Values: The Core of Successful School Leadership

Abstract

Jesse Stuart was a teacher and international educator whose career spanned, defined, and reflects the American twentieth century education experience. Jesse Stuart’s career as an educator began as a 16-year-old teacher in a one-room school house in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s. He went on to become a school principal and superintendent as well as an important writer. We wish to suggest that Phil Hughes’ remarkably broad experience as an educator helped to define the experience and evolution of education in Australia in many of the same ways as Jesse Stuart’s did for the USA (Beare, From centralized imperialism to dispersed management: the contribution of Phillip Hughes to the development of educational administration in Australia. In: Maclean R (ed.) Learning and teaching for the twenty-first century, Springer, New York, pp 3–16, 2007). Phil Hughes taught leaders, mentored leaders, and was a leader in every sense of the word.

I am firm in my belief that a teacher lives on and on through his students. I will live on if my teaching is inspirational, good, and stands firm for good values. Good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal. (Stuart, 1949)

Portions of this chapter appeared in Hallinger, P. (2011). Leadership for learning: Lessons from 40 years of empirical research. Journal of Educational Administration, 49(2), 125–142.