Focused: Understanding, Negotiating, and Maximizing Your Influence as a School Leader

Transform educational systems by zeroing in on what matters.

As schools grapple with an array of social, economic, and political challenges, education leaders must hone their focus on important tasks and learn how to navigate bureaucratic constraints, policies, and parental concerns while fostering change. This essential guide proposes that school leaders become "brave and focused," not by abandoning structures or making changes recklessly, but by understanding their influence and maximizing positive change with evidence-based decisions.

Divided into three stages, Focused addresses building a leadership paradigm for outstanding schools, discusses the most influential elements for collective success, and offers solutions to the pitfalls that frequently hinder success. Other features include:

• Illustrative vignettes, practical examples, and stories
• Research-based action steps to become a more focused leader
• Focus points at the close of each chapter to support implementing a new leadership approach

Focused provides a practical guide for school leaders to successfully navigate today′s complex educational systems and develop the change-makers, artisans, innovators, inventors, and civic leaders of tomorrow.

Jim Watterston brings more than 39 years of successful experience across a diverse range of educational roles and sectors, from his first job as a teacher in a rural Indigenous classroom in his home state of Western Australia to his appointment as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne.

Jim spent his first ten years in the profession as a teacher before being promoted to the position of principal in a range of primary and secondary schools. He then progressed to the role of Regional Director in WA and Victoria before he was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the Victorian Education Department, and Director General of both the ACT and, most recently, Queensland Departments of Education and Training. Jim was awarded a Doctorate in Education at the University of WA in 2004.

In addition to appointments to many educationally related Boards, Professor Watterston has previously served for six years as the National President for the Australian Council for Education Leaders, and is recognized as an influential advocate for the education sector. His contribution to education has been acknowledged both nationally and internationally with awards from a number of professional bodies and educational institutions including the highly prestigious Order of the Palmes Académiques (Chevalier) by the French Government in 2014 for a distinguished contribution to education.

Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professor in Educational Leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Australia. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education. Yong Zhao has received numerous awards including the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association, Outstanding Public Educator from Horace Mann League of USA, Distinguished Achievement Award in Professional Development from the Association of Education Publishers, and ACEL Nganakarrawa Award. He has been recognized as one of the most influential education scholars. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has published over 100 articles and nearly 40 books.

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