Foucault and Educational Leadership

by Richard Niesche

• ISBN13: 9780203818978
• ISBN10: 0203818970
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-03-15
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

Many books about educational leadership suggest that school principals are now increasingly engaged in managerial processes, work intensification, and high stakes practices that are subject to various forms of audit and scrutiny. However, very few of these books actually help us to understand why this is the case or how principals engage with these issues in their daily life. Indeed, most books about the principalship are largely descriptive, prescriptive and rely on normative models of leadership. In addition, there are a plethora of 'best practice' books that tend to ignore the complexities and messy reality of daily work for school principals.This book argues that the work of educational leadership needs more sophisticated theorisation in order to better understand the complexities that face many school principals. With the current shortage of applicants for principal positions in a number of Western countries, what is required are more sophisticated and nuanced tools with which to understand the pressures and constraints that face principals on a daily basis. This book draws upon the work of Michel Foucault to provoke new thought into how the principalship is lived and 'disciplined' in ways that produce both contradictions and tensions for school principals.This book is distinctive from other educational leadership titles in that it: Provides a well theorised analysis of leadership practices Acknowledges the messy reality of life for school principals Provides key insights to the 'real' work that principals undertake every day Examines the production of principals' subjectivities in education, foregrounding issues of gender and race Includes the principals' voices through rich interview data.The book will therefore be of significant interest to those working and researching in educational leadership. This includes researchers in the field and academics who teach into educational leadership and administration courses. The book will also be of interest to those working with the ideas of Foucault in education.