Contours of Great Leadership ─ The Science, Art, and Wisdom of Outstanding Practice

A contour is usually defined as an outline or the structure or characteristic of something. A contour line which is shown on a contour map indicates points of elevation. We think that all of these definitions fit Contours of Great Leadership. This book brings together many aspects of concepts and theories of leadership. It is an amalgam of ideas from the social sciences and the humanities woven together in the idea of leadership as an accoutrement, that is, a deliberate woven garment comprising science, art, experience, and craft knowledge. Thus we see leadership not as either/or an art or a science; or craft knowledge vs. scientific or research based knowledge, but rather as all of them combined and which occurs between followers and leaders within distinctive cultures and modes of communication. The importance of context and culture as the milieu in which leadership is acquired and learned is critical. In the end leadership is a performing art form, which while it can be studied scientifically, cannot be understood solely as a science without connecting it to the arts and ultimately to practice.

Dr. Rosemary Papa currently serves as The Del and Jewel Lewis Endowed Chair in Learning Centered Leadership and Professor of Educational Leadership in the College of Education at Northern Arizona University- a position she has held since 2007. Her record of publications includes twelve books as author or co-author, numerous book chapters, monographs and over eighty referred journal articles. She has served as a Principal and Chief School Administrator for two districts in Nebraska, California State University system level Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Sylvan Learning, Inc., Faculty Director of a University-based Center for Teaching and Learning in California and founded two joint doctoral programs in Educational Leadership with University of California universities. She has worked internationally as a noted educator with expertise in leadership characteristics known as accoutrements, mentoring, adult learning and multi-media technology.

Dr. Fenwick English currently is the R. Wendell Eaves Senior Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a position he has held since 2001. Dr. English is the author or co-author of over thirty-five books and has presented his research over two decades at the American Educational Research Association Divisions A and L; National Council of Professors of Educational Administration; University Council of Educational Administration; British Educational Leadership and Management Society; and the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration.
He and Rosemary Papa have co-authored many texts including Restoring Human Agency to Educational Administration: Status and Strategies (2010); Turnaround Principals for Underperforming Schools (2011); and Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges, and Promises (2012). He was the President of NCPEA (2011-2012) and of UCEA (2006-07) respectively. As an educational practitioner he has held the positions of assistant principal and middle school principal (California); assistant superintendent of schools (Florida); superintendent of schools (New York); associate executive director of the AASA (Virginia); National Practice Director of Elementary and Secondary Education for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (Washington, D.C.); Department Chair-University of Cincinnati (Ohio); Dean, School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne and later Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs (Indiana). He is the acknowledged father of the curriculum management audit and has worked in many of the large urban school systems in the U.S.

Dr. Frank Davidson began his career in education serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and has been a K-12 teacher and principal, curriculum administrator, and superintendent. He is the past President of the Superintendents’ Division of the Arizona School Administrators; In 2000, he received the Arizona School Administrators’ All-Arizona Superintendent Award for Large School Districts; and, In 2006, he was selected as Arizona Superintendent of the Year and was named as Arizona’s nominee for the American Association of School Administrators Superintendent of the Year Award. He is the Superintendent of the Casa Grande Element