Power, Politics, and Ethics in School Districts: Dynamic Leadership for Systemic Change.

Power, Politics, and Ethics in School Districts: Dynamic Leadership for Systemic Change by Francis M. Dully, Rowman & Littlefield Education, Lanham, Md., 2006, 300 pp. with index, $34.95 softcover 

A review of news headlines might suggest few people in power are ethical in their behavior. Francis M. Duffy's timely work, Power, Politics, and Ethics in School Districts, helps us understand the nature of power and politics and the critical role of ethics in guiding systemic change in public education.

Duffy, a professor of change leadership at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., crafts a dialogue that seems uniquely built around the needs of systemwide leadership and the role superintendents play in leading what he calls ecological systemic change. The text is clearly written and well documented by research and theory from the fields of education and business.

Of particular note in the opening section on the ethical use of power is Duffy's clarification of the role of the dynamic leader in systemwide change. In a section on political behavior, the author moves the discussion to leadership responsibilities overseeing systemic change.

Duffy also offers concrete strategies for using power, politics and ethics to support systemic change. Superintendents may find this section an important how-to guide. In the final third, he makes room for the voices of change leadership and their important reflections on the nature of leading change.

Duffy assures us dynamic leadership can embrace power and politics as well as be ethical. It is hard to imagine a better place to understand that balance than in schools where children count on us to make the right decisions.

Reviewed by Zach Kelehear, associate professor of educational leadership and policies, University of South Carolina