Ethical Leadership
JB Leadership Library in Education
1. Edition July 2004
176 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
In Ethical Leadership, Robert Starratt--one of the
leading thinkers on the topic of ethics and education--shows
educational leaders how to move beyond mere technical efficiency in
the delivery and performance of learning. He challenges educators
to become ethical leaders who understand the learning process as a
profoundly moral activity that engages the full humanity of the
school community. Starratt explains that educational leadership
requires a moral commitment to high quality learning for all
students--a commitment based on three essential virtues:
proactive responsibility; personal and professional
authenticity; and an affirming, critical, and enabling
presence to the workers and the work involved in teaching
and learning. He clarifies how essential these virtues are for
leadership in the pressure-cooker of high-stakes schooling.
He provides vivid illustration by beginning and ending the book
with a "morality play," the narrative of a principal who struggles
to do the right thing for his students and teachers, as they are
pressured--and often punished--by state mandated
tests. Starratt concludes by offering practical suggestions
for working leaders as well as preservice and inservice courses in
educational leadership.
This book is a volume in the Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in
Education--a series designed to meet the demand for new ideas
and insights about leadership in schools.
The Author xiii
Introduction 1
1. Becoming Moral: The Test of Leadership 13
2. Responsibility 43
3. Authenticity 65
4. Presence 85
5. Giving Birth to Virtue 113
6. Implications for Leaders of Schools 133
Afterword 143
References 147
Index 155
humanity and humane responsibilities to others while working in
contemporary school settings."
--Eric Bredo, professor and coordinator, Social Foundations
Program, Department of Leadership, Foundations and Policy,
University of Virginia
"This book provides a brilliant fusion of the philosophical and
the practical in analyzing the ethical and moral dimensions of
educational leadership. The foundational ethics of authenticity,
responsible and presence provides a new and very creative framework
for the practice of moral leadership. A must read."
--Patrick Duignan, foundation chair in education leadership,
director, Research Center in Educational Leadership, Australian
Catholic University
ROBERT J. STARRATT is professor of education at Boston College. Starratt taught at Fordham University after serving as principal and teacher at schools in Denver, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The author of numerous books and articles, Starratt's work has focused on moral and ethical issues in education.
