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Fullan, Michael. (2003). The Moral
Imperative of School Leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif.:
Corwin Press
88 pps.
$24.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-7619-3873-7
Reviewed by Anthony H. Normore
Florida International University
May 19, 2004
Although the value and impact of the educational reform
movement over the past two decades may be cause for debate, many
school practitioners and researchers have asserted that one fact
remains clear: the role of the school administrator has increased
in complexity. The ground rules have changed dramatically.
Across North America there is mass exodus of persons from
leadership positions due to early and planned retirements, public
scrutiny, changing expectations, and increasing demands in the
role leaving a shortage of individuals qualified or interested to
occupy these vacancies. It is predicted that this rate will
accelerate over the next few years. To end the exodus from the
principalship, and for great school leaders to evolve in large
numbers, it becomes crucial to redefine the position of the
school leader. In order to meet the challenge of this leadership
crisis, leaders from all levels in school districts will need to
focus on systemic change to enhance change capacity and
sustainability. The time has come to change the context of school
in an effort to make the position more rewarding and exciting.
The role of the principal is pivotal to systemic school change
and student achievement. This is the fundamental message in
Michael Fullan's new book, The Moral Imperative of School
Leadership.
Fullan shows how moral leadership can reinvent the
principalship and bring about large-scale school improvement by
challenging all who work in education to rethink the critical
role of the principal as school leader in the current era of
accountability. With clarity and insight, he offers a series of
strategies to reshape the culture and context of leadership in
schools to create learning communities where both students and
teachers can excel and where no teacher, no administrator, nor
any child is left behind. Fullan shifts the principal’s
role from one of a site-based superpower, and recasts it as one
in which principals figure prominently both within their school
and within the larger school system that surrounds them. The
author examines the moral purpose of school leadership and its
critical role in "changing the context" in which the role is
embedded. The challenge, and moral imperative, for today's
principal is to lead system transformations to resolve the
top-down/bottom-up dilemma that exists in systemic change.
The format of the book is practitioner-friendly. It is clear
and easy to follow and provides an excellent source of new
knowledge for all stakeholders in education. Essentially, the
book provides strategies for reshaping culture and leadership in
schools by “creating conditions for transforming the
principalship into a powerful force for reform” (p. xv).
Each chapter consists of a comprehensive discussion about school
leadership in public education, with the head of the school as
the focal point. Public education has always been morally
considered the “common good…that everybody has a
stake in the caliber of schools, and education is
everyone’s business…quality of public education
system relates directly to the quality of life that people enjoy,
with a strong public education system as the cornerstone of a
civil, prosperous, and democratic society” (p. 3). With
this in mind, public schools in diverse multicultural societies
must include citizenship and character education supported by
leaders who believe in changing context and changing behaviors.
Fullan demonstrates that the principal with a moral imperative
can help realize it only by developing “combined forces of
shared leadership” in others to make a difference in the
system (p. xv).
There are five chapters in total. Chapter one sets the stage
for the discussion by showing why changing the context is
critical for school leadership. Focus is on conditions that
surround school leaders including school culture, how schools are
interconnected, the role of school district-and how changing the
immediate context can result in changed behaviors in the short
run and beyond. The author reiterates that reform strategies as
they currently exist have little hope of sustainable effects if
they are to remain disconnected from changing the culture and
working conditions of schools. As Fullen asserts “what
students should know and be able to do and what teachers and
administrators should know and be able to do…are important,
but in themselves they will not change situations and
systems” (p. 3). He further explains “you can have
the goal of having credentialed teachers in every classroom, but
the effect will be blunted…if you do not focus on the
working conditions, good teachers will not stay long-or come in
the first place” (p. 3) Additionally, a two-layered
perspective on the role of leadership is presented. The first
layer reveals that the principal’s role is to help create
and sustain disciplined inquiry and action on part of teachers,
while the second layer concerns what needs to be done to help
create and sustain the number of school principals who actually
do this. Fullan emphasizes that by changing the immediate
context, school leaders can help develop and mould other leaders
at many levels who can carry on and perhaps do even better than
they did. These leaders are more like “chief operating
officers than managers”. (p. 11)
Chapter two identifies some barriers and obstacles to the
current principalship. An interesting comment made by Fullan is
“leadership is to the current decade what standards were to
the 1990’s for those interested in large-scale
reform…standards, even when well-implemented, can take us
only part of the way to successful large-scale reform…only
leadership that can take us all the way” (p. 16). Some of
the barriers presented by the author range from
self–imposed barriers that include: loss of moral compass,
‘if-only’ dependency, inability to take charge of
one’s own learning, and responsibility virus, to
system-imposed barriers that include: role overload and role
ambiguity, limited investment in leadership development, neglect
of leadership succession, centralization/decentralization, and
absence of a system change strategy. In essence, when so many
demands are placed on the school administrator, it is not just
the amount of work this is problematic, but also the inconsistent
and ambiguous messages that often accompany these demands (i.e.,
“do more with less” syndrome). Fullan identifies
strategies that require going deeper in transforming schools such
as fostering and supporting leadership opportunities for all
teachers and using capacity to build capacity. Understanding and
implementing these strategies in team formats are considered a
pivotal role of the principal since school leadership is a
“team sport” (p. 26).
