Andy Hargreaves

Wednesday 24 August, 11:00 - 12:00
Location: O'Reilly Hall

In a time of economic uncertainty, technological complexity and global insecurity and mobility, what is the direction in which leaders should be taking educational systems? And in a context of increasingly sophisticated goals and purposes for high quality education, what are the best and most appropriate ways in which leadership should be carried out? What purposes and processes of educational leadership are the most appropriate ones for this particular age?

Recent years have witnessed considerable research, theorization and policy activity on the drivers of leadership and change in education. The somewhat masculine and management-derived metaphor of driving has associated leadership with the physics of speed, acceleration, momentum and thrust towards a given and unquestioned destination. But even within the questionable metaphor of driving, little or no attention in policy debate has been assigned to other aspects of driving and also of leadership that are more integral parts of the literature and research on leadership. Who is doing the driving and what is the direction of travel? These are the neglected questions of modern leadership policy and practice

This keynote address brings together Professor Hargreaves’s foundational writing on Sustainable Leadership and Uplifting Leadership, on his contributions to recent policy analyses with the OECD of educational reform in Scotland and Wales, and on his current research on leading from the middle in school districts and school networks to answer these fundamental questions concerning the purpose and direction of leadership and the most effective processes for achieving it.

Leadership theory must address the desired directions and destinations of change and not just the rate and degree of progress in unquestioned directions that have been imposed by others. And it must ask who should be doing the leading and how leadership should be conducted when our purposes become bolder in circumstances that are more dynamic and also more turbulent.

Andy Hargreaves is the Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Previously he founded and directed the International Center for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. Andy has written over 30 books that have received many awards including the prestigious 2015 Grawemeyer Award for the idea most likely to have an impact on practice worldwide. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Professional Capital and Community, and incoming President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. Professor Hargreaves holds Boston College’s 2015 Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala.