Session Information
26 SES 09 A, Leadership Impact on Student Outcomes in Diverse Circumstances
Paper Session
Contribution
The dominance of the term ‘leadership’ to the exclusion of ‘management’ has featured in education policy statements of the English government since the early years of this century (DfES, 2003) including the exhortation that every teacher is a leader rather than seeing both terms as inextricably linked concepts (Bush, 2008). Titles such as ‘senior leadership team’, ‘middle leaders’ and ‘key stage or subject leaders’ dominate school structures and discourses and this paper contends that this leads (unwittingly or otherwise) to a disengagement with the role of schools for social justice. Furthermore, this paper identifies a reason for the popularity of the terms ‘leadership’ and ‘leader’ hitherto not discussed in education literature which is related to a particular view of being famous which has become a trait of UK culture exemplified by the ‘X Factor’ television music competition (ITV, 2014) and ‘Tough Young Teachers’ (BBC, 2014). As other European countries increasing seek to reform schools and colleges through the leadership terminology and discourse, this paper contends that the division of leadership from management has negative implications for improving education for all and the achievement of social justice.
The development of the ‘science’ of management comes after the advent of the industrial revolution and was largely focused on manufacturing. In its ‘classical’ form, writers such as Fayol (French) and Taylor (American) sought to identify the perfect or ideal way to manage an organization and how management could harness specialization and complexity (Pugh, 2008). In the aftermath of the Second World War, many countries sought to rebuild their economic and manufacturing infrastructure, whilst promoting greater equality and democracy using new Systems and Contingency theories of management which sought to find the best the system for the particular organization taking into account the variables of the situation. There was much emphasis on team work and the contribution of all those in the organization so breaking down rigid hierarchies often proposed by the classical management theorists (Cunliffe, 2008).
Following the rapid economic, social and political developments of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the failures and of the 1970’s left the wider public in many Western nations with the perception that management had failed (Schon, 1983) and so a new type of management was required addressing the need for change in society whilst exercising a greater concern for using limited resources more effectively and ethically. This new management is termed ‘leadership’ and the distinction sharply drawn by Bennis and Nanus (1985) between ‘leaders’ (vision, inspiration, values, commitment) and ‘managers’ (productivity, efficiency, scheduling). It is at this stage (the 1980’s) that education professionals and academics become engaged in the theorization and conscious practice of management which follow that leadership is different from management in the education sphere, (Cuban, 1988; Grace, 1995, Davies, 2009). However, very soon a concern with ‘leadership’ as a better way to manage the change required by government came to dominate education policy (Bell and Stevenson, 2006; Glatter, 2006).
This conception of leadership conceals a narrow concern with the short term implementation of government policy (Gunter and Forrester, 2008; Gunter & Thompson, 2009). Discourses that portray leadership and management as overlapping concepts and activities to be accorded equal prominence or that leadership is but a part of the task of management (Bush & Bell, 2002; Bush and Middlewood, 2005; Fidler, 1997; Lumby, 2001) are increasing suppressed or dismissed as is the concern in creatively making things happen which contribute to social justice.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Anderson, G. L. (2009) Advocacy Leadership: Toward a Post-reform agenda in education. London: Routledge. BBC (2014) Tough Young Teachers television series. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03plzvt Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1985) Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley. Bell, L. & Stevenson, H. (2006) Policy in Education: process, Themes and Impact. London: RoutledgeFarmer. Bush, T. (2008) From management to leadership: semantic or meaningful change? Educational Management, Leadership and Administration 36(2), 271-88. Bush, T. (2010) Theories of Educational Leadership and Management (4th ed.). London: SAGE. See Chapter 1 ‘The importance of Leadership and management for education’. Bush, T. & Bell, L. (eds.) (2002) The Principles and Practice of Educational Management. London: Paul Chapman. Bush, T. & Middlewood, D. (2005) Leading and Managing People in Education. London: SAGE. Cuban, L. (1988) The Managerial Imperative and the Practice of Leadership in Schools. Albany: SUNY Press. Cunliffe, A. (2008) Organization Theory. London: SAGE. Davies, B. (ed) (2009) The Essentials of School Leadership (2nd edition). London: Paul Chapman. DfES (2003) Time for Standards: reforming the school workforce. London: DfES. Fidler, B. (1997) School leadership: some key ideas. School Leadership and Management 17(1), 23-27. Glatter, R. (2006) Leadership and organization in education: Time for a re-orientation? School Leadership and Management 26(1), 69-83. Grace, G. (1995) School Leadership- beyond education management: an essay in policy scholarship. London: Falmer Press. Gunter, H.M. (2004) Label and labelling in the field of educational leadership. Discourse 25(1): 21-42. Gunter, H.M. (2011) Educational Leadership and the place of reform. Bristol: Policy Press. Gunter, H. & Forrester, G. (2008) New Labour and School Leadership. British Journal of Educational Studies 56(2), 144-162. Gunter, H. and Thompson, P. (2009) The makeover: a new logic in leadership development in England. Educational Review 61(4), 469-483. ITV (2014) The X Factor television series. http://xfactor.itv.com/ Lumby, J. (2001) Managing Further Education: Learning Enterprise. London: SAGE. Kellerman, B. (2004) Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press. Kellerman, B. (2012) The End of Leadership. New York: Harper Business. Morrison, M. (2009) Leadership and Learning, matters of social justice. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. O’Reilly, D & M. Reed (2010) ‘Leaderism’: an evolution of managerialism in uk public service reform. Public administration 88(4), 960–978. Pugh D.S. (2008) Organizational Theory: Selected Readings. London: Penguin. Schon, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Aldershot: Arena Ashgate.
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