5-Gen Leadership
Leading 5 Generations in Schools in the 2020s
Foreword by Eric Sheninger
An unprecedented leadership challenge for school administrators
Today’s school leaders face the unprecedented challenge of leading five generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and brand-new Generation Z teachers, along with Gen Alpha, today’s youngest students. Based on extensive research and the author’s experience working with thousands of educators and students, 5-Gen Leadership addresses the nuances and expectations implicit with leading each generation. With an emphasis on developing a multi-generational lens through which to view school improvement, this book covers topics such as recruiting and retaining today’s young teachers, tailoring professional development for each generation, and helping each generation succeed in a complex, accelerating world. Readers will also find:
- Tactics for transitioning to 5-Gen Leadership and understanding the four distinct generations in the teaching staff
- Moving leadership styles from a managing model to a coaching model
- Advice for understanding and creating a welcoming environment for Gen Z and Gen Alpha
- Suggestions for closing the digital generation gaps that emerged during the COVID-19 school closures
- A glimpse into the future to imagine how new generations of leaders will help reshape schools by 2030
If we’re going to make the most of reforming our schools in the 2020s and keep up with the exponential rate of change in society we must understand today’s students and the four disparate generations in our staffs. This book is critical to help leaders bridge those gaps.
“How do we prepare today’s students for the rapidly changing workplace and society in which they will live, work, and interact in an education system designed for a century that has passed us by? In 5-Gen Leadership: Leading 5 Generations in Schools in the 2020s, Mark White clearly provides a well-lit path to assist educators to successfully make the necessary cultural, structural and instructional changes that are needed.”
-Bill Daggett, Founder
International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE)
Here is a publication that celebrates the different generations that schools now have teaching in and attending them. It offers practical tips to include the skills of all the generations to offer the best teaching and learning for everyone.
Where you stand depends sometimes on where you sit. And where you sit is often influenced by how and when you grew up. Mark’s analysis and unique understanding of the impact and needs necessary for today’s leaders to work with different generations is timely, relevant, and revealing. One size rarely fits all.
There are so many nuances that take place within a school that we need to understand, and Mark White focuses on one of the most important. 5-Gen Leadership engages educators into understanding how different generations teaching within our school approach our greatest issues and provides the tools to begin those conversations.
How do we prepare today’s students for the rapidly changing workplace and society in which they will live, work, and interact in an education system designed for a century that has passed us by? In 5-Gen Leadership: Leading 5 Generations in Schools in the 2020s, Mark White clearly provides a well-lit path to assist educators to successfully make the necessary cultural, structural and instructional changes that are needed.
