Stories of Caring School Leadership. Mark A. Smylie

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Bartlett, Ariel Curry, Eliza Erickson, Janet Kiesel, Megan Markanich, and Corwin for help to bring this book to life. We are particularly grateful to Arnis Burvikovs for taking the chance on this project and for his steadfast support throughout.

      Finally, we are ever so grateful to our families for their love, caring, and support.

      Publisher’s Acknowledgments

       Corwin gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals:

       Elizabeth Alvarez, Chief of Schools

       Chicago Public Schools

       Chicago, IL

       Neil MacNeil, Headmaster

       Ellenbrook Independent Primary School

       Ellenbrook, Western Australia

       Angela Mosley, Principal

       Essex High School

       Tappahannock, VA

       Catherine Sosnowski, Associate Professor, MAT program

       Central Connecticut State University

       New Britain, CT

       Christian Zimmerman, Dean of Students

       South Fort Myers High School

       Fort Myers, FL

      About the Authors

      Mark A. Smylieis professor of education emeritus in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and visiting professor in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Before his work in higher education, Smylie was a high school social studies teacher. Smylie served as secretary-treasurer of the National Society for the Study of Education and as a director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. Smylie has worked with schools, school districts, and school administrator and teacher professional associations through joint projects, advising, and professional development activity. He has served on advisory boards of numerous regional and national professional and policy organizations concerned with education generally and leadership in particular. Smylie’s research focuses on school organization, leadership, and change.Joseph F. Murphyis the Frank W. Mayborn Chair in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations and associate dean at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. He has also been a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Ohio State University, where he was William Ray Flesher Professor of Education. In the public schools, Murphy has served as an administrator at the school, district, and state levels, including an appointment as the executive assistant to the chief deputy superintendent of public instruction in California. He was the founding president of the Ohio Principals Leadership Academy. Murphy’s work is in the area of school improvement with special emphasis on leadership and policy.Karen Seashore Louisis Regents Professor and Robert H. Beck Chair of the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota. She has previously held positions at Tufts University; Abt Associates, Inc.; Harvard University; and the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has served in numerous administrative positions at the University of Minnesota, including director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement Department, chair of Educational Policy and Administration, and associate dean of the College of Education and Human Development. Louis’s research investigates school improvement and effectiveness, leadership in school settings, and knowledge use in education. She enjoys collaborating with school administrators as they consider how their problems of practice become important questions that can be addressed with data.Smylie, Murphy, and Louis are the authors of Caring School Leadership (2020; Corwin), the companion volume to this book.

      Care Is Key. Kai Short, Grade 12

      Introduction: Caring School Leadership¹

      ¹This introduction is adapted from sections of the book Caring School Leadership (Smylie, Murphy, & Louis, 2020). We do not refer here to the substantial literature that we used in that book to develop and support our arguments. For specific citations, readers are asked to consult that volume.

      We begin this book of stories by examining the concept of caring and why we should care about caring in schools. We examine key elements that make a person’s actions and interactions caring. We also explore how caring works—that is, how it leads to particular outcomes for the ones cared for and the ones caring. We apply these ideas to school leadership, presenting a model of caring school leadership and discussing important considerations for its practice.

      Why Care About Caring in Schools?

      There are four important reasons to care about caring in schools and to work to promote it (see Figure 0.1). First, caring is an intrinsic good, elemental of the human condition, and a worthy endeavor in its own right. According to education philosopher Nel Noddings,

      Natural caring [is] the condition that we … perceive as “good.” It is that condition toward which we long and strive, and it is our longing for caring—to be in that special relation—that provides the motivation for us to be moral.²

      ²Noddings (2013, p. 5).

      Figure 0.1 Why Care About Caring in Schools?

      Similarly, philosopher Milton Mayeroff argues this:

      Through the caring of others, by serving them through caring, a [person] lives the meaning of his own life.… [H]e is at home not through dominating, or explaining, or appreciating, but through caring and being cared for.³

      ³Mayeroff (2017, pp. 2–3).

      Such observations about caring can be found in literature and the arts, religion, and the human service professions. Author Langston Hughes writes through the character Jessie Simple in Simply Heavenly, “When peoples care for you and cry for you—and love you—they can straighten out your soul.”⁴ Nursing scholar Patricia Benner and medical researcher Judith Wrubel speak of caring as “the most basic human way of being in the world.”⁵

      ⁴Sanders (2004, p. 201).

      ⁵Benner and Wrubel (1989, p. 368).

      A second reason to care about caring is because it is crucial to the learning and

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