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Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership
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Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership
Doing Right by Learners Without Losing Your Job

Foreword by Will Richardson

September 2025 | 296 pages | Corwin
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Learner-centered leadership grounded in courage, integrity, and love for every child

The pressures of today’s political and cultural climate have created unprecedented roadblocks for school leaders striving to ensure success for all students. With mounting challenges from communities, conservative legislation, and misconceptions about student-centered instruction and inclusion efforts, leaders often feel isolated and threatened in their efforts to prioritize what learners need most.

Drawing on interviews with 67 education leaders around the world, Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership is a practical handbook, offering strategies to drive equity-focused and student-centered transformation, even in the face of opposition. Additional features include

  • Approaches to foster trust and build relationships across the campus and community to overcome resistance
  • Strategies to leverage data; include learner, teacher, and parent voices; and use intentional communication for effective decision-making
  • Tools for preparing teachers, adapting systems, and protecting staff as they implement equity-centered initiatives
  • Protocols, reflective questions, and worksheets to help schools determine readiness and create actionable plans

Rooted in real-world stories, this book offers solidarity and actionable strategies to education leaders committed to centering the needs of all learners in increasingly polarized societies.

 
Foreword
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Chapter One: Why this, Why Now: An Introduction
 
Chapter Two: What Schools Are Getting Right, and Why They're Meeting Resistance
Pedagogical and Instructional Innovations That Prioritize Student-Centered Learning

 
Innovation in How Schools Define Success

 
Try This: Unpacking Purpose, Opportunity, and Equity

 
Innovation and Opportunity for All Learners

 
The Case of Career Technical Education

 
The Case of Cognitively and Physically Responsive Education

 
Innovation Outside the System

 
Innovation in Academically Driven Schools

 
Sustained Pedagogical Innovation

 
Identity-Responsive Learning and Teaching

 
Culturally Responsive Learning and Teaching in Communities of Color

 
Culturally Responsive Learning and Teaching in Indigenous Communities

 
Social-Emotional Learning and Wellness in Schools

 
Gender and Sexual Identity Inclusion

 
Critical Thinking, Pluralism, and Intercultural Competency Development

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Two Worksheet: Analysis of Context, Readiness for Change, and (Potential) Pushback

 
 
Chapter Three: Relationships and Trust: Build Deep Connection and Understanding
Seek to Understand Why Community Members Are Resistant

 
Stay Curious and Avoid Getting Defensive

 
Try This: Use a “Third Thing” to Reduce Polarization and Build Trust

 
Encourage Dissent and Invite Dissonance

 
Cultivate Empathy, Vulnerability, and Open-Mindedness

 
Manage Pace with an Eye to Building Trust

 
Go Fast to Serve Students Now

 
Go Slow and Focus on the “Long Game”

 
Determine Urgency and Readiness to Establish Pace

 
Try This: Design a Risk Assessment Matrix to Determine Pace

 
Create Intentional Structures to Support Relationship Building

 
Learn and Lead With the Community

 
Try This: Coffee With the Leader, PBL-Style

 
Build Systems That Connect and Humanize

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Three Worksheet: Build and Maintain Relationships and Trust

 
 
Chapter Four: Use Varied Forms of Data to Inform the Journey
Use Quantitative Data to Inform Decisions

 
Transform Immeasurables and Develop a Shared Understanding

 
Try This: Use the Y Chart to Turn Squishy Goals Into Observable Metrics

 
Understand the Dangers (and Inevitable Appeal) of Traditional Metrics

 
Engage Other Ways of Knowing to Guide the Work

 
Leverage Street Data and Intuition to See the Bigger Picture

 
Engage Culturally Relevant Ways of Knowing

 
Address Religious Ideologies as Cultural Ways of Knowing

 
Consider a Middle Path that Integrates Traditional and Authentic Data

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Four Worksheet: What Are Your Data Sweet Spots?

 
 
Chapter Five: The Art of Listening: Leverage Community Voice to Support Change
Elevate Student Voice to Confront Resistance

 
Engage Student Voice in Program Development and Governance

 
Engage Student Voice to Inspire and Educate the Community

 
Try This: The Student-Centered Insight Protocol

 
Involve Alumni to Help Motivate Change

 
Leverage Faculty Allies to Shape Initiatives

 
Involve Parents and Caregivers as Constructively as Possible

 
Include Caregiver Input Early in the Change Process

 
Engage Caregivers as Allies for Change

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Five Worksheet: Leverage Community Voice to Shape Initiatives and Motivate Change

 
 
Chapter Six: Communicate with Purpose, on Purpose
Connect Initiatives to “What Makes Us Who We Are”

 
Connect Work to Your School’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values

