This new collection of readings draws together three major and interrelated priorities for the educational manager: developing and maintaining quality, using resources effectively, and establishing a strategic overview and direction for the organization.

In explaining these three concerns, the book aims to help educational managers to improve their own practice, by encouraging critical reflection on management processes and on how conceptual frameworks and research evidence can contribute to more effective professional performance in schools and colleges.

The collection has a strongly practical flavour, focusing on frameworks, ideas and approaches that teachers can test out and develop in their own professional contexts. It includes material based on a wide range of educational settings, enabling managers to transcend sector boundaries in their thinking and to draw on insights from other sectors.

This volume forms part of the Leadership and Management in Education series. This four book series provides a carefully chosen selection of high quality readings on key contemporary themes in educational management: professional development, reflection on practice, leadership, team working, effectiveness and improvement, quality, strategy and resources. The series will be an important resource for classroom teachers and lecturers as well as those holding designated management posts in schools and colleges and will provide a valuable basis for professional development programmes.