Teachers as Servant Leaders

(Paperback)

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In today's political environment with the emphasis on testing, standards, and accountability, teachers can easily feel frustrated by the amount of time and resources left over for teachingfor guiding students not only in academics but also in character education. Educators can find themselves losing focus of what initially inspired them to teach. Teachers as Servant Leaders provides pre-service teachers and those currently in the profession with a renewed perspective of not just being a content expert or classroom/behavioral manager, but leaders within their own classrooms, school buildings, and local communities. Building on Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by Robert Greenleaf, this book applies the concept of servant leadership to the classroom teacher where the focus is on service to students, parents, colleagues, the school and community.

Reviews

Taking Robert K. Greenleaf's philosophy of leader as servant as a starting point, Nichols (Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.) paints a compelling image of the values and beliefs of an exemplary teacher who leads by serving students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and the communitythe teacher as servant leader. This image of the teacher necessarily goes far beyond the No Child Left Behind era emphasis on test scores and rote learning that has dominated discourse about the teaching profession during the first decade of the 21st century. Drawing upon the work of such iconic thinkers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Dewey, George Counts, Howard Gardner, and Alfie Kohn, Greenleaf envisions a teacher who tends to the cognitive, psychological, and socio-emotional dimensions of students with great passion and who stimulates interest and enthusiasm in learning. Leading by serving parents and community occurs within an interconnected, ecological system paradigm instead of a deficit paradigm. Leadership theory is presented, but mainly consists of descriptions of traits, including attitudes and values. Summing Up: Recommended. * Choice Reviews *
Joe D. Nichols has crafted a book of magnanimous spirit, profound understandings of the human heart, and an enduring commitment to perhaps the most central position in every good society: that of the teacher. Teachers as Servant Leaders has such generosity, such incrementally ascending understandings of the responsibilities of the true teacher, and such a refreshing approach to being a servant leader in the core of the nation, it is a must read for all who have ever been inspired by those who give themselves to educate, mentor, and in effect, love, others. -- Shann French, editor of The International Journal of Servant Leadership; Gonzaga University, editor of The International Journal of Servant Leadership; Gonzaga University
Three cheers for Joe D. Nichols! Teachers as Servant Leaders is a welcome addition to the powerful and growing body of literature on education and servant-leadership, as well as being a potent reminder of the legacy of teachers who serve first, then lead. -- Larry C. Spears, author/editor of Insights on Leadership; president, The Spears Center for Servant-Leadership; servant-leader scholar, Gonzaga Un

Author Bio

Joe D. Nichols, Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, is professor and chair of the Department of Educational Studies in the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne.