20 INVITED CHAPTERS
about leaders and leadership... Larry Cuban, Chuck Achilles, Mike Kirst, Roland Barth,
Charol Shakeshaft, Martha McCarthy, Pedro Reyes, Lonnie Wagstaff among others. I just
happen to have connected with Tom and his work in this area throughout my career, as have
my students.
There is little doubt that leadership is under fire from all quarters in this new century of
education and you all have an important task to prepare teachers well to meet these challenges
to public education. Effective school principals and superintendents are essential to the
creation of effective, quality, schools where a positive school culture, climate and learning
environment will thrive. Dick Andrews and Roger Soder demonstrated this in their fine work
20 years ago, relating principal leadership and student achievement (Andrews & Soder, 1987).
The recent work of my colleagues at the University of Colorado (Bellamy, Fulmer,
Murphy & Muth, 2006), on Principal Accomplishments, takes into account the historical
efforts to connect school leadership and student learning. It builds on efforts which I
described earlier to design schools and preparation programs with concepts such as: shared
leadership, fostering collaboration, modeling practices to build trust and commitment,
inspiring shared goals and taking risks and learning from mistakes. It takes a human and
honest approach to school leadership and effectiveness, and one that engages the whole
school community. My former mentor Jacob Getzels from the University of Chicago would
see this book in keeping with his theme of education administration as a “social” process
(Getzels, 1968). He sure helped me in my first presentation at AERA in New York back in the
1970s’.
Let’s also not forget the wonderful contributions of Robert Greenleaf who sees leadership
as serving others and adding value to their lives (Greenleaf, (2002). He cites Leo, the central
character in Hesse’s Journey to the East, as a good example of this type of leader. (Leo
accompanies a party on a mythical journey...assisting them with menial chores but uplifting
them with his spirit and song; a person of extraordinary presence...much like we expect of
our own leaders. When Leo leaves, he is wiser and stronger, yet the group falls apart!)
Greenleaf suggests that leaders must thus help others grow as persons, and while being served
and serving, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves, to
become servants! He believed that institutions should serve people, not vice versa. Certainly
a powerful set of ideas for us to ponder as think about our own children and students as they
grow and develop as fully functioning human beings.
- POSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE AND CLIMATE
“The school is a despotism in a state of perilous equilibrium.” (Waller, 1932).“An academically effective school is distinguished by its culture: a structure,
process and climate of values and norms that channel staff and student in the
direction of successful learning” (Purkey & Smith, 1982).That first quote was by Willard Waller in 1932. How depressing! I wonder how current it
might be in today’s schools? I have seen both types described above during my 42 years in
education. But for much of my professional career I have worked on researching, examining
and building effective schools and positive cultures and climates, following in the tradition of
Purkey & Smith and others. (Martin, Howard & Colia, 2004).
Boyer (1966) believed that an effective school provides a climate for learning that is
active and creative, rather than passive and restrictive. That first stimulated my interest in the