Handbook of Instructional Leadership: How Successful Principals Promote Teaching and Learning by Jo R. Blase, Joseph Blase, Joseph J. Blase

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Synopsis

Updated Edition of Bestseller!

Build a learning community of teachers and students through mastering the art of effective leadership!

The first edition of this classic text was based on a landmark study in which the authors surveyed over 800 K-12 teachers to find how the best principals encourage teacher growth and professionalism. The answers provided conclusive evidence that the most successful principals act as instructional leaders who advocate teacher development that enhances students' learning. The updated and expanded second edition presents new research by the Blases, along with the most recent research and insights to support the text's groundbreaking theory.

Successful instructional leaders inspire their staff to develop "professional learning communities" dedicated to effective teaching practices. New to the second edition is an in-depth analysis that shows principals how to achieve this goal. Also new are additional figures, models, and reading lists that enrich the text's original findings.

Time-tested practices of instructional leadership are still central features. Principals can use these keys to success to:

• Build teachers' trust through continual communication
• Encourage teachers to continue their self-improvement efforts
• Motivate teachers with constructive feedback
• Promote and participate in reflective practices
• Support and encourage teachers' professional development

Encourage your teachers to be their best through supportive collaboration and communication. Practice real instructional leadership and develop a "professional learningcommunity" in which effective teaching promotes continued learning.

Biography

Jo Blase is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Georgia and a former public school teacher, principal, and director of staff development. She received a Ph.D. in educational administration, curriculum, and supervision in 1983 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Through work with the Beginning Principal Study National Research Team, the Georgia League of Professional Schools, and public and private school educators with whom she consults throughout the United States, she has pursued her interest in preparation for and entry to educational and instructional leadership at it relates to supervisors discourse.

Winner of the W.G. Walker 2000 Award for excellence (for her co-authored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration), the 1997 University of Georgia College of Education Teacher Educator Award, and the 1983 American Association of School Administrators Outstanding Research Award, Blase's recent publications include articles in the Journal of Staff Development, the Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Educational Administration Quarterly, the Journal of Educational Administration, and The Alberta Journal of Educational Research; and three books, Empowering Teachers: What Successful Principals Do (with Joseph Blase, Corwin, 1994, 2000), Democratic Principals in Action: Eight Pioneers (with Joseph Blase, Gary Anderson, and Sherry Dungan, Corwin, 1995), The Fire Is Back: Principals Sharing School Governance (with Joseph Blase, Corwin, 1997), and Breaking the Silence: Overcoming the Promblem of Principal Mistreatment of Teachers (with Joseph Blase,Corwin, 2003). She has authored chapters on becoming a principal, school renewal, supervision, and organizational development. She also conducts research on supervisory discourse among physicians as medical educators.

 Joseph Blase is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Georgia. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1980 from Syracuse University, his research has focused on understanding the work lives of teachers. He has published many studies in the areas of teacher stress, relationships between teachers' personal and professional lives, teacher socialization, and principal-teacher relationships. His work concentrating on school-level micropolitics received the 1988 Davis Memorial Award given by the University Council for Educational Administration, and his co-authored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration won the W.G. Walker 2000 Award for Excellence.

Blase edited The Politics of Life in Schools: Power, Conflict, and Cooperation (winner of the 1994 Critic's Choice Award sponsored by the American Education Studies Association, Sage 1991); co-authored, with Peggy Kirby, Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (Corwin, 1994); co-authored with Jo Blasé, Gary Anderson, and Sherry Dungan, Democratic Principals in Action: Eight Pioneers (Corwin, 1995); co-authored with Gary Anderson, The Micropolitics of Educational Leadership (Teachers College Press, 1995); and co-authored with Jo Blase, The Fire Is Back: Principals Sharing School Governance (Corwin, 1997), Empowering Teachers: What Successful Principals Do (1994, 2001, Corwin), and Breaking the Silence: Overcoming the Problem of Principal Mistreatment of Teachers (Corwin, 2003). Hi numerous articles appear in journals such as the American Education Research Journal and Educational Administration Quarterly, and his chapters appear in international handbooks of research on change and teaching.