Abstract
This recent study of decision making in educational leadership consists of 12 chapters written by both new and experienced scholars of educational leadership, including renowned authors Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink. The book is divided into four parts: data-driven, emotional and epistemological, complexity, and ethical and legal issues. The book promises – and delivers – a broad and international perspective on models and methods on decision making and how theory can be translated into practice in schools.
Part 1 receives the least attention, exploring the importance of data-driven decision making. The culture of data creation is considered of high importance, leading to quality professional conversations about a wide variety of the right data being collected and in a timely manner. When data are used discretely, however, it may be misleading. For example, aggregated academic results may lead to a focus on borderline students and benchmark setting and leave other equally needy students on the wayside in the eyes of the teachers. In addition, data and the generation of data are seen as time-consuming and likely to detract from the practice of teaching and learning.
An excellent summary of the right approach being advocated here for the use of data in education is to: ‘measure what we value instead of valuing only what we can easily measure’ (p. 19).
The second part explores emotional and epistemological (theory of knowledge) aspects of decision making. It usefully employs real-life examples from working principals, highlighting the importance of self-reflection, introspection and professional communities in critical analyses of decision making. Importance is also placed on experiencing decision making in natural settings and doing this in the footsteps of known experts with accumulated experience. This is advocated as a much more reliable means to make effective decisions than rational calculations made, for example, using decision matrices or assigning values to probable outcomes.
A cyclical model to encourage critical analysis is put forward based on Karl Popper’s theory of knowledge growth as a result of error elimination. A problem is identified, and a theory to solve this is put forward and then eliminated through rigorous testing. This continues until the theory holds true and solves the problem. Although the argument here is persuasive and the real-life examples compelling, it may be over-simplistic considering the broad range of decision-making activities school leaders need to cope with. Consider the works of Shapiro and Stefkovich (2001), the complexities of ethical decision making in schools and the different paradigms of decision making that they discuss. However, the central idea of favouring a set of decision trajectories over one, and being self-critical about decision making, appears to make a lot of sense.
This otherwise useful second part of the book is marred by an anomalous chapter describing emotional intelligence (EI) and leadership but without a single reference to its pertinence to decision making. Although a contentious subject and current buzz word in education, an opportunity was missed here to refer to extensive literature on the topic of EI, leadership and decision making (for example, Sumathy et al., 2015; Yin and Cote, 2013).
Exploring the complexities of decision making, part 3 warns of the need for leaders (and those whom they lead) to be aware of their emotions and their impact on decision making, particularly in the negative sense of limiting actions or not rethinking a situation. Peter Grimmett’s excellent chapter turns decision making on its head by offering a vision of positive school cultures and norms that are developed by school leaders that prepare them for difficult decisions and turn them into opportunities for doing good in school. For example, the perceived negative pressures of external policy can be transformed into positive pedagogy through a focus on study. Here, it is postulated that external reforms often focus on curriculum, assessment and content but that the importance for pedagogy is the conditions for study and understanding study as a means of acquiring knowledge. This section also contains some harrowing stories from principals as they fight resistance to change from various stakeholders, and again points to the need for skill and knowledge development within leadership preparation programs.
The final chapter in this section by Fink highlights the importance of developing systems of trust in schools to give confidence and strength to school leaders in their decision making. It is shown in countries that favour institutional and relational trust as a norm, such as in Finland and Canada, that they outperform in terms of efficiency and equity compared with the UK and United States (p. 159). This, it is argued, is particularly important when beginning in a new school setting as a school leader and faced with challenging decisions, as trust – importantly with verification as a measure of balance to blind trust – in the knowhow and experience of colleagues can help find better solutions.
The last part of the book deals with ethics and legal matters and decision making. It takes a while to get into the implications for school leaders, briefly skirting over various ethical frameworks that have been commented upon in the literature and providing an overview of the founding of ethical thinking in philosophy. Here it would have been more useful to delve deeper into the practical implications of various ethical standpoints, perhaps with the presentation of real-life ethical dilemmas and the approaches used by school leaders to resolve them. Instead, it is argued that the school leader should develop their moral literacy (moral reasoning), and a new framework is presented that in itself is both unoriginal and impractical for the school leader.
Discussing legality, the final chapters make it clear that the school leader has recourse to laws and regulations when it comes to decisions about discipline, student welfare and safety. Also, the law – at least in Canada – makes the role of the school leader very clear with regard to these aspects, detailing both the right of the student as a child and where to draw the line with regard to appropriate behaviour and the welfare of other students. In addition, it is argued that school leaders need to become politically attuned, not only thinking politically but also acting politically in an effort to become more a part of the decision-making process from which external policy and law is made.
In summary, this book offers useful insights into decision making from international perspectives. It covers a broad range of approaches, personal accounts and considered models for introspective and cyclical decision making when school leaders are faced with difficult situations and dilemmas. As the book is divided into sections according to decision-making themes, it could be used as a guidebook for practising school leaders but is probably more useful as a reference text for school leader development courses.