With school systems facing increasing challenges, professor offers advice to leaders

As school systems across the nation grapple with declining enrollment, budget deficits and teacher shortages, leadership is increasingly important. Education expert Anindya Kundu explores the role of leadership in education and encourages students and parents to play a role.

His new book, "Transforming Educational Leadership: Non-Traditional Narratives to Promote Equity in Uncertain Times," focuses on driving changes in education policy and practices.

“Everyone can and must be a leader in education,” he said. “Even small acts make a difference.”

When writing this book, Kundu spoke to students, school leaders, two former secretaries of education, and community leaders. He asked each of them to tell him something they thought was unfair in education.

He says this book aims to answer questions such as, “When you see something that’s unfair, what can you do about it in that instance? How can you change something that you see as unfair yourself? Or how could you and your friends change something that’s unfair?”

Those lived experiences, from a range of vantage points, illustrate the obstacles students, parents, educators, organizational leaders and scholars faced through the school system. Their lessons serve as examples of how each person can be a leader for education and foster a collective responsibility.

“Education is more contested now than in the past and this book can help us navigate that noise and move through it,” Kundu said.

The message of this book is to showcase that anyone can make a difference, not just leaders in the school system. His target audience is literally everyone — college students working toward careers in education, teachers looking for inspiration, academics wondering what they can do to make a difference, parents and more.

“I think it’s great that people care about education; it shows they care about the future,” he added. “Public education is our most important social institution — it’s about all students.”

Kundu notes that writing this book was a labor of love. During the process he had the opportunity to chat with a few of his own mentors. 

“I have 10 stories in here of people I’ve admired for a long time. It was very cool to have met them through this project and have gotten to hear stories I had no idea about,” he said. “That was really cool — getting to hear from people I respected like Arne Duncan and John B. King.

The book is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.