Between ‘Bastard’ and ‘Wicked’ leadership? School leadership and the emerging policies of the UK Coalition Government

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10106144
AutoresNigel Wright (0000-0002-1289-2830, University of Hull, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen43
Número4
Páginas345-362
Fecha de publicación2011-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Educational Administration & History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0620 • E-ISSN: 1478-7431
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00220620.2011.606893
OpenAlexW1965681922
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas5

Barker argues that in England under New Labour, school leaders and teachers have been ‘bastardised’ and suggests that the situation in 2010, with a general election afforded an opportunity in education policy for the ‘pendulum to swing’. In this article, the key points about ‘bastard Leadership’ are briefly summarised. The article then develops a view of schools as sites of complexity and ‘wickedity’ as an alternative to the linear reductionist approaches of managerialists. These two perspectives present the extremes of a spectrum against which the trajectory of school leadership can be viewed as it emerges from the New Labour years and is now being developed by the Coalition Government. Evidence from ministerial speeches and the Coalition Government's flagship White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, are used to examine key issues of freedom and trust, reducing bureaucracy and increasing autonomy for schools as ways of exploring the extent to which the new government's policies on school leadership are, or are not, moving away from those of their New Labour predecessors

Autonomy · Bureaucracy · Coalition government · Educational leadership · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Reductionism · Sociology · White paper · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Law · Public Administration · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies