Educational Leadership and Moral Literacy

The Dispositional Aims of Moral Leaders

Edited by Patrick M. Jenlink

Publication date:

18 March 2014

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781610487269

What makes a moral person moral? Who decides what morality means? What makes leadership practice moral? In today’s schools, what stands as moral leadership? These are questions that reflect the complexity integral to the calculus of human morality, especially in a world that is defined daily by its variant meanings of morality, its acts of immorality.

The school as an educational setting is or should be a decidedly moral center of the society; it is the natural intersect between the family and the multi-dimensional nature of public life. Educational Leadership and Moral Literacy addresses these questions, situating the reader in a conversation that examines the meaning and nature of moral leadership through the lens of moral literacy and the dispositional aims of moral leadership in educational settings. The contributing authors extend an argument that the work of leader educators and practitioners alike must continuously be re-articulated around the dispositional aims aligned with a moral, democratic education. Educators must be concerned with developing the moral, intellectual, and aesthetic dimensions of the educational leader as a “moral person.”

Preface
Introduction: Leadership, Morality, and Moral Leadership in Today’s Schools
Patrick M. Jenlink

Section I: Moral Leadership for Today’s Schools
Chapter 1 – The Moral Nature of Educational Leadership: Examining the Dispositions of Moral Leaders
Patrick M. Jenlink
Chapter 2 – Moral Literacy—A Requisite for Moral Leadership
Patrick M. Jenlink

Section II: Moral Dispositions and the Moral Nature of Leadership
Chapter 3 – Moral Commitment: Scholar–Practitioners Making Choices With Strength of Purpose
Catherine York Amonett
Chapter 4 – Moral Respect and the School Administrator
Frederick J. Black, Jr.
Chapter 5 – Moral Authenticity as a Disposition of the Scholar-Practitioner
Cynthia Lindley
Chapter 6 – The Face of the Morally Responsible Scholar-Practitioner
Orlando Vargas
Chapter 7 – Moral Reasonableness and the Scholar–Practitioner
Walter Bevers
Chapter 8 – A Message to Educational Leaders: The Value of Moral Caring
Donna Porter
Chapter 9 – Moral Critique: A Critical Pragmatic View of Scholar-Practitioner Leadership
Toby Nix
Chapter 10 – Moral Integrity: The Leader’s Path to Wholeness
Nathaniel Session
Chapter 11 – Moral Courage: The Road “Less Traveled By”
Denice McCormick Myers
Chapter 12 – Examining Moral Justice and Its Implications for Equity And Access in the Pursuit of Democratic Schooling
Stefanie Bush
Chapter 13 – Moral Humility: A Dimension of Scholar-Practitioner Leadership
Brian Nichols
Chapter 14 – Moral Selflessness and the Scholar-Practitioner: Non-Random Acts of Deliberate Kindness
Laurie Stone Rogers
Chapter 15 – Moral Perseverance: Managing Decisions, Taking Risks, and Accepting Responsibility
Angela Wright

Section III: Moral Leadership: Reflections
Chapter 16 – The Scholar–Practitioner as Moral Being: Perspectives on Educational Leadership and Moral Dispositions
Karen Embry Jenlink
Chapter 17 – Coda: The Leader as Moral Architect: Ensuring the Moral Architecture of Education
Patrick M. Jenlink

About the Editor and Contributing Authors

This substantive work on the contemporary topic of educational leadership and moral literacy engages leaders in the significant task of developing beyond competent leaders into moral architects. This lens advances the field of educational leadership where the role of leaders as moral agents for today’s schools has gradually come to the fore. Those who prepare educational leaders will also benefit from how the contributors to this volume peel back the onion on the topic of morality, exposing it in relation to such crucial areas as dispositions, literacy, climate/culture, and selfhood.