Learning as a Way of Leading: Lessons from the Struggle for Social Justice (Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education (Hardcover)) - Hardcover

Preskill, Stephen; Brookfield, Stephen D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787978078 ISBN 13: 9780787978075

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2008

Synopsis

This book offers a systematic look at the connections between learning and leading and the use of learning to inspire and organize for change. It explores two interrelated dimensions of learning leadership: the ways leaders themselves learn about leadership practice, and the way leaders foster the learning of those they work with. The book focuses on a number of important leadership activities and adopts a case study approach to illuminate how leaders themselves learn, how they impart knowledge to others, and how they support others in becoming more effective and enduring learners.

About this title

Review:

"What I like most about this book is the way Preskill and Brookfield model their own ideas about narrative, listening and being open to the contributions of others. They are good story tellers and have the ability to bring the personality and essence of their leaders to the reader.

It is both a thought provoking book and a practical guide. It gives models, but urges us to reflect and analyze our own experiences. It is definitely grounded in adult learning principles, and pushes the limits of our current thinking. I will definitely introduce this model, Preskill and Brookfield's ideas, to my doctoral students this fall. How could I not?"

--The National Teaching and Learning Forum

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Learning As a Way of Leading

"If the movement for social justice education is going to successfully institutionalize, it will require skillful and talented leadership. Stephen Preskill and Stephen Brookfield have given us a morally compelling picture of what organic leadership for educational change might look like and how it can be developed. This book deserves to be widely read and thought about." --Charles Payne, Frank B. Hixon Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, and author, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle

"Leadership for substantive change is rooted in deep learning. This important book never fails to inspire its readers with ample evidence in theory and practice." --Richard Guarasci, coauthor, Democratic Education in an Age of Difference, and president, Wagner College

"Several elements of this book make it a most welcome addition to leadership studies. First, and most obvious, is the emphasis on learning; a relief from the still lingering emphasis on leadership as authority and expertise. Second, the authors--with their extensive background in critical thinking, adult learning, and democratic pedagogy--explain specific types of learning that would serve all leaders well regardless of context. Third, they ground these types of learning in the work of specific people who championed democratic, just, peaceful, and sustainable societies; an important group for leadership studies. Finally, the authors model what they preach. They lead us to new insights through the learning processes and people they describe in hopes that what they have learned will help us more fully realize ourselves as human beings first and only then, as leaders." --Richard Couto, professor, Leadership and Change Ph.D. program, Antioch University, and senior fellow, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0787978078
• ISBN 13: 9780787978075
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272