UNC School of Education

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

“To deny the importance of theory in matters of practice is to negate any different future than the one which is currently known. To paraphrase, if we keep on using the same old theories we will continue to get the same old results. Breakthroughs in practice are nearly always accompanied by and require breakthroughs in theory to support them.”

– Fenwick W. English

Overview

Fenwick W. English currently teaches at the graduate level in the Educational Leadership Area. He has served in administrative capacities in higher education as department chair, dean and vice chancellor of academic affairs.

English has held leadership positions throughout the country and has served in an executive capacity at the national level with the the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Virginia, and with KPMG Peat Marwick, a private accounting and consulting firm in Washington, D.C. English has lived or worked in all 50 states and two U.S. territories during his career. He has headed task forces sponsored by the National Secondary School Principals, and by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He is now serving on the Executive Board of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration.

English’s scholarship includes more than 25 books and over 100 articles published in both practitioner and academic journals. He is considered a leading advocate of the application of postmodern analysis in educational leadership.

These insights have helped redefine the field of educational leadership. His 2008 book The Art of Educational Administration explores leadership as drama and the long arc of the humanities from Plutarch to Shakespeare as the source of determining the challenges of morality in school administration. Also in 2008 he published Anatomy of Professional Practice: Promising Research Perspectives in Educational Leadership with Roman and Littlefield. In 2009 he released Restoring Human Agency in Educational Administration by Pro-Active Publishers with Rosemary Papa. He is currently serving as editor of the second edition of the SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership.

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, English and Education

Research Interests

• Leadership Heuristics
• Leadership Identities
• Leadership Preparation Programs and Epistemological Claims About Them

Teaching Areas

• Advanced Leadership Theory
• Central Office Leadership
• Curriculum Leadership

Courses

• EDUC 634: Curriculum Leadership
• EDUC 734: Planning in Educational Organizations
• EDUC 833:Leading System Functions
• EDUC 840: Advanced Leadership Theories

Honors & Awards

• Elected to the Executive Board of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration Funded Research, 2009
• Honored by Corwin Press SAGE as a $2 million dollar author, 2008
• Keynote speech on "Refounding Educational Leadership" at the First Annual Leadership Conference, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA., 2008
• President of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA), 2006-07
• Keynote speech, "An Anatomy of Professional Practice" for annual UCEA Conference, Alexandria, Virginia, November 2007
• Invited paper and presentation at the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration National Summit Meeting on the Preparation of Educational Leaders in Washington, D.C. entitled "Educational Leadership for Sale: Social Justice, the ISLLC Standards, and the Corporate Assault on Public Schools." Released in a conference proceedings document entitled "Crediting the Past, Challenging the Present, Creating the Future", 2005
  
• Elected to the Presidency of UCEA by a vote of the UCEA Plenum in Nashville, Tennessee, 2005
• Re-elected to a second three year term on the UCEA Executive Committee, 2004
  
• Named a "Million Dollar Author" by Corwin Press, 2004
  
• Appointed to the Review Board of Educational Administration Quarterly, 2003

Funded Research

• An Investigation of Leadership Heuristics in the US and the UK (on-going)

Selected Professional Affiliations

• American Educational Research Association (Divisions A and L)
• University Council for Educational Administration (via institutional membership)
• Teaching In Educational Administration (AERA-SIG)
• Phi Delta Kappa
• National Council of Professors of Educational Administration

Public Service

• Program Presenter, North Carolina Turnaround High Schools, 2008
• Distinguished Lecturer, Texas Association of School Administrators Midwinter Conference in Austin, Texas, 2008
• Keynote Speaker, Seventh Annual North Carolina High School Network Conference, Raleigh, 2007
• Workshop Presenter, Southwest Education Alliance in Charlotte, North Carolina, 2007

Selected Publications

English, F. (2009). Restoring Human Agency in Educational Administration. ProActive Publications.

English, F. (2008). Anatomy of Professional Practice: Promising Research Perspectives in Educational Leadership. Rowman and Littlefield.

English, F. (2008). The Art of educational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

English, F. (2007). The NRC's scientific research in education: It isn't even wrong! In F. English & G. Furman (Eds.) Research and educational leadership, (pp.1-38). Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

English, F. (Ed.). (2006). The encyclopedia of educational leadership and administration, Two volumes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

English, F. (2006). The unintended consequences of a standardized knowledge base in advancing educational leadership preparation. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(3), 461-472.