Critical Perspectives on Educational Policy and Change

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Further, 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.

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.

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.