TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructions and Purposes of School Leadership in the UK
AU - Woods, Philip
AU - Torrance, Deidre
AU - Donnelly, Caitlin
AU - Hamilton, Tom
AU - Jones, Ken
AU - Potter, Ian
N1 - © 2021 Informa UK Limited. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2020.1859999
PY - 2021/3/15
Y1 - 2021/3/15
N2 - This article offers a comparative analysis and interpretation of leadership in the four UK education jurisdictions (Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland), informed by the articles in this special issue and by a project report, all outcomes of an initiative, ‘Educational Leadership, Management and Administration in the United Kingdom: A Comparative Review’, funded by the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society. The article explores the constructions of leadership in the school systems of the four jurisdictions and the purposes those constructions are fulfilling concerning the governance of education. The comparative analysis identifies four purposes–relational, institutional-reform focused, masking and space-making. This typology of purposes is used to illuminate the different emphases across the jurisdictions. A relational purpose may be discerned more strongly in Wales and Scotland, a neo-liberal institutional-focused purpose more so in England, and relational and neo-liberal threads are intertwined in Northern Ireland in the context of legacies of community divisions. At the same time in all four jurisdictions, each of the purposes is given expression alongside, intermingling with or challenging neo-liberal threads of change and the dynamic between them helps shape the context in which leaders in the school systems create and practise leadership.
AB - This article offers a comparative analysis and interpretation of leadership in the four UK education jurisdictions (Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland), informed by the articles in this special issue and by a project report, all outcomes of an initiative, ‘Educational Leadership, Management and Administration in the United Kingdom: A Comparative Review’, funded by the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society. The article explores the constructions of leadership in the school systems of the four jurisdictions and the purposes those constructions are fulfilling concerning the governance of education. The comparative analysis identifies four purposes–relational, institutional-reform focused, masking and space-making. This typology of purposes is used to illuminate the different emphases across the jurisdictions. A relational purpose may be discerned more strongly in Wales and Scotland, a neo-liberal institutional-focused purpose more so in England, and relational and neo-liberal threads are intertwined in Northern Ireland in the context of legacies of community divisions. At the same time in all four jurisdictions, each of the purposes is given expression alongside, intermingling with or challenging neo-liberal threads of change and the dynamic between them helps shape the context in which leaders in the school systems create and practise leadership.
KW - School leaders
KW - education policy
KW - educational leadership
KW - governance
KW - school reform
KW - school systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101642473&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13632434.2020.1859999
DO - 10.1080/13632434.2020.1859999
M3 - Article
SN - 1363-2434
VL - 41
SP - 152
EP - 170
JO - School Leadership and Management
JF - School Leadership and Management
IS - 1-2
ER -