Understanding Educational Leadership guides you through critical perspectives and approaches across the world, taking in the global north and south, and explores the ways in which educational leadership is currently understood, theorised, researched, modelled and practised. The book also covers contemporary issues including gender, sexual identity and race, as well as topics such as governance, performativity and corporatisation. It brings together evidence and ideas that illuminate the power structures and relations in educational leaders, leading and leadership and helps you to consider the impact on policy and practice, and to think about changes needed to mitigate the issues identified. The book showcases a wide range of theorists, including Bourdieu, Foucault and Fraser. Its impressive scope includes analyses of collectivist, neoliberal and historical influences on educational leadership. It explores forensically leadership styles, with an explicit focus on distributed, instructional, democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire and organisational forms.Carefully curated by the editors, the world-leading contributors draw on their wealth of knowledge about research and practice to provide you with an overview of educational leadership today, looking at global research, evidence, arguments and conceptualisations. Each chapter is written in an engaging and inspiring way, following a consistent approach to help you to develop your understanding in each of the areas covered.Full pedagogical features throughout include chapter summaries, key questions, case studies, questions for readers and further reading suggestions with questions on key texts. A companion website provides links to open-access outputs, research-project outcomes, and networking seminars, conferences with links to local, national and global events and connections.

Notes on contributors Foreword, John Smyth Introduction: Taking critical perspectives and using critical approaches in educational leadership, Steven J. Courtney, Helen M. Gunter, Richard Niesche and Tina Trujillo Part One: Critical perspectives and approaches across the world1. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in the USA, Tina Trujillo and Sonya Douglass Horsford2. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in England, Ruth McGinity and Kay Fuller 3. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in Australia, Martin Mills and Glenda McGregor 4. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in South Africa, Pontso Moorosi and Jan Heystek 5. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in China, Ting Wang and Kai Yu6. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in Indonesia, Zulfa Sakhiyya and Tanya Fitzgerald 7. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in two Nordic countries, Jorunn Møller and Linda Rönnberg 8. Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in Chile, Alejandro Carrasco and Germán Fromm, with Helen M. Gunter Part Two: Critical perspectives on models and methods in educational leadership 9. Leading and managing in educational organizations, Helen M. Gunter and Emiliano Grimaldi 10. Using theory in educational leadership, management and administration research, Pat Thomson and Amanda Heffernan 11. Research methods in educational leadership, Scott Eacott and Gus Riveros 12. An historical de-construction of leadership style, Fenwick W. English and Lisa Catherine Ehrich13. Distributed leadership, Howard Youngs and Linda Evans 14. Educational and instructional leadership, Scott Eacott and Richard Niesche15. Educational reform and leading school change, Jill Blackmore and Rachel McNae Part Three: Critical perspectives and approaches to contemporary issues in educational leadership 16. Gender and educational leadership, Jane Wilkinson, Anar Purvee and Katrina MacDonald 17. Sexual identity and educational leadership, Catherine A. Lugg and Robin Roscigno 18. Race and educational leadership, Mark A. Gooden and Victoria Showunmi 19. Socio-economic class and educational leadership, Helen M. Gunter and Steven J. Courtney 20. Governance and educational leadership, Andrew Wilkins and Brad Gobby 21. Performativity, Managerialism and educational leadership, Tanya Fitzgerald and Dave Hall22. Corporatization and educational leadership, Kenneth Saltman and Alexander J. Means23. Leading in a genetics-informed education market, Steven Jones, Steven J. Courtney and Helen M. Gunter Conclusion: Putting critical approaches to work in educational leadership, Helen M. Gunter, Steven J. Courtney, Richard Niesche and Tina Trujillo