Chapter three focuses on new directions for sophisticated
leadership at the school level with emphasis on the moral
imperative. Fullan introduces four levels of moral purpose:
individual, school, district, and society. However, the chapter
focuses on the first two levels: the individual school and the
community. The author clearly indicates that it’s
impossible to have moral purpose on a large-scale unless the role
of the principal is recast as chief operating officer in
transforming schools and school systems. Moral purpose of the
highest order is having a system where “all students learn,
the gap between high and know performance becomes greatly
reduced, and what people learn enable them to be successful
citizens and workers in a morally based knowledge society”
(p. 29). The use of case study vignettes to illustrate the
principal’s role at different degrees of depth with respect
to school change is highlighted throughout this chapter.
Furthermore, Fullan capitalizes on the importance of effective
school leaders continually selecting the right people and then
developing and supporting them to reinforce school values. As in
any organization, leading schools requires principals with
courage and capacity to build new cultures based on trusting
relationships and a culture of disciplined inquiry and action
Chapter four explores what it means to make a difference
beyond the school. The author claims “the moral imperative
will never amount to much unless school leaders also take it on
the road…sticking to one’s neck of the woods
guarantees that the moral imperative will never exist in more
than a very small percentage of schools” (p.47). The
overarching argument in this chapter is that schools cannot
develop and grow if individuals within that school do not have
common values and goals, nor can districts be effective if school
leaders do not identify with and participate in district-wide
developments. System leaders are crucial for system improvement
and are more akin to chief operating officer of the Public School
System. Of interest to the author of this article is the
reference made by Fullan to the No child Left Behind Act. He
states how important is for schools to work together and to be
concerned about the success of each other’s schools and the
district overall. The No Child Left Behind Act states that
“parents of children who are attending poorly performing
schools that are not improving can send their children to other,
better-performing schools where practical…while the
intention of the policy may be honorable, it has no chance of
changing the system and hardly any chance of working for more
than a handful of individuals” (p. 48). What Fullan
continues to argue for is a strategy designed to change the
context whereby the goal is to mobilize leadership at all levels
to transform the system as a whole. He links this process to what
is currently happening in Bristol, England where leaders of
challenged schools are working with leaders of more successful
schools to improve all schools and the district as a whole.
Identifying with and being concerned about the state of moral
purpose in the bigger picture is what Fullan calls “great
leadership” (pg 50). Consequently, schools must learn from
each other if they are to have any hope of large-scale reform and
to transcend the “little neck of the woods to the whole
forest” (p. 60)
Finally, Chapter five addresses how the principal might engage
in the new evolution of school leadership by pursuing the complex
processes of “traveling the pathway of creating new roles
for principals—one set focusing on what individuals can and
should do; the other focusing on what changes are needed at the
system level” (p. xv)—in other words, how school leaders
get there. Fullan concentrates on new directions and new contexts
that require the individual and system action on an independent,
as well as on a collective basis. At the level of the individual,
the author identifies two implications for school leaders. The
first is to take action consistent with the moral journey; the
second is to push for and be responsible to system opportunities
to deepen and extend moral purpose. Ironically, in many systems,
teachers and administrators have maintained their moral
commitment despite the system. The author indicates that
it’s time for the system “to reward and enhance those
already working from moral premises and create the conditions
under which all leaders will be expected and enabled to lead in
powerful new ways” (p. 71). A fundamental issue raised in
this chapter is understanding what there is about a larger system
that produces so little of what is needed. Indeed the system is
not conducive to attracting, supporting, and developing the
leadership that is needed for moral purposes to thrive. As Fullan
explains, system transformation, “of the kind we are
talking about, will take at least 10 years” (p. 73). He
outlines some fundamental policy and structural strategies that
will most likely enable movement substantially in this new
direction. These strategies include: reconceptualizing the role
of school leadership, getting school size right, investing in
leaders developing leaders, improving the teaching profession,
improving the capacity of the infrastructure, and recognizing and
working with the continuum of development (p. 73).
In reading this book it is necessary to bear in mind that
school administration and educational leadership, like other
fields, are expanding so rapidly that it becomes difficult to
keep up. This book, The Moral Imperative of School
Leadership, is very timely and well written for many different
audiences. The book is a highly valuable and insightful volume,
presented with rigor and thought. It is especially valuable for
aspiring and practicing school administrators, school district
office personnel, and other leaders, including policy makers, who
are in a position to change the system. Teachers and parents can
benefit from reading this book as well. It is not uncommon for
parents and teachers to question the leadership practices of
school and district office administrators. This book could serve
as their guide for understanding their own leadership roles in
education and how they too can best contribute to enhancing the
quality of student learning. Moreover,
the book is equally valuable as a resource for professors
and students of educational administration and leadership
programs.
About the Reviewer
Anthony H. Normore, Assistant Professor, Educational
Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education, Florida
International University, Miami, Florida
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