About

ד״ר חיים שקד

Prof. Haim Shaked (haim.shaked@hemdat.ac.il) is the President of Hemdat College of Education, Sdot Negev, Israel. As a scholar-practitioner with seventeen years of experience as a school principal, his research interests include system thinking in school leadership, instructional leadership, principal preparation, and education reform.

Systems thinking can be explained succinctly as a holistic approach that puts the study of wholes before that of parts. It does not try to break systems down into parts in order to understand them; instead, it focuses attention on how the parts act together in networks of interactions. The connections between systems thinking and school leadership have not been investigated sufficiently, which is precisely the goal of his research: to empirically explore the application of systems thinking in school leadership, in order to provide a new approach in the area of school leadership. Other areas of interest of him are instructional leadership, principal preparation, and education reform.

Prof. Shaked has published dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters in highly regarded journals such as the Journal of Educational Administration; Teachers College Record; Educational Management, Administration and Leadership; and School Leadership and Management. His book Systems Thinking for School Leaders: Holistic Leadership for Excellence in Education (co-authored with Prof. Chen Schechter; published by Springer) presents the Holistic School Leadership approach, whereby school leaders lead schools through the systems-thinking concepts and procedures.

Prof. Shaked prepares prospective school leaders for K-12 building-level and central office positions in the Educational Leadership and Administration program and trains students in the use of qualitative research methods.