ABSTRACT

In this book, Robin Brooke-Smith explores the dynamics of schools as complex organisations. He presents a radical departure from established school improvement and effectiveness orthodoxies, offering a refreshing new approach to managing change and enhancing collective learning.
Based on the author's own experience of managing and leading schools, this book explores such questions as:
* How can schools learn as a generative process?
* How can schools become adaptive and co-evolve with their internal and external environments?
* How can education leaders 'navigate' their institutions out of the comfort zone and into the creative state?
The book concludes with a series of practical lessons for leading schools in complex conditions and will be of great value to reflective, action-orientated heads, principals and deputies, as well as academics and researchers in education management.

chapter 1|15 pages

A tale of two schools

chapter 2|15 pages

Old paradigm, new paradigm

chapter 3|31 pages

Dynamical Systems Theory

A new approach to school improvement

chapter 4|19 pages

Micro-politics

Understanding the shadow system