This symposium involves five papers, each of which takes a specific perspective from social theory as a means of critiquing aspects of current educational leadership discourse and practice.

Four of the papers in this symposium are drawn from the Rethinking Educational Leadership book series published by Routledge in the summer of 2013. The series aims to apply the ideas of select social theorists to the field of educational leadership, management, and administration. The series argues that the discourses of educational leadership which are so dominant in national systems globally require a thorough critique and that the insights from the chosen theorists will enable researchers,  educationists, and practitioners to rethink and challenge some of the most common assumptions and practices around educational leadership currently. The four papers address the issue of educational leadership from the perspectives of Pierre Bourdieu, Nancy Fraser, Derrida/Lyotard, and Michel Foucault, respectively. The fifth paper is not part of the book series but applies the work of Niklas Luhmann to the field.

The Fraser paper analyses two issues in current policy – school choice and women’s under-representation in leadership – from the perspective of Fraser’s normative framework of social justice. This analysis also serves to critique the current school improvement agenda, promoting instead a stronger focus on social justice within a democratic context. The Bourdieu paper surveys educational leadership literatures, arguing that Bourdeiuan tools and his concept of research reflexivity are eminently suited to interrogating the literature about who gets to be a leader; how leadership practices relate to other fields; how leadership is as it is; and how it might support social justice. The Derrida/Lyotard paper critiques the standards approach to leadership, through a deconstructive reading of policy examples drawn from across the globe. It argues that the effect is to entrench a performativity model that privileges heroic and hierarchical models of educational leadership. The Luhmann paper draws on his systems theory to position educational leadership as practised within an autopoietic context, arguing that this needs therefore to be analysed at a social level, rather than as a mental or individual activity. In particular it explores the concept of leadership as a communicate activity within a structurally closed system. The Foucault paper argues that current leadership discourse constitutes a powerful discipline which privileges hierarchy and assessment. The paper also explores the ways in which governmentality is exercised within this discipline and how individuals are consequently constituted, or constitute themselves, as (leadership) subjects.

These five different approaches provide ECER delegates with the chance to engage with newly published research which offers fruitful new insights on the field of educational leadership and novel approaches to leadership research. The apparent incongruity of the application of such thinkers' theoretical instruments to the field of educational leadership is counterbalanced by the powerful new insights which such approaches offer.