‘Every now and then amidst the gloom, however, a genuinely scholarly article or monograph bobs up which renews one’s sense of hope and restores one’s faith in the academic enterprise. Valerie Hall’s Dancing on the Ceiling is a case in point. I read it, enjoyed it and found it genuinely uplifting …And the notion of formation is what makes this book so important, for Valerie Hall was not only keen to document what it meant to be an educational leader from the perspectives of these six women, but how it was that each of them became school heads…Her book is one of the rare examples in which I have seen such a penetrating level of leadership character analysis attempted, let alone crafted as well as Hall succeeds in doing. In this respect Dancing on the Ceiling is a benchmark study. Any aspiring leader, male or female, should find the frankness and the extent of personal detail in the account extremely helpful in coming to terms with any inner doubts and uncertainties of their own as they begin their leadership journeys…In essence then, Hall has enlightened us about a small group of female high-flyers and what it means to lead the dance, by 'enacting strong leadership within a collaborative framework’. For her to incorporate the image of dancing women in her title was a stroke of genius’ - Educational Management & Administration ‘I recommend it to research students in order to introduce them to this particular body of knowledge, partly because of the comprehensive references, and partly because it is so well written…A book that so demands to be read’ - Management and Education The book is about leadership and gender. It draws on the author’s experience as a teacher and management development consultant in education, as well as her research into gender issues over a number of years. It will be of interest to women and men in education, as well as making a theoretical contribution to the debate about educational leadership.
