classroom and school level. They use a fictional cast of characters that includes new and veteran teachers, and new and veteran principals. At first I was wary of the fictional narrative, but I found it interesting and it kept me reading. At the end of each chapter, which includes a number of fictional scenarios on familair themes (beginning of the year, discipline, tracking, special education), there is a discussion part that I found very helpful. I'm a beginning principal, and I found this book informative and enlightening. It's also written for teachers, and I think I would've found the book just as useful if I'd read it when I was still in the classroom.