Women leaders and the COVID-19 pandemic are currently trending in the news. Major news outlets are all offering their positive opinions on how world-wide women leaders have addressed the crisis and reassured their people. While this sort of press coverage is certainly uplifting, little to no research has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of women’s leadership decisions and strategies in these difficult times. In concert with these global struggles resulting from the pandemic are the challenges faced by higher education. Many colleges and universities have all but shuttered their doors and are conducting instruction, student support, and day-to-day business almost completely online. Women academic leaders bear a great load during global crises, with the combination of maintaining work responsibilities and caring for families and personal households. It is shown that women leaders may feel overwhelmed but remain heroes in unprecedented times of crisis. Women and Leadership in Higher Education During Global Crises informs readers and expands their understanding about specific challenges, issues, strategies, and solutions that are associated with women leaders in higher education, the implications during the current pandemic and other natural disasters, and how these strategies can be used for future agility and success. The chapters will cover narratives, strategies, and initiatives that women leaders are using to lead their institutions, departments, sectors, and organizations. It ties together the unimaginable challenges, joys, struggles, and successes encountered by women in leadership in higher education and is ideal for higher education administrators, teachers, leaders, faculty, provosts, deans, program leaders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in both the challenges and successes women leaders in higher education face during global crises.

Stabilizing and Empowering Women in Higher Education: Realigning, Recentering, and Rebuilding is a book that addresses the challenges faced by women leaders in higher education during the current pandemic. The book is written by experts in the field and draws on emerging evidence-based practices and personal narratives to provide insights into strategies for emotional balance, self-care, and wellbeing for women leaders. It explores the challenges faced by women leaders in higher education and offers solutions for their wellbeing, including reframing and reinventing oneself during the pandemic. This volume is an essential read for women in leadership, faculty, administrators, professional staff, graduate students, and researchers. It provides valuable information and perspectives on creating access for marginalized groups, using roles as women leaders to create change, and nurturing and empowering women in leadership. Overall, it is a persuasive and powerful book that will help readers to realign, recenter, and rebuild in their personal and professional lives.

In the intricate tapestry of life there exist moments in our lives that define us as individuals and as part of our communities. To gain insights into what makes a great leader, we can learn from those who have built the road before us. A profound exploration of pivotal experiences that shape the personal and professional trajectories of women in academia will help pave the way for the leaders of the future. Navigating the intersection of both personal and professional spheres, the book, Narratives on Defining Moments for Women Leaders in Higher Education, delves into the profound impact of high-impact moments in the lives of women in leadership roles. Drawing on personal anecdotes and evidence-based practices, readers gain insight into the strategies, solutions, and resilience cultivated by women leaders in colleges and universities. From tales of perseverance and empowerment to reflections on reframing and reinvention, each narrative offers a unique perspective on the journey of women in academia.

Individuals in mid-career positions in higher education typically feel that they are faced with fewer engagement endeavors and new initiatives with which they can participate in as institutions tend to find them not as new and their ideas no longer as cutting edge, even though they very well may be. For women in academia, this phenomenon is even more complex. Typically, by mid-career, women have survived the sprint to tenure while juggling family/caregiver responsibilities. Post-tenure they may find themselves in a space where they have more control over their work and can engage at a more comfortable pace. However, without institutional support and personal determination to remain engaged, women may find themselves facing stagnation in their career development. Thus, it is essential that mentorship opportunities are established and career trajectories put in place for mid-career women. Women in Higher Education and the Journey to Mid-Career: Challenges and Opportunities considers specific challenges, issues, strategies, and solutions that are associated with female academics during mid-career phases. The book includes a variety of emerging evidence-based professional practice and narrative personal accounts as written by administrators, faculty, staff, and students. The book considers strategies for remaining vibrant and productive and suggestions from successful mid-career women academics and reflections from women who have passed the mid-career phase. Covering topics such as tenure, self-care, and academic leadership, this reference work is ideal for administrators, faculty, policymakers, academicians, scholars, researchers, practitioners, instructors, and students.

In the dynamic field of education, leaders confront unprecedented challenges necessitating effective crisis management and creative problem-solving skills. The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the criticality of innovative approaches to educational leadership, enabling leaders to navigate uncertainty, adapt to rapid changes, and sustain educational institutions. Nevertheless, limited resources exist to guide leaders in the post-pandemic world, revealing a significant research gap. Promoting Crisis Management and Creative Problem-Solving Skills in Educational Leadership addresses this urgent issue by offering a comprehensive solution. Authored by renowned scholars and practitioners, this book presents a roadmap for reimagining educational leadership, equipping leaders with the necessary skills to thrive in challenging times. By exploring diverse perspectives and drawing from real-world experiences, the book empowers educational leaders to effectively manage crises, inspire stakeholders, and guide organizations toward success and sustainability. By focusing on crisis management, innovative problem-solving strategies, and the development of essential leadership competencies, this book fills the void in the current literature. It not only provides insights into the distinctive challenges of the post-pandemic world but also offers practical guidance and actionable recommendations for leaders in educational settings. Scholars, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners who engage with this book will gain valuable knowledge and tools to navigate the complexities of educational leadership, ensuring the continuous growth and enhancement of their institutions.

