Anti-egoistic School Leadership: Ecologically Based Value Perspectives for the 21st Century

Much has been written about the need for both schools and leadership to be different from what they are today if they are to meet the challenges of the knowledge society (Hargreaves 2003; Mitchell & Sackney 2000; Sackney et al. 1999). The impact of globalization, new technologies and the need for a well-educated society has put pressure on educators to improve opportunities for student learning. Various restructuring attempts have been made with minimal success. Unfortunately, the traditional worldview of schooling, based on Newtonian science, does not seem to be getting the job done. Equally unfortunate are the conditions that foster and unnecessarily exacerbate human pain, fragility, injustice, frustration, and create disease in schools. In a fast changing world, sustainable and continuous learning is a “given” (Hargreaves & Fink 2005). In this chapter we outline an alternative worldview of leadership based on an ecological perspective to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based society and provide a critique of toxic leadership (egoism). Finally, we present some considerations for ethical and sustainable leadership in schools.