Examining the Practice of School Administration in Canada

Luke Lawson is a teacher and administrator in Vancouver, B.C.

Very few educators want to venture into school administration; it can be
time-consuming, stressful, thankless, and highly political. Not
surprisingly, there are countless books on how to tackle the
responsibilities of being an administrator. Consisting of chapters
contributed by various educators, Armstrong’s lengthy book focuses on
the role of the principal and vice-principal and how various factors
affect those positions (staff, students, legal issues, push for school
improvement, bureaucracy, etc.). Many of the chapters recount the
experiences of educators who are fairly new to the job.

The second part of the book focuses on the functions of administrators
and how the administrators construct their roles. Much attention is
given to student assessment, curriculum, and school culture, among other
well-plowed areas of educational research.

The final part examines structures. In a chapter titled “Engaging
Practising and Prospective Administrators in Dialogue on Privilege and
Marginalization,” David Mackinnon rehashes the tired argument that
white Anglo-Saxon men are privileged and that schools are in need of
more social justice, even if that means advocating some form of civil
disobedience. A more middle-of-the-road approach to the issue would have
given this book a more solid foundation.