Leadership: Vision and Mission

This course is designed to enable participants to understand, develop and encourage faithful leadership in Christian schools. School leaders are a vital link in the translation of parents’ hopes and priorities into the life of classrooms. The vision of Christian schooling that leaders seek to sustain, is not simply their own, but that of the supporting community. This is both exciting and challenging. Where does the vision come from? What are the components of an educational vision? How is a vision articulated? How does a vision inform the educational agenda? How does a vision grow and flourish through generations of parents, teachers and students?

Christian schools have developed a variety of management structures to support their vision for Christ-centred education. This course gives participants the opportunity to examine these structures critically in the light of:

• the school’s and their own educational focus and values
• the need to nurture Christian community
• the need to sustain a dynamic vision for Christian schooling.

ICSD120304/220304 W17
CSTC 1560
Instructor: Dr. Dirk Windhorst
(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Texts

Sergiovanni, Thomas J. (2004). The Lifeworld of Leadership: Creating Culture, Community, and Personal Meaning in Our Schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

There is a 2013 review of this book, affirming its continuing relevance, at http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1576&context=ce

Stronks, Gloria Goris and Doug Blomberg (Eds.). (1993). A Vision with a Task: Christian Schooling for Responsive Discipleship. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

This text is available free as a PDF file for reading and/or printing at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/education/news/publications/monoweb/vision/pdf.htm There is also a link on this page to a web version, but this contains transcription errors.