The role of lead executives is demanding under normal circumstances, but more so during times of institutional crisis. The existence of ongoing internal organizational crises plus crises triggered by external events and shocks requires that leaders and managers be equipped with the tools to manage such crises. Therefore, further study is required that considers the difficulties of leading various organizations as well as best practices for future management. The Handbook of Research on Activating Middle Executives’ Agency to Lead and Manage During Times of Crisis is a comprehensive reference source that offers practical applications, tools, and skills to equip middle leaders to meaningfully participate in crisis management and resolution in institutions for improved outcomes and discusses a multi-pronged framework for building middle leaders’ crisis response efficacies. The book also invites top-tier educational and industry practitioners to reflect on how they have led during times of crisis. Covering topics such as mentoring, coping strategies, and sustainable development, this major reference work is ideal for educational leaders, managers, business owners, human resource professionals, scholars, researchers, academicians, instructors, and students.

This timely book addresses assumptions and challenges inherent within community engagement as a catalyst for developing students’ sense of civic responsibility at a time of rampant social polarization. Promoting academic development and life skills through the high-impact practice of service-learning, the book explores a new ecological framework for reflecting on and improving practice. This book describes new models such as the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps, offers advice on coalition building, and presents the narratives of community-engaged professionals and faculty, offering a sense both of tensions inherent in this work and examples of initiatives in local contexts. Chapters primarily reflect on what action is required for fulfilling our public purpose and what’s holding us back. This book provides guidance, examples, and benchmarks for best practices in community engagement that are particularly relevant to this time of crises and unrest and will be relevant to community-engaged professionals, higher education faculty, and college administrators.

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new paradigm in education that has forced school management teams to re-imagine their curricula delivery functions and obligations during and post COVID-19. Now there are concerns about the state to which curriculum delivery in schools is likely to become planned, implemented, and managed. Investigating the Roles of School Management Teams in Curriculum Delivery improves the quality of planning, implementation, and management of curriculum delivery to advance the quality of teaching and learning in schools. Particularly, it envisages innovative strategies, best practices, and addresses problems in the planning, implementation, and delivery of curricula by school management teams. Covering topics such as curriculum delivery theory, curriculum delivery in planning, implementation, and management during and post COVID-19; curriculum delivery in assessment and alternative assessment; and reimagining inclusivity in curriculum delivery, this edited book is essential for departmental heads, deputy principals, education district officials, department of basic education curriculum designers, instructional designers, administrators, academicians, university teachers, researchers, and post-graduate students.

Different areas of inquiry have addressed the tragedy of school shootings and their deeply disruptive impacts upon school culture, classrooms, and student learning in this contemporary moment. Therefore, it is important to bring together interdisciplinary research on the long-term impacts of these events on students, teachers, and communities. In an age where arming classroom teachers is a serious policy initiative, there is a question of how a culture of fear manifests itself in those involved in school systems. There is a need to study these effects and implications in a time where violence and school shootings appear to have become more common than ever before. Hence, there is a need for diverse perspectives in this area of complex and urgent inquiry. Impact of School Shootings on Classroom Culture, Curriculum, and Learning explores the manifestations of the threat of school shootings and the aftermath of such tragic events through an interdisciplinary approach including but not limited to inquiries from educational psychology, sociology, educational philosophy, school leadership, and school culture with a view towards understanding the enduring and obscured effects of school shootings beyond the prevailing emphasis on facility safety and security. While chapters highlight topics such as resilience and recovery, school culture, sociology of schools, leadership and school regulation, and many more areas of interest, this book is ideal for educational leaders and administrators, classroom teachers, counselors, therapists, psychologists, school division trustees, law enforcement, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students looking for the impacts and aftermath of school shootings on all aspects of education.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities around the globe have taken numerous extraordinary measures and implemented many changes to their strategic, operational, and academic activities. Currently, there is a transformation taking place from the emergency decision-making in the early stages of the pandemic towards reflection and resolution on how the past months can shape governance and strategy. Higher education institutions have been facing challenges with the alignment of their university governance for their strategic and operational plans. Presently, university leaders have prioritized risk management and financial management over all else. Unfortunately, due to these priorities, university responses to the pandemic took the top-down approach of management, rejecting the shared governance structures and collegial practices of the institutions. The pandemic has accelerated the openness to change by creating an emergency or steering response team led by university presidents and provosts, with sub-teams focusing on operations and other academic advisory groups working together to deal with the fast-rising scenarios. The consequence is a clear flow of information and strong communication across the institution, which sequentially builds on mechanisms to respond to the secondary effects of the pandemic. Moreover, higher education institutions are continuously facing challenges with their strategic alignment of business objectives in order to have a diverse educational system in response to the pandemic. Assessing University Governance and Policies in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic presents the latest research and studies investigating information on university governance and adapting previous, existing, and proposed models for the current pandemic. This book is comprised of chapters contributed by various leading international authors to discuss and analyze all aspects of university governance in relation to their impact on strategies in finance, sustainability, academic issues, research, faculty and students, leadership, campus, employment and recruitments, and more. This is an essential text for university presidents, strategic planning authorities in universities, college deans and academic department chairpersons, government authorities and policymakers, researchers, students, and academicians.