Kate Rousmaniere

The Principal's Office is the first historical examination of one of the most important figures in American education. Originating as a head teacher in the nineteenth century and evolving into the role of contemporary educational leader, the school principal has played a central part in the development of American public education. A local leader who not only manages the daily needs of the school but also represents district and state officials, the school principal is the connecting hinge between classroom practice and educational policy. Kate Rousmaniere explores the cultural, economic, and political pressures that have impacted school leadership over time and considers professionalization, the experiences of women and people of color, and progressive community initiatives. She discusses the intersections between the role of the school principal with larger movements for civil rights, parental and community activism, and education reform. The school principal emerges as a dynamic character in the center of the educational enterprise, ever maneuvering between multiple constituencies, responding to technical and bureaucratic demands, and enacting different leadership strategies. By focusing on the historic development of school leadership, this book provides insights into the possibilities of school improvement for contemporary school leaders and reformers.

A Social History of the American School Principal

The Principal's Office

Barnita Bagchi

Eckhardt Fuchs

The history of education in the modern world is a history of transnational and cross-cultural influence. This collection explores those influences in (post) colonial and indigenous education across different geographical contexts. The authors emphasize how local actors constructed their own adaptation of colonialism, identity, and autonomy, creating a multi-centric and entangled history of modern education. In both formal as well as informal aspects, they demonstrate that transnational and cross-cultural exchanges in education have been characterized by appropriation, re-contextualization, and hybridization, thereby rejecting traditional notions of colonial education as an export of pre-existing metropolitan educational systems.

Transnational and Cross-Cultural Exchanges in (Post)Colonial Education

Connecting Histories of Education

The first book-length biography of Margaret Haley (1861–1939) focuses on her political vision, her activities as a public school activist, and her life as a charismatic woman leader. Citizen Teacher is the first book-length biography of Margaret Haley (1861–1939), the founder of the first American teachers’ union, and a dynamic leader, civic activist, and school reformer. The daughter of Irish immigrants, this Chicago elementary school teacher exploded onto the national stage in 1900, leading women teachers into a national battle to secure resources for public schools and enhance teachers’ professional stature. This book centers on Haley’s political vision, activities as a public school activist, and her life as a charismatic leader. In the more than forty years of her political life, Haley was constantly in the news, butting heads with captains of industry, challenging autocracy in urban bureaucracy and school buildings alike, arguing legal doctrine and tax reform in state courts, and urging her constituents into action. An extraordinary figure in American history, Haley’s contemporaries praised her as one of the nation’s great orators and called her the Joan of Arc of the classroom teacher movement. Haley’s belief that well-funded, well-respected teachers were the key to the development of a positive civic community remains a central tenet in American education. Her guiding vision of the democratic role of the public school and the responsibility of teachers as activist citizens is relevant and inspirational for educators today. Kate Rousmaniere is Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University, Ohio and is the author of City Teachers: Teachers and School Reform in Historical Perspective.

Kate Rousmaniere

Books

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