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In a time of rapid educational transformation, Critical Perspectives on Educational Policy and Change offers a bold, critical and creative exploration of leadership through the lenses of ideology, history, economics, and politics. This collection brings together a diverse group of scholars, from early career researchers to established academics, interrogating how power relations operate within educational leadership amid shifting policy landscapes.
Structured around three temporal axes (hindsight, insight, and foresight) and situated within various contexts - from early years, schools, further education colleges and higher education - chapter authors examine leadership in education across past legacies, present complexities, and future aspirations. From the enduring impact of neoliberal reforms to the possibilities of future policies on decolonisation and social justice, each chapter provides a theoretically rich and methodologically diverse example of leadership in action.
Whether you are new to the field or seeking to deepen your critical perspective, this book is an essential resource for educational researchers, policymakers, and practitioners committed to transformative change within education.
Educational leadership research is too often confined to narrow theoretical and methodological bunkers. This collection breaks new ground offering different and creative processes, understandings and texts.
— Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, University of Nottingham ( Emerita), Adelaide University
This book brings important new perspectives on educational leadership, advancing the field through innovative approaches to theory and new repositioning with the importance of thinking about temporality. By blending a critical lens with creative approaches to understanding how leaders’ work changes through time and space, the book generates novel insights. It will inspire readers to think in new ways, while extending current theorizing within the field.
— Amanda McKay, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Queensland University of Technology
This is an innovative edited collection that provides readers with critical readings on educational policy and change by exploring various leadership aspects in distinct education settings from early childhood through to higher education. What distinguishes this book from others is the use of creative analytic practices, in this case poetry, to redefine leadership in simultaneous critical and creative ways. A must-read for ELMA scholars and doctoral researchers, especially those who experiment with unconventional modes of data representation and analysis.
— Dr Denise Mifsud, Associate Professor in Educational Leadership, Management and Governance, University of Bath
Critical Perspectives on Educational Policy and Change offers a rich exploration of leadership and policy across educational contexts, drawing on insights from different phases of education, diverse theoretical perspectives, and innovative methodologies. This edited book invites readers to think critically about the forces shaping education and consider new ways of researching, conceptualising and enacting leadership, opening up opportunities for scholarship and practice.
— Director of Education, Chartered College of Teaching; Honorary Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Education; Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford
This book, Critical Perspectives on Educational Policy and Change, is both timely and necessary. It is an excellent evaluation of educational leadership research and practice in the past and present, with suggestions for the field going forward. The book adopts four distinct approaches to its development and analysis. First, it examines some themes across countries and borders, enabling comparative analysis and more robust conclusions. Second, it adopts a subject based approach by integrating topics usually expected in books on educational leadership. Third, it takes a phase informed approach, locating research and practice across different educational phases. Furth, it adopts a social justice approach, both highlighting and positioning equity as crucial to current and future practice in educational leadership. Dennis and fellow editors should be hugely congratulated for offering this integrated and fresh look at educational leadership as a discipline and as practice. Simply wonderful.
— Professor Paul Miller, CEO & Principal, Institute for Equity, University Centre
In this book, poetry provokes a shift in critical perspective, looking at leadership through time: to recalibrate with hindsight, illuminate with insight, and repack our knapsacks with foresight. You will enjoy this collection as much as I did.
— Kay Fuller, Professor of Gender and Educational Leadership, University of Nottingham, UK
A refreshing and innovative take on leadership, this book opens with poetry to illuminate difference in a vivid, accessible way. The editors’ conversational introduction offers a thoughtful reflection on leadership and thoughtfully frames the diverse papers that follow. A distinctive and engaging contribution to the field.
— Professor Victoria Showunmi, University College London, IOE
Karen Healey is a Lecturer in Education at Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, UK. She is currently the co-convenor for BERA’s special interest group Educational Leadership.
Carol Azumah Dennis is a Professor of Education, Policy and Practice at the Open University. She is currently the Faculty Director of Praxis, the Centre for Scholarship and Innovation.
Judy Chandler is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Leadership and Management at the Open University and the Programme Leader for the MA and Education and MA in Childhood and Youth.
Deborah Outhwaite has held senior roles in secondary, post-16, and system leadership in England. She is Chair of BELMAS 2023-2026 and is currently at the Institute of Education at the University of Liverpool and is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE.
Chapter 1. An Introduction: Creative and Critical Redefinitions of Leadership; Carol Azumah Dennis and Karen Healey
Section 1. Hindsight
Poetic Introduction: It is with Hindsight We Recalibrate; Judy Chandler
Chapter 2: The Elites, the Oligarchs and the Inculcated Technicians of Educational Leadership; Janet E. Hetherington and Gillian Forrester
Chapter 3. A Poetic Inquiry into the Normalisation of Early Years’ Leadership; Kathryn Morris and Christine Parker
Chapter 4. Third Space Leadership and Influence in Higher Education: Moving Beyond a Conventional Dynamic; Judy Chandler
Section 2. Insight
Poetic Introduction: It is with Insight we Illuminate; Karen Healey
Chapter 5. Revolutionary Leadership: Insights into the Entrepreneurialism of School Leadership in England; Belinda C. Hughes
Chapter 6. International School Leadership Through Edward Said’s Eyes: Orientalism, Post-Orientalism and the ‘Pedagogy of the Other’; Nidal Al Haj Sleiman
Chapter 7. The Entanglement of Place in the Corporatised Governance of Schools: Thinking Poetically with Barad; Karen Healey
Section 3. Foresight
Poetic Introduction: Repacking Our Knapsack With Unicorns; Karen Healey
Chapter 8. Promoting Equity in HE: The Power and Privilege of White leadership; Carol Azumah Dennis and Rehana Awan
Chapter 9. Bridging the Awarding Gap: Leaders Building Heutagogical Bridges for Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education Institutions; Renu Bhandari
Chapter 10. Awakening the Golden Unicorns: How the Changemaking Power of Potentia is Transforming Leadership in UK Further Education; Lou Mycroft
Chapter 11. Concluding: On the Poetics of Time, Insight, and Leadership; Carol Azumah Dennis