Research and Educational Leadership is the first book to directly address the implications of the National Research Council's (NRC's) Scientific Research in Education (2002) in the fields of educational leadership and school administration. This text points out the strengths and weaknesses of the NRC's recommendations and specifically identifies areas that are not likely to lead to either theoretical or practical advances in practice or new knowledge if the NRC's guidelines become dominant in determining the value of research. Research and Educational Leadership is an invaluable tool in rethinking how research is conducted in educational leadership and how public and private funding agencies should view research proposals for improving leadership practices in schools. It is also a key resource for teaching researchers to think more deeply about school leadership as they engage in dissertation research. Practitioners will also find the work an important reference in understanding what kinds of research are likely to promote improved comprehension of leadership practices and social justice.

Research and Educational Leadership is the first book to directly address the implications of the National Research Council's (NRC's) Scientific Research in Education (2002) in the fields of educational leadership and school administration. This text points out the strengths and weaknesses of the NRC's recommendations and specifically identifies areas that are not likely to lead to either theoretical or practical advances in practice or new knowledge if the NRC's guidelines become dominant in determining the value of research. Research and Educational Leadership is an invaluable tool in rethinking how research is conducted in educational leadership and how public and private funding agencies should view research proposals for improving leadership practices in schools. It is also a key resource for teaching researchers to think more deeply about school leadership as they engage in dissertation research. Practitioners will also find the work an important reference in understanding what kinds of research are likely to promote improved comprehension of leadership practices and social justice.

African American educators shaped a role for themselves in the larger civil rights movement by striving for inclusion, on equal footing, in the National Education Association (NEA). This book explores the relationship between the NEA, the nation’s largest teacher organization, and the predominately black American Teachers Association, and illustrates how African American educators helped to redefine the NEA’s core ideology to include the support of policies, practice, and politics that promoted educational equity for children and educators who have been historically marginalized. Examining heated debates in African American communities and in the NEA, and the immediate and long-term effects of inclusion on educators and public school children, this book reveals teacher associations as something more than labor unions and educators as activists for educational equity, while it documents the perils, disappointments, and advantages of professional cohesion. The book’s documentation of leadership in particularly challenging settings fills a void in literature for teacher preparation and educational leadership programs.