Equity and Diversity: Building community: Improving schools in challenging circumstances (Inaugural Professorial Lecture) - Softcover

Harris, Alma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0854738819 ISBN 13: 9780854738816

Publisher: Institute of Education, 2009

Synopsis

An Inaugural Professorial Lecture It remains the case that certain young people from particular backgrounds consistently fail to meet their full potential. The strong link between social disadvantage and educational underperformance is difficult to break, despite the attempts of policy-makers and practitioners to intervene. Leaders in educational contexts know only too well the difficulties that many young people face in securing levels of achievement that other young people take for granted. This lecture will argue that issues of equity and diversity are most starkly visible in schools and colleges that work with young people from some of our most deprived communities. It will consider the forms of leadership practice that can make a difference and draw upon recent research that has explored how the engagement of parents and the wider community can negate some of the detrimental effects of growing up in a poor area. The argument is that local activism and action is most likely to combat social inequality and that educational leadership in such settings is fundamentally concerned with building a strong sense of community.

About this title

About the Author

Alma Harris is Professor of Educational Leadership at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Since September 2012, she has been the Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya (UM). In 2010 2012 she was a senior policy adviser to the Welsh Government. Professor Harris holds visiting professorial posts at Moscow Higher School of Economics, Nottingham Business School, University of Wales and the University of Southampton. She is currently Past President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Professor Harris has published many books including Distributed Leadership Matters (2013), and Uplifting Leadership (2014) with Andy Hargreaves and Alan Boyle.

Edition details

• Publisher: Institute of Education
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0854738819
• ISBN 13: 9780854738816
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32