Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Academic Leadership in Higher Education

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This book explores what academic leadership in higher education might mean in the cosmopolitan and increasingly globalised 21st century through individual academics narrative accounts drawn from a range of international contexts. The book shows that academic leadership is key to an individual's development and that it could mean different things in different settings as academics operate across the levels of professional practice, institutional organisation, sector-wide systems and international networks. This book argues for the importance of cosmopolitan perspectives on academic leadership which are developed from the particularities of local and everyday situated experience. Part I of the book explores key theoretical perspectives; Part II provides first-hand accounts from the contributors of their own development as academic leaders; and Part III discusses some of the implications for those with responsibility for academic development and for all those concerned with developing the qualities necessary for leadership practices.

Reviews

I strongly recommend this book as a significant contribution to the debate of academic leadership and further the role of higher education institutions. The theory elements have stimulated revision of my own view of the sector and the forces shaping change while the narratives are intriguing in demonstrating the role of cosmopolitan learning in the development of successful academic leaders in a number of different contexts. * Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching *
Laudably honest ... with more empirical accounts like these, and critical conceptualisations, the field of educational leadership might be seen as recovering, or even going from cosmopolitan strength to strength. * Journal of Research in International Education *
In a time when corporate agendas and approaches to leadership are becoming the new "common-sense" in higher education, we definitely need the voices of alternatives. Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Academic Leadership in Higher Education gives voice to the spaces where these more ethically and socially committed alternatives can and will grow. * Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA *
This book provides a radical break with conventional approaches to academic leadership. Biographical narratives from diverse international settings, including Japan, the Philippines and South Africa, provide much needed food for thought on the contextual realities of what it really means to be an academic leader. These cosmopolitan perspectives illuminate the messiness of leadership with all its struggles and tensions, leading to fresh insights into the realpolitik of being an academic leader. * Bruce Macfarlane, Professor of Higher Education, University of Southampton, UK *

Author Bio

Feng Su is Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, UK. Margaret Wood is Senior Lecturer at York St John University, UK.