Caring in Crisis: Stories to Inspire and Guide School Leaders

Dig into 40 stories from caring school leaders who lead their school communities through crises and learn to prepare for, respond to, and recover from your own.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction: Crises and Caring School Leadership Crisis Comes The Meaning of Crisis Crisis Leadership and the Through Line of Caring Caring School Leadership in Times of Crisis Guide for Engaging the Stories Overview of Practices Questions That Promote Understanding Questions That Prompt Application The Stories 1. Through the Eyes of Children 2. Speak Life 3. Giving Ourselves Permission to Be Human 4. Building a Family 5. Reflections on Healing Staff With Compassion 6. Caring for Kids by Taking Care of Teachers 7. Laura 8. Guarding Against Sexual Misconduct 9. One Sows, Another Reaps 10. A Million Times More 11. Commitment to Community Health 12. Da Bears! 13. My Zoom Isn’t Working! 14. Imagine the Possibilities 15. On Day 2, 9/11 16. Responding to the Crises 17. A Deadly Threat 18. Start Simple 19. Keeping Connected With the Kids 20. Prioritizing Our Students 21. A District Office Caring for Teachers 22. We Need to Talk About Sarah 23. Coping With Loss 24. Bring Your Dog to Work Days 25. “With Every Difficulty, There Is Relief” 26. Tone Deafness 27. Centering on Community 28. Biting 29. The Magnolia 30. No One Saw It Coming 31. No Hugs, No Bugs 32. Two Storms in One Week 33. And Then There Was Mold 34. I Am Here for You 35. Winning and Losing 36. Summer Meals 37. Sharing the Peace 38. The Tsunami 39. Leading Through the Storm 40. The Work of My Life Coda A Culture of Caring Who Cares for the Caring School Leader? Bibliography

About the Author :
Mark A. Smylie is professor of education emeritus in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and visiting professor in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Before his work in higher education, Smylie was a high school social studies teacher. Smylie served as secretary-treasurer of the National Society for the Study of Education and as a director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. His work has appeared in the American Education Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, Journal of School Leadership, and Review of Research in Education. Smylie has worked with schools, school districts, and school administrator and teacher professional associations through joint projects, advising, and school leader development activities. He has served on advisory boards of numerous regional and national professional and policy organizations concerned with education generally and leadership in particular. Smylie’s research focuses on school organization, leadership, and change. Joseph F. Murphy is the Frank W. Mayborn Chair and associate dean at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. He has also been a faculty member at the University of Illinois and The Ohio State University, where he was the William Ray Flesher Professor of Education. In the public schools, he has served as an administrator at the school, district, and state levels, including an appointment as the executive assistant to the chief deputy superintendent of public instruction in California. His most recent appointment was as the founding president of the Ohio Principals Leadership Academy. At the university level, he has served as department chair and associate dean. He is past vice president of the American Educational Research Association and was the founding chair of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). He is co-editor of the AERA Handbook on Educational Administration (1999) and editor of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) yearbook, The Educational Leadership Challenge (2002). His work is in the area of school improvement, with special emphasis on leadership and policy. He has authored or co-authored 18 books in this area and edited another 12. His most recent authored volumes include Understanding and Assessing the Charter School Movement (2002), Leadership for Literacy: Research-Based Practice, PreK-3 (2003), Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement (2005), Preparing School Leaders: Defining a Research and Action Agenda (2006), and Turning Around Failing Schools: Lessons From the Organizational Sciences.

Review :
Caring in Crisis: reminded me that in times of need we as educators come together to meet the needs of out students, families and the community at large. It emphasis that the role of the educator far exceeds just addressing the academic needs of students, but the social emotional as well. I was inspired by the thoughtful displays of unconditional care from school leaders. In The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni argues that effective leaders focus on the technical and human aspects of managing their organization. Here, Mark Smylie and Joseph Murphy emphasize the latter especially during a crisis. Rich with illustrations, stories, and practices of caring, this book remind us that school success comes not just from curriculum and instruction, but from relationships. Caring in Crisis is a book for our time. An artful collection of insightful, provocative storytelling, this work illuminates the myriad challenges school leaders face and provides a much-needed sense that educators are deeply interconnected and interdependent. Smylie and Murphy inspire us to meet the challenges ahead and reveal that while crisis takes many forms, so too does caring. Caring in Crisis makes a strong case for the importance of extending care to all who are impacted in a crisis and of fostering a caring school community who pull together during those difficult days. The stories in this book provide a compelling glimpse into the profound impact that a caring word, an act of kindness, or a decision that prioritizes the needs of students can have. Caring in Crisis is a masterful resource as it presents a research-based rationale, as well as strategic guidance, for caring in times of crisis and it engages the reader in authentic experiences shared by in-the-trenches educators. This unique combination of strategies, wisdom and heartrending stories provides opportunities for educational leaders to learn from the experiences of others in order to work together with staff to proactively mitigate crises with compassion and competence.  How do principals respond to a teen suicide? What could they do when faced with racism, discrimination, and even policy brutality? During COVID-19, what are some innovative ways to create a sense of community and well-being? Mark Smylie and Joseph Murphy’s Caring in Crisis provides insights into compassionate school leaders responding to situations none of us would ever want to face. Their compilation of narratives from school leaders gives us a glimpse into the agony and decisions that school leaders have had to make and the critical importance of their empathy for families and communities. Caring in Crisis, filled with examples of courage, of communication, and of community-building, gives us hope for the future, for our humanity. A must read for aspiring school leaders, you will learn about leadership in the midst of tears and heart break, about supporting families during mental health challenges, and about being a friend to your students and your community. It will open minds and hearts, providing role models for new leaders and promoting a crucial standard for "ethics of care" during some of the most difficult times.