Description

By (author) Fullan, Michael; By (author) Gallagher, Mary Jean

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Develop equity, excellence, and well-being across the whole system! The world is troubled!

We need to combine a moral imperative and a system transformation to survive for the better. Education is crucial to our future but needs to play a more direct role in shaping our future. The Devil is in the Details shows how we can re-think the education system and its three levels of leadership—local, middle, and top—so that each level can contribute to dramatic turnaround for education and society. The focus is on examining details to ensure effective actions are taken, rather than assuming large pronouncements and policies will drive change. Readers will find:

• Details and analysis about successful systems in California, Ontario, and Australia
• Ideas for how leaders at all levels can take steps to begin
• Vignettes, actions and strategies that illustrate how to address equity, excellence and well-being

With the goal of transforming the culture of learning to develop greater equity, excellence, and student wellbeing, this book will help you liberate the system and maintain focus.

Table of contents:
PrefacePART I: SYSTEM CHANGEChapter 1: The Nature of the BeastThe March of EvolutionThe Dramatic Toll of Rising InequityThe Serious Deficiency of Current PoliciesConclusionChapter 2: The Emergence of System SolutionsThe Limits of ComplexityThe Phenomenology of Good System ChangeTransition TimeLeadership From the MiddleConclusionPART II: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILSChapter 3: The School: The Leading Edge of ChangeLiving LocallyThe New Moral ImperativeEquityExcellenceWell-BeingHow Does a School Improve in These Ways?ConclusionChapter 4: The Middle: Fuel and GlueWho Is “the Middle”?Successful Districts: Still in the MinorityMore System ChangeGuidelines for the MiddleConclusionChapter 5: The Macro: Direction and LiberationOntario, Canada; California, United States; Victoria, Australia: Good Start-Ups at Different Places in the LearningBeware of (Seductive) DistractorsLayered, Connected AutonomyConclusionPART III: THE NEW WORLDChapter 6: Where Do We Go From Here?Details, Details, DetailsSystem ChangeThe Global South and the Global NorthA Necessary ConvergenceConclusion: As Human as You GetReferencesIndexAcknowledgmentsAbout the Authors

Review quote:

By taking both bird′s eye and ground-level view of systemic change, Michael Fullan and Mary Jean Gallagher offer trenchant insights into why a relentless torrent of top-down policies have failed to transform education systems and why countless grassroots, transformative solutions have failed to take root and spread across the system. Drawing upon research and real-world experiences, Fullan and Gallagher show us a way forward, one that encourages leaders at all levels of the system to start with the details—small moves that can transform students’ daily learning experiences—and build improvement plans and education policies up from there. Anyone who shares Fullan and Gallagher’s sense of urgency for providing students with opportunities for deeper learning would do well to read and apply the lessons from this book.

Review quote:

This important new book provides clear guidance to schools and districts on how to pursue equity and excellence through connected autonomy; a strategy aimed at supporting schools through collaboration and capacity building. The authors present several concrete examples to show how such a strategy is working in some schools already. They argue that we have a moral imperative to make sure that other schools adopt such an approach. Given the challenges that educators mus