Description
Book SynopsisConflict is both a timely and a timeless challenge in schools, stymying school reform initiatives and elevating administrators' job stress. If school is a family, as many claim, it is often a dysfunctional one. Relationships between and among staff, parents, community and school boards may be destructively divisive, or alternatively, schools may avoid addressing controversial issues like inequity, fearful of tensions that would be unleashed.
From Conflict to Collaboration: A School Leader's Guide to Unleashing Conflict's Problem Solving Power offers a novel perspective. Rather than impeding school reform, school leaders may harness conflict to spark organizational vitality and growth. Honoring diverse viewpoints enables savvy school leaders to engage stakeholders in meaningful collaboration that builds capacity, enshrines productive dialogue and group problem-solving as cornerstones of school culture, and energizes the school community.
Drawing on knowledge from the fie
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Transforming Conflict in Schools: From Conflict-Volatility to Conflict-Agility
Chapter 2: What is Conflict and Why is it So Pervasive?
Chapter 3: Leadership in Conflict
Chapter 4: Building Understanding
Chapter 5: The Learning Cycle . . . Creating Prototypes, Testing Solutions, Getting Unstuck
Chapter 6: Looking Backward, Moving Forward
About the Authors
Bibliography
