Towards a Better Future

Chapter Six: Educational Leadership and Governance
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Leadership - discovering and pursuing initiatives that enhance the quality of learning and
teaching in the school
Governance - discharging responsibilities at a corporate level so as to ensure the best use of
resources and to provide the best opportunities for leadership to be productive.
From these distinctions,it will be seen that the particular concern of educational leadership is with
enhancements in learning environments that yield a higher quality of educational experience for the
students. Educational leadership initiatives then will normally result in changes in the practices of
students and of teachers. Leadership initiatives that affect other aspects of a school’s work, but have
little ultimate influence on the quality of teaching and learning, would fall largely outside of
educational leadership, as understood here. There are two further important consequences of defining
the terms in this way. Firstly, pedagogical initiatives taken by teachers who are not themselves school
principals or deputy principals would count centrally within educational leadership. This lesserknown
dimension of educational leadership is termed ‘teacher leadership’ by Ann Lieberman &
Lynne Miller (2004), whose research has done much to disclose the promise of this domain. The
second consequence concerns the relationship between governance and leadership. Good
governance structures that are well used at a corporate level enable school leadership at an everyday
level to be more purposefully engaged and more fruitful. Following a review of some leadership
issues there is further consideration of governance matters later in this chapter.
THE QUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOLS
The quality of educational leadership in a school or college is largely influenced by the values,
attitudes and practices that have become embodied in established custom and routine. If such custom
and routine does not include a lively traffic in visionary educational ideals, the school’s management
culture is likely to be resistant to movements for change. Educational leadership in such circumstances
is unlikely to have a high profile in that management culture. Neither are new pedagogical initiatives
taken by teachers likely to receive the recognition or support that they might expect from the school
leadership. On the other hand, where a receptivity to meaningful innovation has itself become
habitual, the momentum of custom and routine itself provides a stimulus to genuine educational
leadership (Hargreaves & Fink, 2006, Ch.2; Hogan et.al, 2008, Ch. 2).
A school can continue to function where educational leadership is largely absent – where everything
important is decided by the way ‘things have always been done’. Fullan calls this ‘losing sight of the
‘why’ question and getting lost in the ‘how to’ question’ (2003, p.61). It is important to note that such
a school might still be efficiently run from an administration perspective,and that the management
might pride itself on its effectiveness in the handling of students, staff and parents. When confronted
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