Molly F. Gordon, Ph.D, research associate at the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI), has contributed a chapter titled Creating Organizational Cultures of Family and Community Engagement: The Impact of District Policies and Practices on School Leaders to an edited book on leadership, family and community engagement. In the chapter, Gordon uses case studies to explore how district leaders create organizational cultures of engagement and how district engagement policies and practices play out in schools.
The volume, School Leadership for Authentic Family and Community Partnerships: Research Perspectives for Transforming Practice, is edited by Susan Auerbach from California State University, Northridge, and published by Routledge. The book brings together research perspectives that intersect the fields of leadership and partnerships to inform and inspire more authentic collaboration.
The volume offers a mix of empirical, conceptual, and reflective chapters and includes candid advice from district and school-level administrators on this under-documented aspect of leadership. Gordon’s chapter is drawn from data collected as part of a larger Wallace Foundation-funded study, Learning from Leadership, conducted by CAREI and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.