Helping Educators Grow

How can we prepare practicing and aspiring education leaders for the complex, adaptive challenges they face? In Helping Educators Grow, Eleanor Drago-Severson presents a new approach to leadership development. The book starts with the premise that adult development is leadership development--that is, the task of school leaders is to develop the capacities of adults as well as students. Too often, the author argues, we teach leadership development the same way we teach world history: with just the facts. Instead, we need to create professional learning environments that invite leaders to experience the conditions that support adult growth, even as they are learning about them. Richly informed by examples of effective, developmentally oriented learning experiences for aspiring and practicing leaders, Drago-Severson's book provides the tools and concepts to make any professional learning initiative a developmental opportunity for individuals and groups. "Understanding and growing internal capacities--cognitive, emotional, self-to-self, and self-to-others--is central to the growth and development of education leaders, wherever they are in their careers. Drago-Severson deftly interweaves theory and practice to help individuals develop these capacities and become more effective and engaging leaders. By investing in our leaders and their development, we improve the learning experiences for all who enter our schools." -- Ed Dieterle, senior program officer for research, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "Drago-Severson maintains that for schools to be places of academic excellence for students, they must first be places of academic excellence for educators. This book is a blueprint for improving the talents and capacities of our teachers and school leaders--the key to improving outcomes for children." -- Deanna Burney, executive director, Leading by Learning, LLC "This book speaks so thoughtfully to the myriad ways in which school leaders may become active makers of their school communities. It takes very seriously the art and craft of adult development by offering practical strategies and approaches to building educational communities filled with possibility, deep learning, and hope." -- Richard Ackerman, professor of educational leadership, University of Maine, College of Education and Human Development, and facilitator, Center for Courage and Renewal Eleanor Drago-Severson is an associate professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University.