 
Validate Where We’re Going Through Legislation and School Policy

 
Change the Words, Not the Work

 
The DEI Debate and the Dream of a Common Language

 
Use Language That Fights Gravity

 
Don’t Be Mad, Just Be Ready

 
Use Proactive (Not Reactive) Communication Focused on the Why

 
Communicate Early and Often

 
The “Personal Agenda” and Its Impact on Communication

 
Consider How (and If) to Communicate Beyond the Schoolhouse

 
Try This: The Communications Continuum

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Six Worksheet: Develop Communication Strategies That Engage With Purpose and Intentionality

 
 
Chapter Seven: Prepare Your People, Protect Your People: Set the Stage for Success
Provide Transformative Professional Learning for Teachers

 
Change Minds to Transform the Culture of Learning and Teaching

 
Lean into Self-Work as Professional Learning

 
Try This: Principles of Conversational Leadership and Shared Work

 
Incorporate Live It to Learn It Professional Learning

 
Utilize Job-Embedded, Collaborative Models for Sustainable Growth

 
Adapt Systems to Support Innovation and Implementation

 
Leverage Hiring and Onboarding to Sustain Change

 
Navigate the Hidden Agenda of Time

 
Hack Curriculum and Accountability Systems

 
Embrace Systems That Encourage Risk-Taking

 
Protect Your People When Opposition Arises

 
Support Educators With Marginalized Identities

 
Protect Teachers From External Demands and Restrictions

 
Build Partnerships With Supervisory Entities

 
Protect the Community From More Significant Harm

 
Try This: The After Action Review

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Seven Worksheet: Plan for Implementation That Prepares, Adapts, and Protects

 
 
Chapter Eight: Lead With Humility, Courage, and Hope: Final Lessons From Leaders
You Are Not an Island

 
Build Supportive Teams and Networks Inside the School

 
Engage Consultants, Coaches, and Experts

 
Contracting Experts: A Cautionary Tale

 
Leverage Support Organizations, Networks, and Cooperatives

 
Lean on Excellent Educational Institutions

 
Try This: Concentric Circles to Map Institutional Visits

 
Leadership Is a Journey

 
Prioritize Well-Being for Everyone, Including Yourself

 
Don’t Let the Storm Hurt Your Resolve

 
Let Go of What No Longer Serves Your Community

 
Try This: Stop, Start, Continue, Restart

 
Celebrate Every Success

 
Hope Is a Verb that Invites Action

 
Focus on Your Locus of Control

 
Embrace Diverse Perspectives (Even When It’s Hard)

 
Try This: Reflect on Wheatley’s “Lessons From Besieged Nuns”

 
Plant Seeds for the Future

 
Action Steps

 
Personal Reflection Questions

 
Chapter Eight Worksheet: Prepare for the Journey Ahead

 
 
Interview Participants
 
Recommended Reading from Educational Leaders
 
References
 
Index

"Jennifer D. Klein’s Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership is a bold and timely guide for school leaders navigating the complexities of equity, innovation, and resistance. Grounded in real stories and deep empathy, this book offers both practical strategies and moral clarity for those striving to do right by learners in polarized times. It is an essential companion for anyone committed to leading with courage, compassion, and vision."

Yong Zhao
Foundation Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas

"In a time when public education is being weaponized by authoritarian forces, Jennifer D. Klein offers a bold, humane roadmap for principled survival and resistance. Taming the Turbulence is not just a toolkit for surviving political backlash - it’s a call to lead with courage, integrity, and deep love for our children. This is essential reading for every educator committed to democracy, the vision of thriving public schools, and the rightful inclusion of every child."

Jason Glass
Superintendent, Laguna Beach Unified School District; former Education Commissioner, State of Kentucky

"Jennifer D. Klein has gifted the field of education a masterwork—one that reads like a loving letter to every leader who dares to do right by learners in a world increasingly resistant to progress. Taming the Turbulence is both balm and blueprint: it names the storms, honors the fragility of our roles, and charts a path through resistance with clarity, compassion, and courage. Klein speaks directly and unabashedly to the realities of leadership today, centering students with intention and love while honoring the complexity of navigating political, cultural, and institutional pushback.What enchants most is how the book wraps practical, immediately usable strategies inside a heart-filled conversation—anchored in dignity, rightful presence, and the global movement for meaningful, humanizing education. Klein introduces a common vocabulary, powerful metaphors, and viscerally real stories that create space for nuanced understanding and courageous action. Whether you're a school leader, coach, or advocate, this book offers not just tools, but solidarity. You’ll leave feeling seen, resourced, and called to lead with both humility and hope."

Charity Marcella Moran, Ed.S.
Author of Place-Based Learning

"In Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership, Klein shows us a path out of the binary thinking that leads educational leaders down a dangerous path in which false dichotomies dominate our conversations about how to serve all students well. Instead, she offers a new vision for vigorous learning that demonstrates how fun, inclusion, and growth can be deeply connected, not mutually exclusive."

Zaretta Hammond
National consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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