Leadership for Society

This book explores a range of issues related to minority educational leaders' role in their society, in particular those working in a divided society under conflict.

The political and cultural challenges faced by minorities in divided societies raise the specific and important need to study leadership from a new perspective, based on the leaders' role in their society and community, and on their role in leveraging their school toward integration in their society while staying aligned with environmental changes.

The authors present a new theoretical framework of "leadership for society" with practical implications for effective leadership in complex societies. The book also develops our understanding of minority education in the reality of conflicts between the state and the minority's identity. The authors believe that school leaders’ participation in the extended community will improve and affect the development of schools and enable leaders to negotiate cultural, social and political complexities.

Rima’a Da’as is Head of the Graduate Division of Policy, Administration, and Leadership in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her main research areas are educational administration, leadership, and organizational behavior, focusing on organizational learning (schools’ absorptive capacity and ambidexterity), leaders’ cognitive complexity and educational leaders’ cognitive aspects, leaders’ characteristics and student outcomes, leadership for society – leading for social mobility and integration, and leading schools in times of crisis.

Chen Schechter is Full Professor of Leadership, Organizational Development and Policy in Education and is President of the MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education, Israel. His research, aimed at integrating theory with empirical evidence and practice, includes reform implementation, educational change, professional learning communities, organizational learning, collaborative learning from success, educational leadership, leadership development, systems thinking for school leaders, and school leadership for social integration and mobility.