UNC School of Education

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

“In a scientific field stagnancy shows itself when knowledge becomes ‘fixed’ (as in a knowledge base). Such stagnancy is contrasted to creating more robust theories and narratives. Stagnancy can occur when we are more concerned with research rigor than with research vibrancy, and when we are more interested in our political weight than our epistemological trajectory…The signs of a field’s vibrancy are exhibited not by the collections of research already completed, but in the debates and contestation about ideas and schools of thought in which practice is defined.”

– Fenwick English in Restoring Human Agency to Educational Administration: Status and Strategies (2010). Proactive Publications: Lancaster, PA, pp.2-3.

Overview

Fenwick W. English currently teaches at the graduate level in the Educational Leadership Area. He has served in administrative capacities in K-12 education as principal, coordinator, assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools. In higher education he has been a chair, dean and vice-chancellor of academic affairs, as well as having been a partner in an international accounting and consulting firm (KPMG Peat Marwick) for three years in Washington, D.C.

English’s scholarship includes more than 35 books and over 100 articles published in both practitioner and academic journals. He has been recognized by academic colleagues as a leader in his field, having been elected to the Presidency of UCEA (University Council of Educational Administration) in 2006-07 and President of NCPEA (National Council of Professors of Educational Administration) in 2011-2012. His research and scholarship have not only been presented in North America at UCEA, AERA, and NCPEA, but internationally at BELMAS (British Educational Leadership Management Association Society) and CCEAM (Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration and Management). He has conducted on-site research on educational management and leadership issues in England and Australia and published in academic journals in those countries as well as on the European Continent. He served as the General Editor of a four volume Sage series which published the most influential international writing in educational administration in the last forty years in 2009.

Educational Background

• Ph.D. 1972 - Arizona State University, Secondary Education
• M.S. 1963 - University of Southern California, Elementary Administration
• B.S. 1961 - University of Southern California, Education and English Literature

Research Interests

• Leadership as artistic performance
• Applications of the scholarship of Pierre Bourdieu to educational leadership
• The history of intellectual ideas and metaphors in educational administration

Teaching Areas

• Advanced leadership theories
• Organizational theory
• Curriculum leadership

Courses

• EDUC 634: Curriculum Leadership
• EDUC 833: Leading System Functions
• EDUC 834: Organizational Theory
• EDUC 840: Advanced Leadership Theories

Honors & Awards

• Elected to receive the NCPEA Living Legend Award at the 2013 National Conference in recognition of career impact and influence in the field.
• 2012- Gave a Distinguished Lecture at the Texas Association of School Administrators in Austin, Texas on the topic of “Turnaround Principals for Underperforming Schools” followed by a book signing.
• 2011-Assumed Presidency of NCPEA in Portland, Oregon, at the National Conference.
• 2010-The third edition of the best selling book Deciding What to Teach and Test is nominated by Corwin Press for the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Association of Educational Publishers.
• 2008-Nominated by doctoral students for the UNC Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
• 2007-Honored by Corwin Press as a $2 million dollar author.
• 2005-Elected to the Presidency of UCEA in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 2004-Honored by Corwin Press as a $1 million dollar author.
• 2003-Appointed to the Review Board of Educational Administration Quarterly.

Funded Research

• Research on leadership heuristics in England which led to papers presented at AERA and published in several research journals (now concluded);
• On-going research in Australia on leadership as artistic performance which has been accepted for publication in several research journals and an AERA paper in 2013 in San Francisco.

Selected Professional Affiliations

• American Educational Research Association (Divisions A & L);
• National Council of Professors of Educational Administration
• Phi Delta Kappa

Public Service

• 2012- Invited to participate in a special conference of the North Carolina State Board of Education to discuss the future of education in the state.
• 2011- Reviewer for the UNC General Administration of a proposed Ed.D. program in K-12 educational leadership from an external state institution of higher education.
• 2010- Spoke at the Wake County Educational Summit from which a DVD was developed and distributed to all Wake County School Principals.

Selected Publications

2012- “What can grassroots leadership teach us about school leadership?” with L.C. Ehrich in Halduskultuur-Administrative Culture, 13 (2), 85-108. Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Public Administration.

2012- “Bourdieu’s misrecognition: Why Educational Leadership Standards Will not Reform Schools or Leadership. Journal of Educational Administration and History (May) 44 (2), 153-168.

2012- Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges, and Promises. With R. Papa, C. Mullen and T. Creighton. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 142, pp.

2011- Turnaround Principals for Underperforming Schools with R. Papa. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 145 pp.

2010- Leadership as Lunacy: And Other Metaphors for Educational Leadership with J. Lumby. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press,  156 pp.

2010- “De-constructing the logic/emotion Binary in Educational Preparation and Practice, with C.L. Bolton, Journal of Educational Administration, 48 (5) 561-578.

2009- “From Simplicism to Complexity in Leadership Identity and Preparation: Exploring the Lineage and Dark Secrets with J. Lumby, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12 (2), 95-114.

2008- The Art of Educational Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 232 pp.