Book review: Collaborative School Leadership: A Critical Guide

Philip Woods and Amanda Roberts offer a valuable exploration of how leadership that is based on a deep commitment to social justice can improve the experiences of school children as well as those who are employed to support their development. It productively focuses on two key questions that all school communities should reflect upon: (1) what is leadership? and (2) what should leadership be? In response to these questions, collaborative leadership is offered as an ‘alternative vision’ to a top-down approach. This book is neatly divided into 10 accessible chapters. In its first chapter, a concise overview of the book’s aspirations is outlined, and there is a critical exploration of hierarchical and democratic leadership styles. Subsequently, non-hierarchal management, which has a commitment to democratic values and practices, is called for. Woods and Roberts do however acknowledge that, even when there is a strong organisational belief in the value of such leadership, traditional hierarchies are likely to continue to exist unless substantive whole school change takes place. This note of caution is extremely welcome as it flags up the scale of the change that schools must go through to establish management that is fully democratic. They explain how: