Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership
Doing Right by Learners Without Losing Your Job
- Jennifer D. Klein - Principled Learning Strategies
Foreword by Will Richardson
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.
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."