Learning to Read Critically in Educational Leadership and Management

`In Learning to Read Critically in Educational Leadership and Management, Mike Wallace and Louise Poulson provide students with an eminently usable text. Although the theoretical underpinnings and conceptualizations of leadership issues invariably differ, this book provides a lucid guide to plumbing their ambiguities′ - Educational Review

`This is a book that should be regarded as essential reading for those students following courses in education and social policy, particularly as masters level ′- International Journal of Educational Management

`I bought this book just a few days ago and I was surprised to realise the simple and yet scientific way it is written! I have started my postgraduate studies in Educational Management and this book will definitely make things easier! I would like to cordially thank Professor Wallace and Mrs Louise Poulson for this book which will help the majority of the students who enter the "labyrinth" of postgraduate research and surely need a kind of instruction manual to start! ′ - Amazon Review

`One of the most useful books that I have come across for my students′ - Professor Les Bell, Director of Doctorate of Education, University of Leicester

`Very impressed with the first chapter. Have recommended it to our research department for use with our graduate students. Thorough and practical′ - Philip Hallinger, Executive Director of the College of Management, Mahidol University, Thailand

This unique book combines the teaching quality of a text with exemplary reports of small-scale and larger research studies, as well as a literature review by leading academics.

Part One shows how to develop as a critical reader and self-critical writer of literature; and how to apply these insights in planning a written assignment, dissertation or thesis. The book provides a framework for the critical analysis of any text, and shows how to incorporate this in a literature review.

Part Two presents accounts of leading-edge research, offering insights into key issues in the field of educational leadership, management and administration. The reader is invited to practice literature review skills by applying the critical analysis questions to any research report. Readers can use the models of good research practice presented here in their own design of an investigation for a dissertation or thesis.

Part Three shows how a high quality literature review may be constructed and addresses a key issue in the field.

Contributors include:

· Sharon Kruse

. Karen Seashore Louis

· Kenneth Leithwood

· Phillip Hallinger and Ronald Heck

· Derek Glover and Rosalind Levacic

· Ray Bolam

This book will be useful to postgraduate students on research-based masters and doctorate courses in educational leadership, management and administration. It is relevant for students doing research training in the social sciences and humanities. It is can also be used as a teaching resource by supervisors of masters and doctorate level students.

This series, edited by Mike Wallace, supports research-based teaching on masters and taught doctorate courses in the humanities and social sciences fields of enquiry. Each book is a ′three in one′ text designed to assist advanced course tutors and dissertation supervisors with key research-based teaching tasks and aims to:

• develop students′ critical understanding of research literature

• increase students′ appreciation of what can be achieved in small-scale investigations similar to those which they undertake for their dissertation

• present students with major findings, generalisations and concepts connected to their particular field.

Mike Wallace is a Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. From 2009 to 2012 he was the Economic and Social Research Council’s Strategic Adviser for Researcher Development. His research on managing change in the public services is reported in many books and academic journals. He is co-author, with Eric Hoyle, of the book Educational Leadership: Ambiguity, Professionals, and Managerialism (Sage, 2005), lead editor, with Michael Fertig and Eugene Schneller, of the book Managing Change in the Public Services (Blackwell, 2007), and lead co-author, with Michael Reed, Dermot O′Reilly, Jonathan Morris, Michael Tomlinson and Rosemary Deem, of the book Developing Public Service Leaders: Elite Orchestration, Change Agency, Leaderism, and Neoliberalization (Oxford University Press, 2023). His contribution to teaching at Cardiff centres on the design of postgraduate research programmes incorporating research methods training.