Responding to Resistance

Educational leadership is never conflict free. In Responding to Resistance, author William A. Sommers acknowledges this reality and presents school and district leaders with a set of wide-ranging response strategies. Whether a conflict involves staff, students, parents, or other stakeholders, this book will help you address it openly, decisively, and efficiently, so you have more time to focus on what matters most: improving learning in your school community.

Use this resource to obtain approaches and guidance for managing persistent problems when other strategies do not seem to work:

• Become familiar with five primary causes of conflict and four dangers of ignoring conflict.
• Gain foundational communication skills for clarifying issues and defining problems.
• Discover conflict resolution strategies for teams, individuals, and large groups.
• Understand the research and expertise that support each response strategy.
• Learn from realistic vignettes that illustrate common conflicts in schools and how a leader might react effectively to overcome resistance to change.

Contents:
Introduction: What’s the Real Problem?
Chapter 1: Foundational Skills
Chapter 2: Strategies for Working With Teams
Chapter 3: Strategies for Working With Individuals
Chapter 4: Strategies for Working With Large Groups
Chapter 5: Strategies for When Nothing Seems to Work
Conclusion
References
Index